Tchaikovsky’s Empire: A New Life of Russia’s Great Composer by Simon Morrison
“There is more to being a hopeless romantic. This Tchaikovsky bio is a behind the scenes look at how a towering figure in classical music was able to navigate politics and personal struggles to be a success.”
Publisher Description: In this iconoclastic biography, celebrated author Simon Morrison re-creates Tchaikovsky’s complex world. His life and art were framed by Russian national ambition, and his work was the emanation of an imperial subject: kaleidoscopic, capacious, cosmopolitan, de-centered. Morrison reexamines the relationship between Tchaikovsky’s music, personal life, and politics; his support of Tsars Alexander II and III; and his engagement with the cultures of the imperial margins, in Ukraine, Poland, and the Caucasus. Tchaikovsky’s Empire unsettles everything we thought we knew—and gives us a vivid new appreciation of Russia’s most popular composer. Read more
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