Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is one of the most famous classical music composers. He was born to a mining father and a devoted French mother, from whom he inherited lifelong melancholy and restlessness. Throughout his lifetime, he struggled with the pressure to have an ordinary family life while hiding away his homosexual desires. This long and private misery finds expression in his music, especially in his latest symphonies.
When Tchaikovsky was eight years old, his family moved to St. Petersburg. His parents believed that he was bound to become an officer in the future. In deference to his parents' wishes, Tchaikovsky attended the Juvenile Department of Law School. After graduating, he realized that he is not suited for an official post, so he entered a conservatory. On 1866, he graduated and started teaching diapason in Nikolay Rubinstein (1835~1881)'s conservatory. That March, Tchaikovsky composed a symphony called "Winter Daydreams" inspired by Felix Mendelssohn's "Italy" and various Russian folk songs. He also composed his first opera, "The Voyevoda," and it was performed in the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow in 1869. Shortly after his huge success, the composer and pianist Mily Balakirev approached him and asked him to write a symphonic poem on 'love and death,' the most beloved topic in Russia during the nineteenth century. Tchaikovsky accepted the request and composed "Romeo and Juliet," a work that was to become a representative of his.
The series of successes kindled a stronger passion for ballet music in Tchaikovsky. In 1877, he stepped into the world of ballet music by composing "Swan Lake" for the Moscow Royal Ballet Team. It, however, was a massive failure. Rubinstein criticized the music as "unworthy." After that incident, Tchaikovsky released music outside of Russia whenever possible. A few years later, his married life was devastated; he had found a new love - Mrs. Von Meck. He presented to her "The Fourth Symphony" that contained his justification about their 'destiny.' Afterwards, he ceaselessly composed works with the theme of 'destiny' such as "Eugene Onegin," "Queen of Spades," "1812 Overture," etc.
At the age of forty-four, Tchaikovsky began to realize that he could no longer wander about without a home to return to. So he purchased a villa in a quiet province near Moscow. Around that time, the death of his sister brought him a panic attack as well as severe sickness. He nonetheless composed a symphony called "Pathetique," his last account of the many 'destinies' that troubled every part of his life. Seven days after the work was performed for the first time in theaters, the master of ballet music died at the age of fifty-three.
