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Pyotr Tchaikovsky‘s life - Music genius,lady magnet, charming gentleman

Ray was flipping through the TV channels last night to see if there were any movies on , when he ran across a biography movie about the classical music composer Tchaikovsky.


Recently we had been listening to his music, so we decided to watch it.


We missed the very beginning of the movie, so it started from a scene showing Tchaikovsky as a young man, first time performing his Piano Concerto N1 ( which is now one of the most popular piano concertos of all time. It is also one of my favorites of his music ).

After he finished playing he was criticized directly by a music critic, who called it worthless and unplayable.


I was thinking  “ seriously ??? Such an incredible music, there was a person who was saying this is worthless and horrible music ?? "


It reminds me of a story about when Beethoven was young, he was told by his music teacher that he had no music talent .


After watching the movie , I read some bio information about Tchaikovsky online ( NWE: Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky )


and found out that, except for this scene described above and a few others, most of the rest of the movie was simply the director’s whim and not a true account of Tchaikovsky’s life.
And also not a really well-made movie, IMO.


On the other hand, I think the movie “ Amadeus “ about the life of Mozart was a much more faithful account of Mozart’s real life and was a really great movie.

I wish another director could make a better movie about Tchaikovsky, who is such a famous music genius composer, a movie based on his real life instead of making it different from what happened.


Recently I’m into classical music’s composers biographies, besides their music.

And while reading about Tchaikovsky, there are some things about him that remind me of Johnny (Weir).

Tchaikovsky was a distinguished, elegant, handsome, charming gentleman, a lady magnet, and incredibly talented. He was also gay.


During his generation, I suppose it might have been a much more conservative time period, and people were even more closed minded to gay people than now.
So it seems that he was not openly gay, according to the biographies.


Tchaikovsky had many fans, and he was surrounded by women, who were passionate about him.


One of them, a wealthy widow named Nadezdha von Meck admired him and his music so much that she made an arrangement with Tchaikovsky, that she would support him financially so that he would devote all his time to composing more music.

This arrangement lasted for many years, and Tchaikovsky composed many of his most famous music during this time.


Tchaikovsky’s music is super emotional, full of stirring melodies and lush , rich harmonies.


Especially, every time I listen to his music “ Swan Lake “ , there is a part where always suddenly my tears start flowing, from strong emotion.
It’s amazing, how the sound of this music can make my feelings so deeply cry.


I love almost all his music.


In one of his letters Tchaikovsky wrote that every day, at 9 o’clock in the morning, he would sit at the piano.

He said at the beginning he wasn’t always inspired. But he said after a few weeks, the music muses knew about his scheduled time and the music ideas would overflow. It seems that he made it happen from his own will.


Normally, with most of the composers, there are only a few of their music I love.

But when it comes to Tchaikovsky , Saint Saens and Chopin, these three composers’ music always makes me impressed, and I love all their music I’ve ever listened to.


If I could go time traveling, I would definitely go to the time period when all these genius composers were alive.

I would love to peek at the world during that time and see each person’s life listed below -


Tchaikovsky, Saint Saens, Chopin, Massenet, Liszt.

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