================================ Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky Symphony No.5 in E minor, Op. 64 Hamburg Pro Musica/George Hurst Parts1&2-7 I.Andante - Allegro con anima 14:54 Parts3&4-7 II.Andante cantabile, con alcuna licenza 15:08 Part5-7 III.Valse, Allegro moderato 06:03 Parts6&7-7 IV.Finale, Andante maestoso - Allegro vivace 12:43 ================================ Beginning with his Fourth Symphony, Tchaikovsky's music became an intense psychic outlet, allowing him to voice frustrations and emotions previously kept bottled up. The importance of Tchaikovsky's homosexuality and its consequences on the personal expression in his compositions cannot be underestimated. Tchaikovsky's gayness in itself has been known to the West for at least 75 years, gathered from the composer's own writings as well as those of his brother Modest, who was also gay.[26][27] More debatable is how well he accepted his sexuality or was comfortable with it. [28] Pivotal in letting loose his psychic cataract was Tchaikovsky's ill-starred marriage to one of his former composition students, Antonina Miliukova. Tchaikovsky had decided to "marry whoever will have me" just before Antonina appeared on the scene. His favorite pupil Vladimir Shilovsky had married suddenly in late April 1877.[29] Shilovsky, like Tchaikovsky, was gay.[30] They had shared a mutual bond of affection for just over a decade.[31][32] Shilovsky's wedding may, in turn, have spurred Tchaikovsky to consider such a step himself.[33] He may have hoped in marrying Antonina that marriage would lend him public respectability while he continued having sex privately with other men.[34] The brief time with his wife drove him to the brink of emotional ruin.[35]. Paradoxically, the marriage's strain on Tchaikovsky may have actually enhanced his creativity.[36] The Fourth Symphony and the opera Eugene Onegin could be considered proof of this. He finished both these works in the six months from his engagement to his "rest cure" in Clarens, Switzerland following his marriage. They are arguably two of his finest compositions.[37] The intensity of personal emotion now flowing through Tchaikovsky's works was entirely new to Russian music. [38] It prompted Russians to place his name alongside that of novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky.[38] Like Dostoyevsky's characters, they felt the musical hero in Tchaikovsky's music persisted in exploring the meaning of life while trapped in a fatal love-death-faith triangle.[38] A typical passage about the two reads, "With a hidden passion they both stop at moments of horror, total spiritual collapse, and finding acute sweetness in the cold trepidation of the heart before the abyss, they both force the reader to experience those feelings, too."[39] Timely benefactress See also: Nadezhda von Meck Four months prior to Antonina's first letter came another at least as significant. Nadezhda von Meck, wealthy widow of a Russian railway tycoon and an influential patron of the arts, wanted to commission some chamber pieces. She eventually paid Tchaikovsky an annual subsidy of 6,000 rubles. This would also allow him to resign from the Moscow Conservatory in October 1878 and concentrate primarily on composition.[40] With von Meck's patronage came a relationship that, at her insistence, was mainly epistolary. They exchanged over 1,200 letters, some of them quite lengthy, between 1877 and 1890. For both of them, these letters would become a solace and a safety valve, filled with details extraordinary for two people who would never meet. Tchaikovsky was more open to von Meck about much of his life and his creative processes than to any other person. Some could claim legitimately that Tchaikovsky and von Meck's friendship rose to a level similar to that of his future attachment to his nephew, Vladimir "Bob" Davydov.[41] This arrangement can often take place between a woman and a gay man who is spiritually and artistically oriented.[41] A parallel relationship would be the platonic affair between Michelangelo and Vittoria Colonna, marchioness of Pescara. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyotr_Ilyich_Tchaikovsky ================================ *Note:Support the artist, their families and their legacy by purchasing their music. Author: tHEnOOSEsWINGS Keywords: George Hurst Tchaikovsky Symphony Added: May 17, 2008
