Simon Morrison.
SIMON MORRISON
TCHAIKOVSKY’S EMPIRE: A NEW LIFE OF RUSSIA’S GREATEST COMPOSER (2024)
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (born 1840) was one of Russia’s foremost composers, and the first to reach a wide international audience. His best known works include Swan Lake, The Nutcracker, his Violin Concerto, and several symphonies.
Although he showed early musical talent, he was initially educated for the civil service but moved to the St. Petersburg Conservatory, from which he graduated in 1865.
He suffered several personal crises including his early separation from his mother at boarding school, his mother’s early death, his failed marriage, and the failure of his 13-year support from his patroness Nadezhda von Meck. His early death at the age of 53 is generally put down to cholera.
The Literary Review wrote of Simon Morrison’s biography: "It is lucid, original and, above all, highly enjoyable."
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Simon Morrison is a Canadian academic and writer specialising in the history of late 19th and 20th century music. He took his undergraduate degree at the University of Toronto, his master’s degree at McGill University, and his PhD at Princeton University. He has published a biography of Prokofiev, and has written for the New York Times and the London Review of Books.
