Tchaikovsky

HERBERT WEINSTOCK, in collaboration with musicologist Wallace Brockway, is the author of Men of Music and The Opera. Now in Tchaikovsky he has written the most comprehensive biography of the Russian composer in the English language. And this is of consequence, for Tchaikovsky’s music rivals Beethoven’s in concert hall and radio broadcast popularity, his musical influence cannot be minimized, and the man himself is a fascinating personality. Mr. Weinstock is not addicted to the probable, save in a few instances, and those are clearly stated. Nor is it his intention to glamorize, sentimentalize, or even romanticize. He presents the complicated facts of Tchaikovsky’s personal life, his musical career, and his times as he has found them, and the reader may emotionalize them if he wishes. When Mr. Weinstock is quoting from letters, documents, memoirs — some of this excellent source material has never before been printed in English — his book is brilliantly alive. But when he industriously marshals facts, dates, and general background material, the book diminishes in popular appeal. The musician interested in Tchaikovsky will not mind this, and the patient lay reader desirous of viewing Tchaikovsky whole will be richly rewarded. For, despite a certain dogmatism in presentation, Tchaikovsky is the honest and amazingly detailed record of a life as psychologically interesting and revealing as a Havelock Ellis case history. It is also a musical and political panorama of extraordinary scope. Whatever its minor imperfections, this book will remain, because of its basic integrity and wealth of material, the book, in English, on Tchaikovsky for years to come.