Classical Plus: Excess of Love and...Hate - Tchaikovsky & His Wife

Excess of Love and... Hate: Tchaikovsky & His Wife
Leon Livshin, piano
Sunday, November 29, 7pm, Agata Music Salon

In the summer of 1877 Pyotr Tchaikovsky married Antonina Milyukova, a young conservatory student who had written him passionate letters of love. Within weeks he fled the marriage, and history has remembered her mostly as a footnote, or as the madwoman who nearly destroyed a genius. This evening tells her side of the story.

Leon Livshin frames the marriage through Tchaikovsky's piano music. He begins with four pieces from The Seasons, written just before the marriage: March (Song of the Lark), April (Snowdrop), October (Autumn Song) and November (Troika). He ends with the Grand Sonata in G major, Op. 37, the turbulent, monumental work that came right after it. Between the two, Leon reads from the letters and draws on Kirill Serebrennikov's film Tchaikovsky's Wife. The result is a portrait of love, obsession, and injustice told through music.

History has remembered Tchaikovsky’s wife mostly as a footnote, or as the madwoman who nearly destroyed a genius. This evening tells her side of the story.