Pianist Nikita Lukinov’s new recording, Kaleidoscope, gives us a very definite view of Russian pianism at the end of the 19th century and into the 20th. He chose piano miniatures by 3 pianists who are each separated by 40 years

One of the most-maligned wives in classical music history is Antonina Miliukova. She married Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1877, and their union was a disaster from the beginning. She has often been portrayed as a madwoman intent on ruining her

Life for Tchaikovsky in the late 1870s was fraught: his short-lived marriage was disintegrating, his suicide attempt was unsuccessful, and his doctor looked at his nearly mad patient and ordered him off to the countryside for a complete rest. Financial

In 1850, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky entered the School of Jurisprudence in Saint Petersburg as a boarding student. This most prestigious school for boys destined to become imperial administrators was to be his home for the next nine years. Being separated

In October 1878, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky resigned from his post at the Moscow Conservatoire. The resignation followed on the heels of the disintegration of his disastrous marriage to his former student Antonia Miliukova. Psychologically and sexually mismatched, the couple lived

The lawyer Nikolay Kondratyev (1832-1887) was first introduced to Tchaikovsky in 1864 at the estate of Prince Aleksey Golitsyn. They became fast friends in 1870, when the Kondratyev family moved to Moscow for the winter. Tchaikovsky was a frequent guest

To his extensive entourage, fellow colleagues, and large circle of friends, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was “a sweet and caring man, full of excellent manners.” Yet in his own words, the composer considered himself almost antisocial. “By nature, I am a

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, born on 7 May 1840 deep within the Ural Mountains roughly 600 miles east of Moscow, had Ukrainian, German, and French ancestry. His father Ilya Petrovitch Tchaikovsky, a mining engineer and manager of an iron works, traced