Tchaikovsky

by John Hamilton Warrack

This is a biography which gives due space both to Tchaikovsky's unhappy, restless life and also to the prodigious talent, his methods of working and the gradual genesis of his greatest large-scale works. It includes a comprehensive list of his works.

Genres: Music

320 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

Reviews

[Mike]

A great book, and vastly superior to the one on Prokofiev that I read a month or so ago. Fully illustrated throughout, plenty of information about the music without being technical, a terrific amount of detail about Tchaikowsky and his life and work. It reminds me of the biography of Elgar that I read last year: that was much bigger (several hundred pages) and more complex and dealt with a similar personality: unsure of his genius right to the end; frequently a hypochondriac in health and emotions, and under the generous thumb of a woman who could see his great value but couldn't make him see it fully.

[Robyn Hart]

This was packed full of detail and perhaps wouldn’t be the best place to start for the non-classically trained musician. However, this was a nice read, Warrack makes large topics feel fluid and digestible to read- well as much as they can be. Sometimes it’s clear this was written in the 1970s such as with commenting that Tchaikovsky’s homosexuality could have something to do with his closeness to his mother… but other than that I have no issues with this book. Certainly one of the better books I have read recently