Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 1 / Hamlet Overture

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Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky (1840 - 1893) Symphony No.1 in G Minor, Op.13 "Winter Daydreams" Hamlet, Op. 67 (Fantasy Overture)Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky must be regarded as the most popularof all Russian composers, his music offering certain obvious, superficial attractions inits melodies and in the richness of its orchestral colouring. There is more to Tchaikovskythan this, and it would be a mistake to neglect his achievement because of what sometimesseems to be an excess of popular attention.Born in Kamsko-Votkinsk in 1840, the second son of a miningengineer, Tchaikovsky had his early education, in music as in everything else, at home,under the care of his mother and of a beloved governess. From the age of ten he was apupil at the School of Jurisprudence in St. Petersburg, completing his course there in1859 to take employment in the Ministry of Justice. During these years he developed hisabilities as a musician and it must have seemed probable that he would, like hiscontemporaries Musorgsky, Cui, Rimsky-Korsakov and Borodin, keep music as a secondaryoccupation, while following another career.For Tchaikovsky matters turned out differently. The foundationof the new Conservatory of Music in St. Petersburg under Anton Rubinstein enabled him tostudy there as a full-time student from 1863. In 1865 he moved to Moscow as a member ofthe staff of the new Conservatory established by Anton Rubinstein's brother Nikolay. Hecontinued there for some ten years, before financial assistance from a rich widow,Nadezhda von Meck, enabled him to leave the Conservatory and devote himself entirely tocomposition. The same period in his life brought an unfortunate marriage to aself-proclaimed admirer of his work, a woman who showed early signs of mental instability,and could only add further to Tchaikovsky's own problems of character and inclination. Hishomosexuality was a torment to him, while his morbid sensitivity and diffidence, coupledwith physical revulsion for the woman he had married, led to a severe nervous breakdown.Separation from his wife, which was immediate, still leftpractical and personal problems to be solved. Tchaikovsky's relationship with Nadezhda vonMeck, however, provided not only the money that at first was necessary for his career, butalso the understanding and support of a woman who, so far from making physical demands ofhim, never even met him face to face. This curiously remote liaison only came to an end in1890, when, on the false plea of bankruptcy, Nadezhda von Meck discontinued an allowancethat was no longer of importance, and a correspondence on which he had come to depend.The story of Tchaikovsky's death in St. Petersburg in 1893 isnow generally known. It seems that a member of the nobility had threatened to complain tothe Tsar about an alleged homosexual relationship between Tchaikovsky and his son. Toavoid open scandal a court of honour of Tchaikovsky's old school-fellows met and condemnedhim to death, forcing him to take his own life. His