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Overview
Tchaikovsky's death in October 1893 in St. Petersburg, shortly after the first performance of his masterpiece, the Pathétique symphony, is one of the most thoroughly documented deaths of a prominent cultural figure in modern times. He was treated by no fewer than four physicians and surrounded by a group of relatives and friends. The official account of his death was that he died from cholera. But almost since the day of his passing there have been rumors that it was not accidental. It is alleged that Tchaikovsky was forced to commit suicide in order to avoid the scandal and disgrace of being unmasked as a homosexual.
Alexander Poznansky is the first Western scholar to have access to the Tchaikovsky archives in Klin, Russia. In this fascinating new book, the product of five years' research, he provides a definitive account of the circumstances preceding the composer's death. On the basis of much previously unknown material, including diaries, letters, memoirs, and newspaper reports, he traces in minute detail the composer's activities during the last weeks of his life and finds no evidence to support the notion that Tchaikovsky's death was brought about by nything other than cholera.
Synopsis
Tchaikovsky's death in October 1893 in St. Petersburg, shortly after the first performance of his masterpiece, the Pathétique symphony, is one of the most thoroughly documented deaths of a prominent cultural figure in modern times. He was treated by no fewer than four physicians and surrounded by a group of relatives and friends. The official account of his death was that he died from cholera. But almost since the day of his passing there have been rumors that it was not accidental. It is alleged that Tchaikovsky was forced to commit suicide in order to avoid the scandal and disgrace of being unmasked as a homosexual.
Alexander Poznansky is the first Western scholar to have access to the Tchaikovsky archives in Klin, Russia. In this fascinating new book, the product of five years' research, he provides a definitive account of the circumstances preceding the composer's death. On the basis of much previously unknown material, including diaries, letters, memoirs, and newspaper reports, he traces in minute detail the composer's activities during the last weeks of his life and finds no evidence to support the notion that Tchaikovsky's death was brought about by nything other than cholera.
Kirkus Reviews
Do we really need a whole book that documents Tchaikovsky's final illness and rails against the theory that he committed suicide? Poznansky, author of an unsatisfying 1991 Tchaikovsky biography, assembles much of the relevant evidence here but fails to shape it into either a commanding argument or an involving narrative.
Scornful of speculation that the composer took his own life to avoid a homosexual scandal, Poznansky contends that Tchaikovsky was comfortable with his homosexuality in later years; that a gay lifestyle was no great problem in upper-class, artistic Russian circles; and that the powers-that-be would have protected the great composer from any serious repercussions. The bulk of the book is a week-by-week chronicle of Tchaikovsky's last month (October 1893), chiefly presented through underedited excerpts from letters, diaries, memoirs, and newspaper reports. Poznansky points out that the composer was busy and cheerful, making future plans, prior to falling ill with cholera. He scoffs at "idle and naive" debate about the " `secret' programme" behind the Sixth Symphony (the "Pathétique"), which premiered two weeks before the composer's death. And he finds nothing improbable in the sketchy, inconsistent record of Tchaikovsky's illness, noting that he was hardly the only aristocrat to succumb during that period. Finally, the rumors of self-annihilation and coverup—including the familiar "Russian roulette" tale of Tchaikovsky insisting on drinking a glass of unboiled water—are elaborately, if not conclusively discounted. (He attributes such rumors to a bohemian milieu "fraught with a peculiar mixture of philistinism and libertinage and singularly prone to the perpetuation of all manner of gossip and real or imagined psychodramas.")
Future biographers will appreciate the gathering of materials here, some of which Poznansky discovered in Russian archives. Non- scholars—aside from those with special interest in cholera—will find this an unengaging patchwork, without enough texture, drama, or ingenuity to hold the documentary pieces together.
Editorials
Kirkus Reviews
Do we really need a whole book that documents Tchaikovsky's final illness and rails against the theory that he committed suicide? Poznansky, author of an unsatisfying 1991 Tchaikovsky biography, assembles much of the relevant evidence here but fails to shape it into either a commanding argument or an involving narrative.Scornful of speculation that the composer took his own life to avoid a homosexual scandal, Poznansky contends that Tchaikovsky was comfortable with his homosexuality in later years; that a gay lifestyle was no great problem in upper-class, artistic Russian circles; and that the powers-that-be would have protected the great composer from any serious repercussions. The bulk of the book is a week-by-week chronicle of Tchaikovsky's last month (October 1893), chiefly presented through underedited excerpts from letters, diaries, memoirs, and newspaper reports. Poznansky points out that the composer was busy and cheerful, making future plans, prior to falling ill with cholera. He scoffs at "idle and naive" debate about the " `secret' programme" behind the Sixth Symphony (the "Pathétique"), which premiered two weeks before the composer's death. And he finds nothing improbable in the sketchy, inconsistent record of Tchaikovsky's illness, noting that he was hardly the only aristocrat to succumb during that period. Finally, the rumors of self-annihilation and coverup—including the familiar "Russian roulette" tale of Tchaikovsky insisting on drinking a glass of unboiled water—are elaborately, if not conclusively discounted. (He attributes such rumors to a bohemian milieu "fraught with a peculiar mixture of philistinism and libertinage and singularly prone to the perpetuation of all manner of gossip and real or imagined psychodramas.")
Future biographers will appreciate the gathering of materials here, some of which Poznansky discovered in Russian archives. Non- scholars—aside from those with special interest in cholera—will find this an unengaging patchwork, without enough texture, drama, or ingenuity to hold the documentary pieces together.