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What were the circumstances surrounding Tchaikovsky’s death? There’s the Cholera story that says he drank water that was not boiled, became sick the next day, and died four days later on November 6th, 1893.
Cholera is out because it doesn’t manifest that quickly. As for the unboiled water story, there are two accounts. One is that he drank it at a restaurant against the wishes of his friends. The other is that he drank it in his brother’s kitchen proclaiming, “Who cares anyway?”
The more recently accepted story is that Tchaikovsky poisoned himself due to the complexities of his homosexual existence. There are several sources for this story.
A further wrinkle was added in 1979 when Soviet musicologist, Alexandra Orlova immigrated to the US and told that tale of Tchaikovsky attending a “court of honor” regarding his attempt at seducing the nephew of an influential duke.
The duke had written a letter to the Tsar outlining his outrage. If “outed”, Tchaikovsky faced five years of exile in Siberia along with public shame on himself and the others involved.
The man entrusted with delivering the letter to the Tsar did not deliver it but called a court of honor instead. As the story goes, after several hours of heated debate, the court decided that Tchaikovsky was to kill himself and Tchaikovsky agreed with the verdict.
It could be that Tchaikovsky was close to breaking before the court of honor. His letters to his nephew and lover, “Bob” Davidov, became increasingly frantic during the spring and summer leading up to his death. Here are a few clips:
“If you do not want to write, at least spit on a piece of paper, put it in an envelope, and send it to me. You are not taking any notice of me at all. God forgive you – all I wanted was a few words from you.”
“I am writing to you with a voluptuous pleasure. The thought that this paper is going to be in your hands fills me with joy and brings tears to my eyes. Is it not curious that I voluntarily inflict upon myself all these tortures? What the devil do I want it all for? Several times yesterday, on my way, I wanted to run away; but somehow I felt ashamed to return empty-handed. Yesterday my tortures reached such a pitch that I lost both appetite and sleep and this happens very rarely. I am suffering not only from anguish and distress which cannot be expressed in words (in my new symphony [The Pathetique] there is a place which I think expresses it very well) but also from a vague feeling of fear and the devil only knows what else. The physical symptoms are pains at the bottom of my bowels, and aching and weakness in the legs. So, definitely, this is the last time I am going through all this. From now on I shall agree to go anywhere only for a very large sum of money and not for more than three days. . . .”
“What makes me sad is that you take so little interest in me. Could it be that you are positively a hard egotist? However, forgive me, I won't pester you again. The symphony which I was going to dedicate to you (not so sure that I shall now) is getting on. I am very pleased with the music but not entirely satisfied with the instrumentation. It does not come out as I hoped it would. It will be quite conventional and no surprise if this symphony is abused and unappreciated – that has happened before. But I definitely find it my very best, and in particular the most sincere of all my compositions. I love it as I have never loved any of my musical children.”
What were the circumstances surrounding Tchaikovsky’s death? There’s the Cholera story that says he drank water that was not boiled, became sick the next day, and died four days later on November 6th, 1893.
Cholera is out because it doesn’t manifest that quickly. As for the unboiled water story, there are two accounts. One is that he drank it at a restaurant against the wishes of his friends. The other is that he drank it in his brother’s kitchen proclaiming, “Who cares anyway?”
The more recently accepted story is that Tchaikovsky poisoned himself due to the complexities of his homosexual existence. There are several sources for this story.
A further wrinkle was added in 1979 when Soviet musicologist, Alexandra Orlova immigrated to the US and told that tale of Tchaikovsky attending a “court of honor” regarding his attempt at seducing the nephew of an influential duke.
The duke had written a letter to the Tsar outlining his outrage. If “outed”, Tchaikovsky faced five years of exile in Siberia along with public shame on himself and the others involved.
The man entrusted with delivering the letter to the Tsar did not deliver it but called a court of honor instead. As the story goes, after several hours of heated debate, the court decided that Tchaikovsky was to kill himself and Tchaikovsky agreed with the verdict.
It could be that Tchaikovsky was close to breaking before the court of honor. His letters to his nephew and lover, “Bob” Davidov, became increasingly frantic during the spring and summer leading up to his death. Here are a few clips:
“If you do not want to write, at least spit on a piece of paper, put it in an envelope, and send it to me. You are not taking any notice of me at all. God forgive you – all I wanted was a few words from you.”
“I am writing to you with a voluptuous pleasure. The thought that this paper is going to be in your hands fills me with joy and brings tears to my eyes. Is it not curious that I voluntarily inflict upon myself all these tortures? What the devil do I want it all for? Several times yesterday, on my way, I wanted to run away; but somehow I felt ashamed to return empty-handed. Yesterday my tortures reached such a pitch that I lost both appetite and sleep and this happens very rarely. I am suffering not only from anguish and distress which cannot be expressed in words (in my new symphony [The Pathetique] there is a place which I think expresses it very well) but also from a vague feeling of fear and the devil only knows what else. The physical symptoms are pains at the bottom of my bowels, and aching and weakness in the legs. So, definitely, this is the last time I am going through all this. From now on I shall agree to go anywhere only for a very large sum of money and not for more than three days. . . .”
“What makes me sad is that you take so little interest in me. Could it be that you are positively a hard egotist? However, forgive me, I won't pester you again. The symphony which I was going to dedicate to you (not so sure that I shall now) is getting on. I am very pleased with the music but not entirely satisfied with the instrumentation. It does not come out as I hoped it would. It will be quite conventional and no surprise if this symphony is abused and unappreciated – that has happened before. But I definitely find it my very best, and in particular the most sincere of all my compositions. I love it as I have never loved any of my musical children.”