Davidovs

Family was important to Tchaikovsky. The second of six children, he lost his beloved mother when he was just fourteen and thereafter attached himself closely to his sister Alexandra ('Sasha'), two years his junior, and later to his twin brothers Anatol and Modest who were ten years younger.

When Sasha married Lev Davidov in 1860 and settled with him on the Davidov family estate at Kamenka in the Ukraine, their home became a refuge for Tchaikovsky. He would often spend his summers with them, and while working in his first teaching job at the Moscow Conservatory would write to his sister of his loneliness, saying 'I long for the summer and for Kamenka as for the Promised Land.' Over the years he found the combination of rural peace and the boisterous atmosphere of family life (between 1861 and 1871 the Davidovs had seven children) a conducive atmosphere in which to compose and the household became a stable ready-made home, to which he could retreat when life became difficult. In some ways it represented the structure he so yearned to create for himself.

Indeed, his recuperative stay with the family after a major bout of depression in 1876 may have fuelled his fateful decision to marry the following year. Fully aware that he was gay and knowing that Sasha, and his brother Modest, who was also gay, would advise against the match, he wrote to tell them of his impending nuptials, to former student Antonina Milyukova, the day before the ceremony, allowing them no time to dissuade him. As is well documented, the marriage was a fiasco. Realizing he 'abhorred her [his wife] in the fullest sense' he contemplated killing himself, but was prevented by thoughts of 'my sister, my two youngest brothers and my father'. 'If I decided on suicide...I would be killing them'. After just three weeks of married life he deserted his wife and ran to the Davidov home for refuge. Some months later, on doctor's orders, he went to Switzerland and, bizarrely, his wife went to stay at Kamenka; Sasha, however, found Antonina's constant weeping and nervous behaviour unbearable and asked her to leave. Tchaikovsky avoided sorting out problems face-to-face with his wife, and she in turn resorted to sending threatening letters. She entered a mental asylum in 1896 where she lived on until 1917.

In 1880 'Uncle Peter' was put in charge of the Davidov children while Sasha and Lev took a short holiday. He enjoyed the experience and soon determined to create a home of his own, 'be it in Kamenka or Moscow'. A few years later he found a house in Maidanovo, near Klin, and thereafter became more settled and less reliant on Sasha and the family.

As the Davidov children grew up, Tchaikovsky became especially close to Vladimir (Bob), the second youngest. He too was gay and the two started to correspond regularly. When Tchaikovsky, en route to America, heard the news of Sasha's death in 1891, his response was 'I am very anxious about Bob'. On his return he took the 21-year-old under his wing, visiting Vichy with him to take the waters. The exact nature of their relationship is a topic for conjecture but Tchaikovsky's passionate love letters leave us in no doubt as to his feelings towards his nephew. In 1893, shortly before his death, Tchaikovsky dedicated his emotive Sixth Symphony (the 'Pathetique') to Bob, telling him in a letter it contained 'a programme which shall remain a mystery for every one'.

Bob was one of the group of close family and friends with Tchaikovsky when he died. He later came to own Tchaikovsky's house in Kiln, now a museum.

© Madeleine Ladell/BBC

References: Wilson Strutte: Tchaikovsky: his Life and Times (Tunbridge Wells: Midas, 1979), p.20