WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.620 Welcome back to the Deep Dive. We've got a massive 00:00:02.620 --> 00:00:05.000 stack of research on the table today, and honestly, 00:00:05.120 --> 00:00:07.700 it's a bit intimidating. We're tackling a figure 00:00:07.700 --> 00:00:12.839 who is so ubiquitous, so woven into the background 00:00:12.839 --> 00:00:15.720 noise of our lives, that he's almost become invisible 00:00:15.720 --> 00:00:18.239 as a human being. It's a strange place for a 00:00:18.239 --> 00:00:21.100 composer to be. It is. We're talking, of course, 00:00:21.120 --> 00:00:23.120 about Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. And you're right. 00:00:23.140 --> 00:00:25.179 It's a paradox, isn't it? You can't go through 00:00:25.179 --> 00:00:27.120 a Christmas season without hearing the Nutcracker. 00:00:27.440 --> 00:00:29.800 You just can't. Or a fireworks display without 00:00:29.800 --> 00:00:32.880 the 1812 overture. Exactly. He's the soundtrack 00:00:32.880 --> 00:00:36.700 to Western culture in so many ways. But the music 00:00:36.700 --> 00:00:40.579 itself, it's so polished and grand that the man 00:00:40.579 --> 00:00:42.640 behind it gets lost. That's the thing. I was 00:00:42.640 --> 00:00:44.500 looking through these biographies and the musicological 00:00:44.500 --> 00:00:46.859 analysis we have here, and the contrast is just 00:00:46.859 --> 00:00:49.340 jarring. On one hand, you have this incredibly 00:00:49.340 --> 00:00:52.340 popular, almost comforting music. And on the 00:00:52.340 --> 00:00:55.679 other, you have a life that is just... That's 00:00:55.679 --> 00:00:57.859 the perfect word for it. It's punctuated by these 00:00:57.859 --> 00:01:00.560 bouts of severe depression, a truly disastrous 00:01:00.560 --> 00:01:03.299 marriage, a secret life he had to hide, and this 00:01:03.299 --> 00:01:06.640 constant gnawing struggle for identity. That 00:01:06.640 --> 00:01:09.260 is the central tension of Tchaikovsky's entire 00:01:09.260 --> 00:01:12.640 existence. He's a global icon versus the tortured 00:01:12.640 --> 00:01:15.060 soul. And what's interesting about the sources 00:01:15.060 --> 00:01:18.230 we're looking at today is that... They really 00:01:18.230 --> 00:01:22.030 try to strip away the great man mythology. They're 00:01:22.030 --> 00:01:24.189 not interested in the marble bust. They want 00:01:24.189 --> 00:01:26.609 the person. Right, because the mission today 00:01:26.609 --> 00:01:29.230 isn't just to list his greatest hits. We want 00:01:29.230 --> 00:01:31.209 to understand the man who essentially built the 00:01:31.209 --> 00:01:33.730 bridge between Russian nationalism and Western 00:01:33.730 --> 00:01:36.430 musical technique. And I think to do that, we 00:01:36.430 --> 00:01:38.709 have to start by debunking the very first myth, 00:01:38.890 --> 00:01:42.250 the idea that he was born a musical genius. Oh, 00:01:42.269 --> 00:01:44.230 absolutely not. I'm looking at the early timeline 00:01:44.230 --> 00:01:46.739 here, and he is definitely not. A Mozart or a 00:01:46.739 --> 00:01:48.760 Beethoven. Not even close. If you look at Mozart, 00:01:48.879 --> 00:01:51.159 he's composing minuets at age five. He's touring 00:01:51.159 --> 00:01:53.719 Europe. Tchaikovsky wasn't groomed for music 00:01:53.719 --> 00:01:56.579 at all. He was born in 1840 in Botkinsk, which 00:01:56.579 --> 00:01:58.959 is way out in the Vyatka governorate. It's a 00:01:58.959 --> 00:02:01.400 factory town, basically. It's an industrial town. 00:02:01.579 --> 00:02:04.659 His father, Ilya Petrovich, was a mining engineer. 00:02:05.069 --> 00:02:07.030 a lieutenant colonel managing the local ironworks. 00:02:07.150 --> 00:02:08.990 He had a very practical, very middle -class, 00:02:09.009 --> 00:02:11.490 respectable background. And the sources really 00:02:11.490 --> 00:02:13.990 emphasize the cultural context of Russia in the 00:02:13.990 --> 00:02:17.229 1840s and 50s. This is so crucial because at 00:02:17.229 --> 00:02:19.629 that time, being a musician wasn't just a risky 00:02:19.629 --> 00:02:22.770 career choice. It was socially unacceptable for 00:02:22.770 --> 00:02:24.849 someone of his class, wasn't it? Completely. 00:02:24.889 --> 00:02:27.509 I mean, unless you were a super wealthy aristocrat 00:02:27.509 --> 00:02:29.990 who could dabble in it as a parlor hobby, being 00:02:29.990 --> 00:02:32.229 a professional musician was looked down upon. 00:02:32.629 --> 00:02:35.189 In the rigid Russian... social hierarchy, the 00:02:35.189 --> 00:02:37.949 table of ranks, musicians were essentially on 00:02:37.949 --> 00:02:40.330 the same rung as peasants or tradesmen. It just 00:02:40.330 --> 00:02:42.810 wasn't considered a real job for the son of a 00:02:42.810 --> 00:02:45.550 government mining inspector. So his parents do 00:02:45.550 --> 00:02:47.509 what any responsible parents would do. They send 00:02:47.509 --> 00:02:49.490 him off to St. Petersburg to become a civil servant. 00:02:49.889 --> 00:02:52.530 And this brings us to the Imperial School of 00:02:52.530 --> 00:02:55.479 Jurisprudence. He enters at age 10. I was reading 00:02:55.479 --> 00:02:57.300 about the atmosphere there. It sounds incredibly 00:02:57.300 --> 00:02:59.939 rigid, military -style discipline, uniforms, 00:03:00.240 --> 00:03:02.439 all of it. It was a factory for bureaucrats. 00:03:02.620 --> 00:03:04.879 The goal was to produce the next generation of 00:03:04.879 --> 00:03:07.719 government functionaries. But the real story 00:03:07.719 --> 00:03:09.919 there isn't the curriculum. It's the separation. 00:03:10.479 --> 00:03:13.020 Imagine being 10 years old, shipped off to boarding 00:03:13.020 --> 00:03:15.219 school 1 ,300 kilometers away from your home 00:03:15.219 --> 00:03:18.400 and your mother, who he absolutely adored. And 00:03:18.400 --> 00:03:20.419 the research is clear that the separation caused 00:03:20.419 --> 00:03:23.659 a lifelong trauma. He was prone to anxiety and 00:03:23.659 --> 00:03:26.500 neuroses that stayed with him forever. But that 00:03:26.500 --> 00:03:29.159 trauma, it pales in comparison to what happened 00:03:29.159 --> 00:03:32.560 four years later. Yes. In 1854, when he's 14, 00:03:32.819 --> 00:03:36.139 his mother, Alexandra Andreevna, contracts cholera. 00:03:36.259 --> 00:03:38.719 And she dies. This is the turning point, isn't 00:03:38.719 --> 00:03:41.080 it? The sources all point to this moment as the 00:03:41.080 --> 00:03:43.699 foundational trauma of his life. He was absolutely 00:03:43.699 --> 00:03:46.000 devoted to her. The psychological impact was 00:03:46.000 --> 00:03:48.360 just devastating. There's a story that when his 00:03:48.360 --> 00:03:50.259 governess tried to comfort him after her death, 00:03:50.360 --> 00:03:52.819 he just... He didn't even seem to react. He was 00:03:52.819 --> 00:03:55.159 completely numb. I found a reference to a letter 00:03:55.159 --> 00:03:57.240 he wrote. He couldn't even bring himself to tell 00:03:57.240 --> 00:03:59.319 that same governess about the death until two 00:03:59.319 --> 00:04:01.080 years after it happened. He just wouldn't speak 00:04:01.080 --> 00:04:04.699 about it. That speaks to a profound level of 00:04:04.699 --> 00:04:07.860 repression and shock. It shaped his entire emotional 00:04:07.860 --> 00:04:11.539 landscape. And very significantly, his first 00:04:11.539 --> 00:04:14.460 serious attempt at composition, a small waltz, 00:04:14.460 --> 00:04:17.040 was written in her memory. So right from the 00:04:17.040 --> 00:04:20.740 very beginning, you see this direct link. intense 00:04:20.740 --> 00:04:23.620 personal suffering channeling itself into music. 00:04:23.740 --> 00:04:25.759 But even then, he doesn't drop out of school 00:04:25.759 --> 00:04:27.939 to become a composer. He sticks with the plan. 00:04:28.160 --> 00:04:31.100 He graduates at 19 and becomes a titular counselor. 00:04:31.680 --> 00:04:34.079 Right. Which sounds very grand, but it was a 00:04:34.079 --> 00:04:36.639 low -level clerk position in the Ministry of 00:04:36.639 --> 00:04:39.060 Justice. A titular counselor. It sounds impressive. 00:04:39.120 --> 00:04:41.579 But in the Russian table of ranks, it was quite 00:04:41.579 --> 00:04:44.680 low. It meant endless paperwork, copying documents 00:04:44.680 --> 00:04:47.560 by hand, sitting in a dusty office all day. I 00:04:47.560 --> 00:04:49.439 just love the image of the man who would write 00:04:49.439 --> 00:04:51.899 Swan Lake sitting there, bored out of his mind, 00:04:52.160 --> 00:04:54.779 filing legal briefs for three years. It really 00:04:54.779 --> 00:04:57.360 shows that he came to music relatively late as 00:04:57.360 --> 00:04:59.680 a profession. He was dabbling, taking some lessons. 00:05:00.269 --> 00:05:01.970 But he didn't really start his formal education 00:05:01.970 --> 00:05:04.990 until the Russian Musical Society opened its 00:05:04.990 --> 00:05:07.509 classes. And this was the precursor to the St. 00:05:07.550 --> 00:05:09.850 Petersburg Conservatory. And this is where the 00:05:09.850 --> 00:05:12.629 timing is just everything. He enrolls in the 00:05:12.629 --> 00:05:16.009 very first class of the conservatory in 1862. 00:05:16.790 --> 00:05:19.509 He's essentially a guinea pig for the professionalization 00:05:19.509 --> 00:05:22.410 of music in Russia. Exactly. Before this, there 00:05:22.410 --> 00:05:24.269 was no professional music education in Russia. 00:05:24.509 --> 00:05:26.790 If you wanted to learn properly, you had to go 00:05:26.790 --> 00:05:30.540 to Germany or Italy. Tchaikovsky was part of 00:05:30.540 --> 00:05:32.240 the first generation to be trained in Russia, 00:05:32.420 --> 00:05:35.199 but, and this is the absolute key to everything 00:05:35.199 --> 00:05:37.899 that follows, he was trained using Western methods. 00:05:38.329 --> 00:05:40.990 Which leads us directly into what the notes here 00:05:40.990 --> 00:05:43.269 call the musical battlefield. There was this 00:05:43.269 --> 00:05:45.930 massive cultural war happening in Russian music 00:05:45.930 --> 00:05:47.949 at the time. You have the Conservatory on one 00:05:47.949 --> 00:05:49.389 side, and then you have this other group, the 00:05:49.389 --> 00:05:51.550 Five. The Mighty Handful, as they were called. 00:05:51.629 --> 00:05:53.990 This is the Great Divide. On one side, you have 00:05:53.990 --> 00:05:56.089 the Conservatory, led by Anton Rubinstein. They 00:05:56.089 --> 00:05:58.329 are the Westernizers. They believe in structure, 00:05:58.490 --> 00:06:01.509 counterpoint. formal harmony, basically, the 00:06:01.509 --> 00:06:03.709 German way of doing things. They wanted Russian 00:06:03.709 --> 00:06:05.509 music to be taken seriously on the international 00:06:05.509 --> 00:06:07.449 stage by, you know, following the established 00:06:07.449 --> 00:06:09.509 rules. Professionalism. Professionalism above 00:06:09.509 --> 00:06:12.329 all. And on the other side, you have the five 00:06:12.329 --> 00:06:15.649 -milli Balakirev, Mussorgsky, Rinsky -Korsakov, 00:06:15.889 --> 00:06:19.649 Borodin, and Cuy. And they were the nationalists. 00:06:19.730 --> 00:06:22.189 And they were the rebels, the kind of punk rockers 00:06:22.189 --> 00:06:24.810 of their day. In a way, yeah. They rejected the 00:06:24.810 --> 00:06:27.310 conservatory entirely. They were deeply suspicious 00:06:27.310 --> 00:06:30.750 of formal academic training. They believed it 00:06:30.750 --> 00:06:33.389 would kill the unique Russian soul of the music. 00:06:33.589 --> 00:06:36.170 They championed amateurism, didn't they? I mean, 00:06:36.189 --> 00:06:38.430 most of them had day jobs. Rimsky -Korsakov was 00:06:38.430 --> 00:06:40.889 a naval officer. Borodin was a chemist. Exactly. 00:06:41.170 --> 00:06:44.199 They believed that raw, untutored talent. was 00:06:44.199 --> 00:06:46.879 more authentic. They wanted a style based purely 00:06:46.879 --> 00:06:49.879 on Russian folk music and the operas of Mikhail 00:06:49.879 --> 00:06:51.959 Glinka, who they saw as the father of Russian 00:06:51.959 --> 00:06:54.519 music. CEO of Tchaikovsky, who quits his respectable 00:06:54.519 --> 00:06:56.519 government job to become a full -time student 00:06:56.519 --> 00:06:58.720 at the hated conservatory. He's caught right 00:06:58.720 --> 00:07:01.000 in the crossfire. The Five must have looked at 00:07:01.000 --> 00:07:03.160 him with such suspicion. Oh, they thought he 00:07:03.160 --> 00:07:06.439 was a sellout, tainted by the West. Balakirov, 00:07:06.500 --> 00:07:08.639 who was the leader of the five and a bit of a 00:07:08.639 --> 00:07:11.519 tyrant, frankly, was very critical of Tchaikovsky 00:07:11.519 --> 00:07:14.199 initially. They heard his student work and thought 00:07:14.199 --> 00:07:17.199 it was too academic, too German. All head, no 00:07:17.199 --> 00:07:19.319 heart. But then at the same time, you have the 00:07:19.319 --> 00:07:21.920 Europeans who hear Tchaikovsky and think, whoa, 00:07:22.139 --> 00:07:24.699 this is very exotic and Russian. He was in a 00:07:24.699 --> 00:07:28.000 total no man's land. To the Germans, his music 00:07:28.000 --> 00:07:31.540 sounded wild, overly emotional, even barbaric 00:07:31.540 --> 00:07:34.779 at times. To the hardline Russians, it sounded 00:07:34.779 --> 00:07:37.579 stiff and academic. He was basically fighting 00:07:37.579 --> 00:07:39.980 a war on two fronts for his entire career. But 00:07:39.980 --> 00:07:42.240 he managed to navigate it. The sources mentioned 00:07:42.240 --> 00:07:44.199 he was actually quite diplomatic. He didn't just 00:07:44.199 --> 00:07:46.800 ignore the five. No, he desperately wanted their 00:07:46.800 --> 00:07:49.120 approval, actually. He craved it. And he eventually 00:07:49.120 --> 00:07:51.629 got it, at least for a while. After some very 00:07:51.629 --> 00:07:54.009 harsh criticism from Belikirov on his first attempt, 00:07:54.230 --> 00:07:57.269 he rewrote the Romeo and Juliet fantasy overture. 00:07:57.310 --> 00:07:59.089 And they loved it. They absolutely loved it. 00:07:59.149 --> 00:08:00.990 It had the passion and the Russian -ness they 00:08:00.990 --> 00:08:03.189 wanted. And they embraced his second symphony, 00:08:03.269 --> 00:08:05.670 which is nicknamed The Little Russian, because 00:08:05.670 --> 00:08:09.509 it uses Ukrainian. folk themes so prominently. 00:08:09.610 --> 00:08:12.509 So he becomes the synthesis. He takes the raw, 00:08:12.629 --> 00:08:15.490 emotional, melodic material of the nationalists 00:08:15.490 --> 00:08:18.129 but frames it with the technical polish and the 00:08:18.129 --> 00:08:20.470 structural integrity of the westernizers. That 00:08:20.470 --> 00:08:22.689 is his unique genius. He refused to be purely 00:08:22.689 --> 00:08:25.290 one or the other. He built the bridge. But while 00:08:25.290 --> 00:08:27.410 he was forging this new professional identity, 00:08:27.790 --> 00:08:31.220 his personal life was, well... It was beginning 00:08:31.220 --> 00:08:33.460 to unravel in a way that would define his legacy 00:08:33.460 --> 00:08:35.899 just as much as his music. We have to talk about 00:08:35.899 --> 00:08:38.379 the personal relationships, or maybe more accurately, 00:08:38.600 --> 00:08:41.379 the disasters. And we need to address his sexuality. 00:08:41.980 --> 00:08:44.039 Looking at the modern biographies, people like 00:08:44.039 --> 00:08:46.120 David Brown or Alexander Poznanski, there is 00:08:46.120 --> 00:08:49.179 a firm consensus that Tchaikovsky was gay. There 00:08:49.179 --> 00:08:51.039 is no serious doubt among modern historians. 00:08:51.600 --> 00:08:54.159 The evidence in his letters, his diaries, particularly 00:08:54.159 --> 00:08:56.580 his correspondence with his brother, Modest, 00:08:56.620 --> 00:08:59.350 who was also gay, is overwhelming. But the way 00:08:59.350 --> 00:09:01.629 this fact is handled varies wildly depending 00:09:01.629 --> 00:09:03.450 on who you read and certainly where you are in 00:09:03.450 --> 00:09:05.870 the world. I was reading about how Soviet censors 00:09:05.870 --> 00:09:08.210 and even modern Russian officials have tried 00:09:08.210 --> 00:09:10.690 to erase this part of his identity. Oh, completely. 00:09:10.870 --> 00:09:13.070 There was that comment a few years ago by Vladimir 00:09:13.070 --> 00:09:15.470 Medinsky, a former culture minister in Russia, 00:09:15.629 --> 00:09:18.750 basically denying it. outright, calling it a 00:09:18.750 --> 00:09:21.470 Western myth. It's a battle over ownership of 00:09:21.470 --> 00:09:24.070 a national cultural icon. They want the grand, 00:09:24.269 --> 00:09:27.070 powerful composer, not the complex, conflicted 00:09:27.070 --> 00:09:29.769 man. Exactly. But if we stick to the source text 00:09:29.769 --> 00:09:32.529 and his own letters, the debate isn't, was he 00:09:32.529 --> 00:09:35.669 gay? But rather, how did he feel about it? And 00:09:35.669 --> 00:09:37.659 that's where the biographers diverge. Right. 00:09:37.740 --> 00:09:39.960 On one side, you have what you might call the 00:09:39.960 --> 00:09:43.440 tormented theory that he felt tainted, guilty, 00:09:43.779 --> 00:09:46.759 that he saw his sexuality as a curse or a sickness 00:09:46.759 --> 00:09:49.259 he had to fight. That's the view often associated 00:09:49.259 --> 00:09:51.909 with the biographer David Brown. the idea that 00:09:51.909 --> 00:09:54.149 he lived in constant fear of exposure and moral 00:09:54.149 --> 00:09:56.830 condemnation, and that this fed into the so -called 00:09:56.830 --> 00:09:59.289 hysteria of his music. But then you have a scholar 00:09:59.289 --> 00:10:01.490 like Alexander Poznanski who argues for a different 00:10:01.490 --> 00:10:03.970 view. He suggests Tchaikovsky actually accepted 00:10:03.970 --> 00:10:06.590 it as a natural, unchangeable part of his personality. 00:10:06.909 --> 00:10:09.330 And the real issue wasn't internal guilt, but 00:10:09.330 --> 00:10:11.789 external societal pressure. And that pressure 00:10:11.789 --> 00:10:14.450 was immense. In 19th century czarist Russia, 00:10:14.629 --> 00:10:17.389 exposure could mean total social ruin, exile, 00:10:17.629 --> 00:10:21.450 or worse. The laws were incredibly strict. So 00:10:21.450 --> 00:10:23.830 this pressure to conform, to present a normal 00:10:23.830 --> 00:10:26.789 face to the world, leads us to the year 1877, 00:10:27.129 --> 00:10:30.330 the year of the marriage fiasco. This story is 00:10:30.330 --> 00:10:32.950 just painful to even read about. He decides to 00:10:32.950 --> 00:10:34.970 get married. He marries Antonina Milyukova, who 00:10:34.970 --> 00:10:37.370 was a former student of his. He's 37. She's much 00:10:37.370 --> 00:10:40.220 younger. And he... essentially does it to create 00:10:40.220 --> 00:10:42.919 a smokescreen, right? It seems so. He wanted 00:10:42.919 --> 00:10:44.580 to stop the rumors that were swirling around 00:10:44.580 --> 00:10:46.740 him. He wanted a respectable facade. Antonina 00:10:46.740 --> 00:10:50.080 was, well, she was infatuated with him. She wrote 00:10:50.080 --> 00:10:52.460 him these passionate letters declaring her undying 00:10:52.460 --> 00:10:54.820 love. She basically threatened suicide if he 00:10:54.820 --> 00:10:57.139 rejected her. And he, in a moment of panic or 00:10:57.139 --> 00:11:00.000 perhaps misplaced pity, agrees. But he tells 00:11:00.000 --> 00:11:01.820 her up front, doesn't he? He essentially says, 00:11:02.019 --> 00:11:04.299 I cannot love you romantically, but I will be 00:11:04.299 --> 00:11:07.039 a dutiful friend and husband. Which is just a 00:11:07.039 --> 00:11:10.039 recipe for absolute disaster. They were completely, 00:11:10.340 --> 00:11:13.480 utterly mismatched. Not just sexually, which 00:11:13.480 --> 00:11:15.799 was obviously a huge issue, but intellectually, 00:11:16.039 --> 00:11:18.919 temperamentally. He was a sensitive, highly cultured 00:11:18.919 --> 00:11:22.039 intellectual. She was not. He found her presence 00:11:22.039 --> 00:11:24.679 physically repulsive almost immediately. The 00:11:24.679 --> 00:11:26.899 timeline is just shocking. They lived together 00:11:26.899 --> 00:11:29.220 as husband and wife for only two and a half months. 00:11:29.539 --> 00:11:31.960 And in that short time, Tchaikovsky nearly went 00:11:31.960 --> 00:11:34.440 insane. He suffered from acute writer's block. 00:11:34.909 --> 00:11:36.850 crippling depression. And there's the famous 00:11:36.850 --> 00:11:39.230 story, though some historians debate the details, 00:11:39.429 --> 00:11:42.350 that he waded into the freezing Moscow River 00:11:42.350 --> 00:11:45.570 in a sort of passive suicide attempt, hoping 00:11:45.570 --> 00:11:48.309 to catch pneumonia and die a natural death. He 00:11:48.309 --> 00:11:50.809 flees to St. Petersburg on the verge of a complete 00:11:50.809 --> 00:11:53.309 nervous breakdown. The marriage is over in practice, 00:11:53.470 --> 00:11:55.570 though they never officially divorced. She ended 00:11:55.570 --> 00:11:58.029 up in an asylum years later. It's a tragedy all 00:11:58.029 --> 00:12:01.639 around. It is. But this crisis. This absolute 00:12:01.639 --> 00:12:04.539 rock bottom had forced a realization. He had 00:12:04.539 --> 00:12:06.740 to face the truth about his nature. He realized 00:12:06.740 --> 00:12:09.259 he could never live that conventional life. The 00:12:09.259 --> 00:12:11.620 mask didn't fit, and trying to wear it almost 00:12:11.620 --> 00:12:14.840 killed him. And right at this lowest point, a 00:12:14.840 --> 00:12:18.259 savior appears. The invisible patron, Nadezhda 00:12:18.259 --> 00:12:20.360 von Meck. This is one of the most unique, most 00:12:20.360 --> 00:12:22.740 bizarre, and most fruitful relationships in the 00:12:22.740 --> 00:12:25.799 entire history of art. She was the widow of a 00:12:25.799 --> 00:12:29.139 railway tycoon, incredibly wealthy, and she adored 00:12:29.139 --> 00:12:31.700 Tchaikovsky's music. She writes to him and offers 00:12:31.700 --> 00:12:34.580 him an annual allowance of 6 ,000 rubles. A huge 00:12:34.580 --> 00:12:37.210 amount of money. To put it in perspective, that 00:12:37.210 --> 00:12:39.309 was several times his salary as a professor at 00:12:39.309 --> 00:12:41.590 the Moscow Conservatory. It allowed him to quit 00:12:41.590 --> 00:12:44.210 teaching and compose full time. It gave him financial 00:12:44.210 --> 00:12:46.710 freedom for the first time in his life. But there 00:12:46.710 --> 00:12:49.350 was a condition. They must never meet. Never. 00:12:49.409 --> 00:12:51.809 Why? I mean, they wrote over a thousand letters 00:12:51.809 --> 00:12:54.250 to each other over 13 years. They shared their 00:12:54.250 --> 00:12:56.370 deepest thoughts on philosophy, art, religion, 00:12:56.490 --> 00:12:58.809 their personal struggles. He called her his best 00:12:58.809 --> 00:13:02.139 friend. Why the strict no meeting rule? It seems 00:13:02.139 --> 00:13:04.620 to have been a mutual desire to preserve an ideal, 00:13:04.820 --> 00:13:08.000 a fantasy. For Tchaikovsky, it was perfect. He 00:13:08.000 --> 00:13:09.820 didn't have to perform socially. He was shy and 00:13:09.820 --> 00:13:11.919 awkward. He didn't have to worry about her discovering 00:13:11.919 --> 00:13:14.519 his secret or being disappointed by his real 00:13:14.519 --> 00:13:16.399 -life personality. He could be his most authentic 00:13:16.399 --> 00:13:19.740 self, but only on paper. Precisely. And for her. 00:13:20.080 --> 00:13:22.960 She got to possess the ideal composer. If she 00:13:22.960 --> 00:13:25.279 met him, he becomes a flesh -and -blood man with 00:13:25.279 --> 00:13:27.820 flaws and quirks. By keeping him at a distance, 00:13:28.019 --> 00:13:30.740 he remains a pure vessel for her emotional projection 00:13:30.740 --> 00:13:33.720 onto his music. It was a soul connection, as 00:13:33.720 --> 00:13:35.940 they called it, uncorrupted by messy reality. 00:13:36.360 --> 00:13:38.779 It worked beautifully for 13 years. He produced 00:13:38.779 --> 00:13:40.960 some of his greatest work during that period. 00:13:41.139 --> 00:13:43.460 The Fourth Symphony is even dedicated to her. 00:13:43.659 --> 00:13:46.899 Until in 1890, she abruptly cut him off. She 00:13:46.899 --> 00:13:49.320 claimed she was facing bankruptcy. Which the 00:13:49.320 --> 00:13:52.139 sources suggest wasn't entirely true. The real 00:13:52.139 --> 00:13:55.000 reasons are murky. Perhaps pressure from her 00:13:55.000 --> 00:13:57.220 family, who were suspicious of the relationship. 00:13:57.639 --> 00:14:00.240 But the effect on Tchaikovsky was devastating. 00:14:00.600 --> 00:14:03.320 It wasn't just losing the money, it was the emotional 00:14:03.320 --> 00:14:05.559 abandonment. It felt like a profound betrayal, 00:14:05.840 --> 00:14:09.000 and it contributed significantly to the darkness 00:14:09.000 --> 00:14:11.779 and depression of his final years. OK, let's 00:14:11.779 --> 00:14:14.500 pivot from the life to the work, because the 00:14:14.500 --> 00:14:16.539 whole mission of this deep dive is to understand 00:14:16.539 --> 00:14:20.340 why his music hits us so hard, why it has such 00:14:20.340 --> 00:14:23.519 a visceral effect. We know the melodies are incredible. 00:14:23.960 --> 00:14:26.799 One critic, Harold Schoenberg, called it a super 00:14:26.799 --> 00:14:30.200 sensuous fund of melody. He had an almost inexhaustible 00:14:30.200 --> 00:14:32.850 gift for tunes. But here's where we need to get 00:14:32.850 --> 00:14:34.669 a little technical to understand the Tchaikovsky 00:14:34.669 --> 00:14:36.710 effect. Because there's a fundamental conflict 00:14:36.710 --> 00:14:38.750 between the nature of those beautiful Russian 00:14:38.750 --> 00:14:41.450 melodies and the structure of a Western symphony. 00:14:41.590 --> 00:14:43.809 Okay, let's unpack this. Because usually we think 00:14:43.809 --> 00:14:46.570 good melody equals a good symphony. But the sources 00:14:46.570 --> 00:14:48.710 are suggesting it's actually a problem for him. 00:14:48.870 --> 00:14:51.929 It's a huge structural problem. Think of a classic 00:14:51.929 --> 00:14:54.629 German symphony, like a Beethoven symphony. It's 00:14:54.629 --> 00:14:57.549 based on something called sonata form. This form 00:14:57.549 --> 00:15:00.690 is all about organic growth. You take a small... 00:15:00.860 --> 00:15:04.120 musical idea, a motif, and you develop it. You 00:15:04.120 --> 00:15:06.399 pull it apart, you twist it, you change the harmony, 00:15:06.500 --> 00:15:09.299 you let it evolve over time. It's a journey from 00:15:09.299 --> 00:15:11.879 A to B. It's dynamic. It's like a seed growing 00:15:11.879 --> 00:15:15.419 into a tree. That's the perfect analogy. Now 00:15:15.419 --> 00:15:17.889 look at a typical Russian folk melody. which 00:15:17.889 --> 00:15:19.850 was tchaikovsky's primary source of inspiration 00:15:19.850 --> 00:15:23.190 it's often self -contained it's perfect and complete 00:15:23.190 --> 00:15:25.870 as it is it's often repetitive you sing it then 00:15:25.870 --> 00:15:27.710 you sing it again maybe a little louder maybe 00:15:27.710 --> 00:15:30.070 with different instruments backing you up but 00:15:30.070 --> 00:15:32.129 the melody itself doesn't want to change it's 00:15:32.129 --> 00:15:35.200 static So Tchaikovsky has these gorgeous static 00:15:35.200 --> 00:15:37.980 melodies, these beautiful, perfect objects, but 00:15:37.980 --> 00:15:40.320 he's trying to force them into a German architectural 00:15:40.320 --> 00:15:43.279 form that demands change and growth. It's like 00:15:43.279 --> 00:15:45.779 trying to build a moving, dynamic machine out 00:15:45.779 --> 00:15:49.139 of solid, immovable blocks of granite. They don't 00:15:49.139 --> 00:15:51.120 naturally fit into the development section of 00:15:51.120 --> 00:15:52.879 a symphony, which is supposed to be all about 00:15:52.879 --> 00:15:55.379 transformation. So how did he solve it? Because 00:15:55.379 --> 00:15:57.440 when I listen to the Fourth or the Fifth Symphony, 00:15:57.600 --> 00:16:00.860 it definitely works. It's incredibly powerful. 00:16:01.059 --> 00:16:03.840 He turned the weakness into a feature. He basically 00:16:03.840 --> 00:16:07.259 invented a new way of creating tension. Instead 00:16:07.259 --> 00:16:11.299 of smooth, organic transitions, he used Violent 00:16:11.299 --> 00:16:14.879 contrasts. Blocks of sound. Yes. He juxtaposes 00:16:14.879 --> 00:16:16.899 different themes, different keys, different orchestral 00:16:16.899 --> 00:16:19.100 colors right up against each other. Instead of 00:16:19.100 --> 00:16:21.519 a smooth, logical flow, you get these tectonic 00:16:21.519 --> 00:16:24.700 shifts. He places completely dissimilar materials 00:16:24.700 --> 00:16:27.759 side by side with almost no transition. So it 00:16:27.759 --> 00:16:30.679 creates a sense of accumulation rather than evolution. 00:16:30.720 --> 00:16:33.320 You're just piling on the emotional weight. Precisely. 00:16:33.820 --> 00:16:36.620 It builds tension not through logical argument, 00:16:36.740 --> 00:16:39.500 but through sheer emotional contract and accumulation. 00:16:39.940 --> 00:16:42.740 The result feels unstable. It feels volatile. 00:16:42.879 --> 00:16:44.779 It feels like a psychological drama unfolding. 00:16:45.059 --> 00:16:47.460 And that completely explains the hysteria criticism 00:16:47.460 --> 00:16:50.480 he always got. Right. Critics at the time, especially 00:16:50.480 --> 00:16:52.720 the more conservative German ones, complained 00:16:52.720 --> 00:16:55.139 that the music felt hysterical or over emotional. 00:16:55.820 --> 00:16:58.299 Because it didn't follow the polite, logical 00:16:58.299 --> 00:17:00.639 rules of organic development they were used to. 00:17:00.759 --> 00:17:03.620 It felt like mood swings set to music. But that's 00:17:03.620 --> 00:17:06.059 exactly why it resonates psychologically today. 00:17:06.140 --> 00:17:08.859 It feels like real human emotion, which is rarely 00:17:08.859 --> 00:17:11.640 linear or logical. It's messy and contradictory. 00:17:12.039 --> 00:17:14.400 Exactly. It creates a kind of dramatic tension 00:17:14.400 --> 00:17:16.880 that feels overwhelming and for many people, 00:17:16.940 --> 00:17:20.410 deeply relatable. But speaking of critics. I 00:17:20.410 --> 00:17:22.950 was amazed looking through the sources at how 00:17:22.950 --> 00:17:25.170 much pure hate some of his most famous works 00:17:25.170 --> 00:17:27.630 received initially. Oh, the Violin Concerto. 00:17:27.690 --> 00:17:29.950 Today, it's a cornerstone of the repertoire. 00:17:30.589 --> 00:17:32.329 If you're a concert violinist, you have to be 00:17:32.329 --> 00:17:34.490 able to play it. But back then. Well, first, 00:17:34.589 --> 00:17:37.150 Leopoldauer, the great violinist he dedicated 00:17:37.150 --> 00:17:39.809 it to, refused to play it. He declared it was 00:17:39.809 --> 00:17:42.150 unplayable. And then you have Edward Hanslick, 00:17:42.250 --> 00:17:44.549 the most powerful and feared music critic in 00:17:44.549 --> 00:17:46.609 Vienna at the time. I have his quote right here. 00:17:46.690 --> 00:17:49.809 It's just brutal. He wrote that Tchaikovsky's 00:17:49.809 --> 00:17:52.089 violin concerto brings us to the gruesome idea 00:17:52.089 --> 00:17:55.750 that music can also stink to the ear. Music who 00:17:55.750 --> 00:17:59.349 stink one can hear. It's an incredibly visceral 00:17:59.349 --> 00:18:02.099 insult. He's not just saying it's bad music. 00:18:02.160 --> 00:18:05.200 He's saying it's physically repulsive. It shows 00:18:05.200 --> 00:18:07.299 that Tchaikovsky's music wasn't considered pretty 00:18:07.299 --> 00:18:09.740 entertainment. It was confronting. It was too 00:18:09.740 --> 00:18:12.000 physical, too raw for the Viennese palate. Even 00:18:12.000 --> 00:18:14.259 Tchaikovsky himself was a harsh critic of his 00:18:14.259 --> 00:18:17.059 own work. Let's go back to the 1812 Overture. 00:18:17.180 --> 00:18:20.339 We love it. Cannons, bells, triumphant victory. 00:18:20.619 --> 00:18:23.380 He hated it. He despised it. He wrote it for 00:18:23.380 --> 00:18:25.579 a commission. It was for the consecration of 00:18:25.579 --> 00:18:27.519 the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow. 00:18:28.220 --> 00:18:31.000 He told Nadezhda von Meck it would be very loud 00:18:31.000 --> 00:18:33.740 and noisy and wrote, I wrote it with no warmth 00:18:33.740 --> 00:18:35.660 of love and therefore there will probably be 00:18:35.660 --> 00:18:38.319 no artistic merits in it. He thought it was garbage. 00:18:38.539 --> 00:18:40.980 It's just so ironic that the piece he wrote for 00:18:40.980 --> 00:18:43.140 a paycheck with zero passion is the one that 00:18:43.140 --> 00:18:44.960 gets played every Fourth of July in the United 00:18:44.960 --> 00:18:47.779 States. It speaks to his craftsmanship. Even 00:18:47.779 --> 00:18:49.519 when he was phoning it in, he knew how to build 00:18:49.519 --> 00:18:52.200 excitement and manipulate an audience's emotions 00:18:52.200 --> 00:18:54.920 better than almost anyone. He was a master theatrical 00:18:54.920 --> 00:18:57.349 composer, even in his concert works. There's 00:18:57.349 --> 00:18:59.349 another aspect of his style that the notes mention, 00:18:59.529 --> 00:19:01.710 which seems like the opposite of all this drama. 00:19:01.869 --> 00:19:04.369 It's called posseism, his obsession with the 00:19:04.369 --> 00:19:07.109 past. This is crucial for understanding his lighter, 00:19:07.170 --> 00:19:10.470 more elegant side. Tchaikovsky worshipped Mozart. 00:19:10.769 --> 00:19:14.150 He saw the 18th century, the Rococo period, as 00:19:14.150 --> 00:19:17.589 a kind of golden age of... Purity, clarity, and 00:19:17.589 --> 00:19:19.970 elegance. A pretty sharp contrast to his own 00:19:19.970 --> 00:19:22.890 messy, romantic reality. The ultimate contrast. 00:19:23.210 --> 00:19:25.809 And he used this Mozartian style as a deliberate 00:19:25.809 --> 00:19:28.930 escape. You hear it so clearly in works, like 00:19:28.930 --> 00:19:31.990 the variations on a Rococo theme for cello and 00:19:31.990 --> 00:19:34.130 orchestra, or in parts of his ballet scores, 00:19:34.430 --> 00:19:37.130 or in the opera The Queen of Spades. It creates 00:19:37.130 --> 00:19:39.829 this sense of timelessness, a beautiful, orderly 00:19:39.829 --> 00:19:42.250 refuge from the emotional storms of his symphonies. 00:19:42.410 --> 00:19:44.210 It's like he had two channels. The turbulent, 00:19:44.329 --> 00:19:49.079 psychological drama. And he had switched between 00:19:49.079 --> 00:19:51.819 them effortlessly. It's another one of his contrasts. 00:19:51.839 --> 00:19:54.059 Okay, we need to move to the final act. The end 00:19:54.059 --> 00:19:56.039 of Tchaikovsky's life is a mystery that rivals 00:19:56.039 --> 00:19:58.920 any true crime podcast. It centers around his 00:19:58.920 --> 00:20:01.539 final work, The Symphony No. 6, which his brother 00:20:01.539 --> 00:20:04.039 suggested he called the Pathétique. He conducted 00:20:04.039 --> 00:20:06.359 the premiere in St. Petersburg in late October 00:20:06.359 --> 00:20:09.900 1893. And the sources say the audience was just... 00:20:10.119 --> 00:20:11.819 baffled by it. They didn't know what to make 00:20:11.819 --> 00:20:14.319 of it. Because of the ending, right. Symphonies, 00:20:14.319 --> 00:20:16.079 especially in the 19th century, are supposed 00:20:16.079 --> 00:20:19.700 to end with a bang, a big, triumphant, major 00:20:19.700 --> 00:20:22.759 key finale. And the pithet does the exact opposite. 00:20:23.519 --> 00:20:26.480 After a massive, tragic climax in the third movement, 00:20:26.619 --> 00:20:28.960 the fourth and final movement is a devastating 00:20:28.960 --> 00:20:33.319 adagio lamentoso, a slow, agonizing fade into 00:20:33.319 --> 00:20:36.500 silence. It ends with a dying pulse on the double 00:20:36.500 --> 00:20:39.720 basses. It was a terrifyingly bleak and bold 00:20:39.720 --> 00:20:42.160 artistic statement for the time. And nine days 00:20:42.160 --> 00:20:45.740 later, he is dead. November 6, 1893. He was only 00:20:45.740 --> 00:20:48.480 53. The official cause of death then and now 00:20:48.480 --> 00:20:51.460 in Russia was cholera. The story goes that he 00:20:51.460 --> 00:20:53.160 was at a restaurant with friends. He asked for 00:20:53.160 --> 00:20:54.980 a glass of water, was told they didn't have any 00:20:54.980 --> 00:20:56.859 boiled water available, which was standard practice 00:20:56.859 --> 00:20:59.579 during an epidemic. And he insisted, fine, give 00:20:59.579 --> 00:21:02.140 me the raw water. He drank it. And a day later, 00:21:02.240 --> 00:21:04.400 he was sick. Which, in the middle of a major 00:21:04.400 --> 00:21:06.859 cholera epidemic in St. Petersburg, is practically 00:21:06.859 --> 00:21:09.599 a death wish. Especially since his own mother 00:21:09.599 --> 00:21:12.240 died of the exact same thing. It seems so recklessly 00:21:12.240 --> 00:21:14.200 careless for a man who was known to be something 00:21:14.200 --> 00:21:17.220 of a hypochondriac. And that carelessness is 00:21:17.220 --> 00:21:19.279 what has fueled the conspiracy theories for over 00:21:19.279 --> 00:21:22.400 a century. Specifically, the Court of Honor theory. 00:21:22.839 --> 00:21:26.160 This was a huge story in academic circles in 00:21:26.160 --> 00:21:29.029 the 1980s. This is the theory. put forward most 00:21:29.029 --> 00:21:31.769 famously by the musicologist Alexandra Orlova, 00:21:31.849 --> 00:21:35.269 that his death wasn't an accident. The story 00:21:35.269 --> 00:21:37.650 goes that a high -ranking aristocrat wrote a 00:21:37.650 --> 00:21:40.049 letter to the czar complaining about the homosexual 00:21:40.049 --> 00:21:42.690 attentions Tchaikovsky was paying to his nephew. 00:21:42.890 --> 00:21:45.549 And the letter was given to a senior legal official 00:21:45.549 --> 00:21:47.910 who had been a classmate of Tchaikovsky's at 00:21:47.910 --> 00:21:51.180 the School of Jurisprudence. Yes. And to avoid 00:21:51.180 --> 00:21:53.279 a massive public scandal that would tarnish the 00:21:53.279 --> 00:21:55.059 reputation of the school and all its alumni, 00:21:55.299 --> 00:21:57.759 this official supposedly convened a secret court 00:21:57.759 --> 00:22:00.400 of honor of their old classmates. They confronted 00:22:00.400 --> 00:22:02.859 Tchaikovsky with the accusation and ordered him 00:22:02.859 --> 00:22:05.440 to commit suicide to preserve their collective 00:22:05.440 --> 00:22:09.380 honor. So, forced to take poison, arsenic perhaps, 00:22:09.720 --> 00:22:12.299 which can mimic the symptoms of cholera. That's 00:22:12.299 --> 00:22:15.220 the claim. It turns his death from a tragic accident 00:22:15.220 --> 00:22:19.009 into a noble tragic sacrifice. A martyr's death 00:22:19.009 --> 00:22:21.890 forced on him by a homophobic society. So is 00:22:21.890 --> 00:22:23.990 there any real truth to it? What do our sources 00:22:23.990 --> 00:22:26.670 say? The problem is the evidence for the court 00:22:26.670 --> 00:22:29.109 of honor is very thin. It relies on third -hand 00:22:29.109 --> 00:22:31.630 accounts relayed decades after the fact. There 00:22:31.630 --> 00:22:34.289 are no documents, no letters. On the other hand, 00:22:34.289 --> 00:22:36.269 there are also inconsistencies with the official 00:22:36.269 --> 00:22:39.069 cholera story. Doctors gave conflicting reports. 00:22:39.549 --> 00:22:42.089 The body wasn't isolated as quickly as it should 00:22:42.089 --> 00:22:44.269 have been for a cholera victim. It's a mess. 00:22:44.509 --> 00:22:47.819 So we are left with ambiguity. We are. The consensus 00:22:47.819 --> 00:22:49.940 in the source material we have today, from scholars 00:22:49.940 --> 00:22:52.119 like Poznanski, is that there's no smoking gun 00:22:52.119 --> 00:22:54.799 for the suicide theory. It remains a compelling 00:22:54.799 --> 00:22:58.299 but unproven hypothesis. As the New Grove Dictionary 00:22:58.299 --> 00:23:00.640 of Music and Musicians puts it, we do not know 00:23:00.640 --> 00:23:02.839 how Tchaikovsky died, we may never find out. 00:23:03.160 --> 00:23:05.279 But whether it was a microbe or a poison, the 00:23:05.279 --> 00:23:08.000 Pathetic Symphony stands as this eerie, uncanny 00:23:08.000 --> 00:23:11.000 premonition. It's dedicated to his beloved nephew, 00:23:11.259 --> 00:23:13.700 Vladimir Bob Davidov. It sounds like a farewell. 00:23:13.920 --> 00:23:16.559 It creates a narrative that is almost too perfect 00:23:16.559 --> 00:23:20.220 to be true. The great composer writes his own 00:23:20.220 --> 00:23:24.160 requiem, lays bare his soul one last time, and 00:23:24.160 --> 00:23:27.420 then exits the stage. It cements the legend of 00:23:27.420 --> 00:23:30.079 the tragic soul for all time. Before we wrap 00:23:30.079 --> 00:23:33.160 up, I want to touch on one really rare, tangible 00:23:33.160 --> 00:23:35.240 piece of history that's mentioned in the stack, 00:23:35.400 --> 00:23:38.380 an actual voice recording. The Edison wax cylinder. 00:23:38.460 --> 00:23:41.579 This is just fascinating. It's from 1890, three 00:23:41.579 --> 00:23:43.759 years before his death. It's just amazing to 00:23:43.759 --> 00:23:45.799 think we can actually hear his voice. He's in 00:23:45.799 --> 00:23:48.700 Moscow, hanging out with Anton Rubinstein and 00:23:48.700 --> 00:23:50.559 some other musicians, and they're playing with 00:23:50.559 --> 00:23:53.519 this new gadget from America, Thomas Edison's 00:23:53.519 --> 00:23:55.900 phonograph. The recording is incredibly scratchy. 00:23:55.900 --> 00:23:57.920 It's chaotic. There are multiple people talking 00:23:57.920 --> 00:24:00.059 and laughing. But you can hear Tchaikovsky's 00:24:00.059 --> 00:24:02.440 voice. A soprano is singing a little bit, and 00:24:02.440 --> 00:24:04.599 he critiques her trill, saying, this trill could 00:24:04.599 --> 00:24:07.240 be better. A perfectionist, even in a casual 00:24:07.240 --> 00:24:08.920 party setting. And he makes a little joke about 00:24:08.920 --> 00:24:10.960 the inventor. He says something like, Block is 00:24:10.960 --> 00:24:13.480 a good fellow, but Edison is even better. But 00:24:13.480 --> 00:24:15.380 importantly, he was wary of the whole thing. 00:24:15.960 --> 00:24:18.279 He apparently disliked the idea of being recorded. 00:24:18.920 --> 00:24:22.380 He asked, why should one eternalize it? He was 00:24:22.380 --> 00:24:24.339 famously self -conscious about his own voice 00:24:24.339 --> 00:24:27.000 and his piano playing. He resisted the idea of 00:24:27.000 --> 00:24:29.059 being frozen in time like that. Which is just 00:24:29.059 --> 00:24:31.640 deeply ironic, considering he is now frozen in 00:24:31.640 --> 00:24:34.140 time as one of the immortals of classical music. 00:24:34.400 --> 00:24:36.859 So... Looking at this whole picture, the civil 00:24:36.859 --> 00:24:39.359 servant, the closeted man, the master of melody, 00:24:39.519 --> 00:24:42.140 the structural innovator, what is the final takeaway? 00:24:42.480 --> 00:24:44.779 I think the key phrase is that Tchaikovsky is 00:24:44.779 --> 00:24:47.119 the bridge. That's what the best analysis comes 00:24:47.119 --> 00:24:49.819 back to. He single -handedly bridged the gap 00:24:49.819 --> 00:24:52.940 between the early sort of amateur Russian nationalism 00:24:52.940 --> 00:24:56.299 of Glinka and the professional modernist explosion 00:24:56.299 --> 00:24:59.000 of Stravinsky and Shostakovich in the 20th century. 00:24:59.319 --> 00:25:01.859 Without him, the story of Russian music is completely 00:25:01.859 --> 00:25:04.200 different. He made Russian music a global language. 00:25:04.670 --> 00:25:07.269 He absolutely did. And critically, the perception 00:25:07.269 --> 00:25:09.869 of his music has shifted over the last few decades. 00:25:10.329 --> 00:25:12.769 For a long time, especially in the mid -20th 00:25:12.769 --> 00:25:15.509 century, serious critics often dismissed him 00:25:15.509 --> 00:25:18.869 as shallow or sentimental, precisely because 00:25:18.869 --> 00:25:20.849 he was so emotional. They thought if you wear 00:25:20.849 --> 00:25:22.430 your heart on your sleeve, you can't be truly 00:25:22.430 --> 00:25:25.769 profound. But now... Now we understand that his 00:25:25.769 --> 00:25:27.970 emotional frankness is his greatest strength. 00:25:28.529 --> 00:25:31.210 He wasn't afraid to be vulnerable, to be messy, 00:25:31.329 --> 00:25:34.460 to be hysterical in his music. One writer said 00:25:34.460 --> 00:25:36.579 he creates a psychological mirror for the listener. 00:25:36.740 --> 00:25:39.039 That's a beautiful concept. When we listen to 00:25:39.039 --> 00:25:41.480 that famous swelling string section in Romeo 00:25:41.480 --> 00:25:43.660 and Juliet, we aren't just hearing notes. We're 00:25:43.660 --> 00:25:46.299 hearing our own longing, our own sadness, our 00:25:46.299 --> 00:25:49.519 own joy. He sought to speak directly to the imaginative 00:25:49.519 --> 00:25:52.420 interior life of his audience. And he succeeded 00:25:52.420 --> 00:25:55.599 more than maybe any other composer. He validates 00:25:55.599 --> 00:25:58.420 the messy, contradictory, beautiful reality of 00:25:58.420 --> 00:26:00.779 being human. He makes us feel less alone in the 00:26:00.779 --> 00:26:03.640 chaos. Well, I think that is the perfect place 00:26:03.640 --> 00:26:06.960 to leave it. A man of violent contrasts who gave 00:26:06.960 --> 00:26:09.420 us some of the most unified, emotionally honest 00:26:09.420 --> 00:26:11.980 art in history. Thanks for walking through this 00:26:11.980 --> 00:26:14.740 huge stack of sources with me. It was a pleasure. 00:26:14.779 --> 00:26:17.140 A complicated man, but an essential one. And 00:26:17.140 --> 00:26:19.099 to everyone listening, next time you hear that 00:26:19.099 --> 00:26:21.920 Nutcracker Suite in a shopping mall or at a ballet, 00:26:22.140 --> 00:26:24.460 maybe take a second to remember the lonely, pitular 00:26:24.460 --> 00:26:27.000 counselor who fought like hell to write it. Thanks 00:26:27.000 --> 00:26:29.000 for listening to The Deep Dive. We'll catch you 00:26:29.000 --> 00:26:29.539 on the next one.