Tchaikovsky: The Quest for the Inner Man

There is no doubts that Poznansky's book started a revolution not only in our view of Tchaikovsky the man but as well in our appreciation of his music. Gone is a decadent psychotic and a homosexual martyr together with his mysterious Russian soul. This familiar mythological figure is now replaced by a fully drawn individual in flesh and blood with his sublimities and his failures, haunted by contraditions, as all of us, but at the same time committed to make as much good in his life, in terms of both creative work and human relationship as he was capable of. The book contains mines of factual information;the author's conclusions are entirely convincing, drawn as they are from the careful examination of all available (at the time of his writing) documentary material.It is remarkable, as we learn from the author's Preface to the British edition, that his reconstruction of the passages in Tchaikovsky's correspondence, censured by the Soviet editors, proved extremely close to the originals which he found out after he was given access to Tchaikovsky's archives in Klin. Another virtue of this book is the demolition of the silly story, popular among some biographers, claiming that Tchaikovsky commited suicide in result of the so-called "court of honor" held by his former classmates Finally, this dramatic narrative of the great composer's life makes a first-rate read!

If you love Tchaikovsky, this is a wonderful book! Nowhere else will you get such a strong feeling of having known him personally and this biography also explains a lot about his incredible, emotional and passionate music. Alexander Poznansky, thanks to superb scholarship and exercise of fine editorial judgement in the use of Tchaikovsky's letters, diaries and the archival documents, has built up a picture of the "inner man", reliant, as far as possible, on fact and not supposition. This book would correct many misconseptions about Tchaikovsky the man, created by some misguided musicologists. This biography makes clear that he was not a tormented homosexual, nor did he fear exposure and nor is there anything but gossip behind the notion that he commited suicide. This is major book.