Tchaikovsky's Last Days: A Documentary Study

Rating:
Summary: "A Much needed contribution to Tchaikovsky studies"
Review: As a youngster I read some generic collection of composer's lives that was meant to be inspiring and edifying. Tchaikovsky's story ended with a strange tale of suicide committed by intentionally drinking a disease tainted glass of water in a restaurant. I was only about eleven years old and I distinctly remember thinking that the story was totally unbelievable, ridiculous and outrageous. What an inane theory. Many years later in the Nineteenth Century Music journal I read a brilliant article by Alexander Poznansky. With the thrilling determination and detail of a Grisham mystery thriller, using Petersburg medical statistics and even coroner's reports Poznansky pieces together Tchaikovsky's final weeks and establishes to any jury's satisfaction that the suicide theory is complete fantasy. Over the next few months the magazine was a maelstorm of scholarly discussion with Poznansky always taking the day. Even the new Grove Dictionary supports this suicide by water glass theory this time with a dash of arsenic, which is patently ridiculous on face value, except they add a "top secret" judicial tribunal from Tchaikovsky's high school that supposedly orders his demise. The theory being that Tchaikovsky, a world travelled, rich, renowned, and successful man, was so attached to his high school that even thirty five years later their poor opinion could precipitate his willing suicide. How could Grove's publish such nonsense? So is this book necessary? Absolutely. This book takes those original articles as its kernel with a great deal of expansion and refinement. It is a vital piece of Tchaikovsky scholarship and is a wonderful reading experience. It has a wonderful array of Tchaikovsky photos and documents not available elsewhere. There are not many scholarly books that are page turners, but this one is.