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Rubinstein's interpretation of Chopin would cause him to revise his opinion considerably, although it must be said that earlier, too, he had found some marks of genius in Chopin, especially in his Études and Preludes". The ardent and manly impulses of Schumann's music and his dreamy sentimentality attracted him more. Nikolay Kashkin, referring to the second half of the 1860s, observed how Tchaikovsky "did not particularly like Chopin, as he found in him a certain sickliness of expression, as well as an excess of subjective sensibility. Herman Laroche hinted at these when he noted how Chopin belonged to those composers towards whom Tchaikovsky always felt a certain antipathy: "Of course he could not deny Chopin's talent, and it seems that some works by Chopin, such as the Barcarolle, the Fantasy in F minor, and some Nocturnes, appealed to him to some extent, but this by no means altered the fact that he disliked the whole atmosphere which emanated from Chopin and his method of composition". This may partly explain why Tchaikovsky did not show much interest in Chopin's music, but since Schumann, another great master of the piano, fascinated him all his life (and not just in his orchestral works), there must have been more profound reasons at work, too. Knorr, who had known the composer personally, emphasized in his book that Tchaikovsky was drawn to the genre of orchestral music very early on, since he could not express himself fully on the piano. Given that Tchaikovsky in later years never professed great enthusiasm for Chopin's music, and that many memoirists actually spoke of his 'aversion' to Chopin, it is worth citing an interesting observation made by the German musicologist Iwan Knorr (1853–1916), who lived and taught music in Kharkov for some years and would write one of the first biographies of Tchaikovsky: Peter Jljitsch Tschaikowsky ( Berlin, 1900). His piano lessons with Mariya Palchikova (daughter of the composer Mark Palchikov) while still in Votkinsk, and later with Rudolph Kündinger (1832–1913) in Saint Petersburg, equipped the young Tchaikovsky with sufficient skill to play most of the fashionable salon pieces of the time, and these would probably have included a few works by Chopin. 'I never saw Pierre as happy and proud as on that day,' said Fanny. In anticipation of one of these visits, Petia prepared two mazurkas all by himself and played them so well afterwards that Maszewski showered him with kisses. For our little musician these visits were a real feast-day. He was a splendid amateur pianist and distinguished himself by his skill in playing Chopin's mazurkas. Little Pyotr's fascination with this instrument was very strong, and his governess Fanny Dürbach would later recount an incident which took place between 18 when the Tchaikovsky family was still living in Votkinsk, and which shows that as a boy Tchaikovsky was certainly familiar with some of Chopin's music:Ī Polish officer called Maszewski would now and then visit the family at Votkinsk. Tchaikovsky, too, as a boy may well have heard his mother play some pieces by Chopin, even though, according to family reminiscences collected by Modest Tchaikovsky after the composer's death, Aleksandra Andreyevna would usually just play children's dances on the family piano. 3.1 In Tchaikovsky's Music Review ArticlesĪlthough Chopin hated the Russians, or, more precisely, the moskali ('Muscovite') soldiers who invaded his homeland in 1831 to crush the Polish uprising, this did not prevent his music from becoming very popular in Russia from the 1830s onwards.2.1 In Tchaikovsky's Music Review Articles.