Over ten years, and in thousands of letters, Tchaikovsky was immersed in a secret relationship with a musical confident and financial benefactor. Nadezhda von Meck, the wife of a wealthy engineer, became infatuated with Tchaikovsky’s music as well as the man himself. Meanwhile, She counseled him about how to get free of his wife of convenience. More importantly, Nadezhda gave him feedback on his works-in-progress and provided him with the space and financial security that allowed him to compose without distraction — until, one day, they finally met in the woods on her estate… and the letter exchanges ceased, for a time. It was a classical case of what might have been, in a different time. And Tchakovsky’s ambivance may well have inspired the under-current of sexual frustration in his love-torn opera Eugene Onegin. Tchaikovsky (Almost) in Love is a multimedia play about all that and more, written in a classic verse mode that recalls Shakespeare.
Tchaikovsky's death in October 1893 in St Petersburg, shortly after the première of his sixth symphony, the `Pathétique', is one of the most thoroughly documented deaths of a prominent cultural figure in modern times. He was treated by no fewer than four physicians and surrounded by a group of relatives and friends. The official account of his death was that he died from cholera, possibly by drinking infected water, but almost since the day of his death there have been rumours that it was not accidental. It is alleged by some that Tchaikovsky either committed suicide or was murdered in order to avoid the scandal and disgrace of being unmasked as a homosexual. Alexander Poznansky is the first Western scholar to have gained access to the Tchaikovsky archives in Klin, Russia. He provides much hitherto unknown documentary material - memoirs, diary entries, letters, and newspaper reports - and adds his own commentary on the status of homosexuality in nineteenth-century Russia and on the various conspiracy theories that have been advanced to account for Tchaikovsky's death. His conclusion is that there is no factual evidence to support the notion that Tchaikovsky's death was caused by anything other than cholera.
Tchaikovsky has long intrigued music-lovers as a figure who straddles many borders--between East and West, nationalism and cosmopolitanism, tradition and innovation, tenderness and bombast, masculine and feminine. In this book, through consideration of his music and biography, scholars from several disciplines explore the many sides of Tchaikovsky. The volume presents for the first time in English some of Tchaikovsky's own writings about music, as well as three influential articles, previously available only in German, from the 1993 Tübingen conference commemorating the centennial of Tchaikovsky's death. Tchaikovsky's distinguished biographer, Alexander Poznansky, reveals new findings from his most recent archival explorations in Kiln, Tchaikovsky's home. Poznansky makes accessible for the first time the full text of perviously censored letters, clarifying issues about the composer's life that until now have remained mere conjecture. Leon Botstein examines the world of realist art that was so influential in Tchaikovsky's day, while Janet Kennedy describes how interpretations of Tchaikovsky's ballet Sleeping Beauty act as a barometer of the aesthetic and even political climate of several generations. Natalia Minibayeva elucidates the First Orchestral Suite as a workshop for Tchaikovsky's composition of large-scale works, including symphony, opera, and ballet, while Susanne Dammann discusses the problematic Fourth Symphony as a work perfectly poised between East and West. Arkadii Klimovitsky considers Tchaikovsky's role as a link between Russia's Golden and Silver Ages. The extensive interaction between music and literature in this period forms the basis for Rosamund Bartlett's essay on creative parallels between Tchaikovsky and Chekhov. Richard Wortman describes the political climate at the end of Tchaikovsky's life, including Alexander III's mania for re-creating seventeenth-century Russian culture. Caryl Emerson, Kadja Grönke, and Leslie Kearney examine a number of issues raised by Tchaikovsky's operas. Marina Kostalevsky translates Nikolai Kashkin's 1899 review of Tchaikovsky's controversial opera Orleanskaia Deva (The Maid of Orleans). The book concludes with examples of theoretical writing by Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov, authors of Russia's first two systematic books on music theory. Lyle Neff translates and provides commentary on compositional issues that Tchaikovsky discusses in personal correspondence, as well as Rimsky-Korsakov's analysis of his own opera Snegurochka (The Snow Maiden). Tchaikovsky and His World will change how we understand the life, works, and intellectual milieu of one of the most important and beloved composers of the nineteenth century. Originally published in 1998. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
A narrative reminiscent of Phileas Fogg meets Professor Challenger, featuring the exploits of scientist-cum-adventurer Doctor Ludweg Phinagler, as recorded by his (semi-)faithful assistant, Fosse. A maverick academic, Phinagler, mounts a series of expeditions, confronting ancient mysteries and deadly dangers.
Spiderlight is an exhilarating fantasy quest from Adrian Tchaikovsky, the author of Guns at Dawn and the Shadows of the Apt series. The path to victory will only be seen through a spider's eyes... The Church of Armes of the Light has battled the forces of Darkness for as long as anyone can remember. The great prophecy has foretold that a band of misfits, led by a high priestess will defeat the Dark Lord Darvezian, armed with their wits, the blessing of the Light and an artifact stolen from the merciless Spider Queen. Their journey will be long, hard and fraught with danger. Allies will become enemies; enemies will become allies. And the Dark Lord will be waiting, always waiting... At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Winner of the 2023 Hugo Award for Best Series! Adrian Tchaikovsky's award-winning novel Children of Time, is the epic story of humanity's battle for survival on a terraformed planet. Who will inherit this new Earth? The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age—a world terraformed and prepared for human life. But all is not right in this new Eden. In the long years since the planet was abandoned, the work of its architects has borne disastrous fruit. The planet is not waiting for them, pristine and unoccupied. New masters have turned it from a refuge into mankind's worst nightmare. Now two civilizations are on a collision course, both testing the boundaries of what they will do to survive. As the fate of humanity hangs in the balance, who are the true heirs of this new Earth?
Humanity clings to life on a dying Earth in an epic, far-future science fiction novel from an award-winning author. The sun is bloated, diseased, dying perhaps. Beneath its baneful light, Shadrapar, last of all cities, harbours fewer than 100,000 human souls. Built on the ruins of countless civilisations, Shadrapar is a museum, a midden, an asylum, a prison on a world that is ever more alien to humanity. Bearing witness to the desperate struggle for existence between life old and new is Stefan Advani: rebel, outlaw, prisoner, survivor. This is his testament, an account of the journey that took him into the blazing desolation of the western deserts; that transported him east down the river and imprisoned him in the verdant hell of the jungle's darkest heart; that led him deep into the labyrinths and caverns of the underworld. He will meet with monsters, madman, mutants. The question is, which one of them will inherit this Earth?
