Homosexuality

There are two extremes to be found in Tchaikovsky biography. One is a conspiracy of secrecy, where letters and diaries are published with systematic cuts, and where almost complete denial surrounds the subject of the composer's sexuality - this was standard Soviet practice from Stalin onwards. At the other extreme, homosexuality is placed at the very centre of Tchaikovsky's life and work, as if it influenced his every step and profoundly marked all his music, distinguishing it radically from the music of straight composers - this approach is very common in more recent Western writing. Both approaches, in their very different ways, are obsessive about Tchaikovsky's sexuality, the omissions of the first giving rise to the very rumours and myths that the second feeds off.

Only recently has Tchaikovsky's sexual life become a subject of serious scholarship (e.g. in Alexander Poznansky's book, Tchaikovsky: The Quest for the Inner Man), and it can now be discussed with confidence, even if there are still a few gaps in the historical narrative. His homosexual inclinations were most likely revealed (or fostered) in the all-male environment of the School of Jurisprudence, and later in the homosexual demi-monde of St Petersburg society, to which he was introduced by his close friend, the poet Alexei Apukhtin. It seems that he was relatively untroubled by his feelings at first, and he did not even think they would preclude him from leading a conventional heterosexual life in the future. He was popular among young society women, and courted some of them. Tchaikovsky became quite infatuated with one of them, the operatic diva Désirée Artôt, going so far as to consider marriage, although in the end she spurned him, leaving him feeling extremely hurt. At the same time he had crushes on many young men, although it is often hard to judge from the scant evidence whether he acted on his feelings. One of the names that crops up is Eduard Zak, who is thought by some to have been the muse behind Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet Overture. Zak committed suicide in 1873, and many years later Tchaikovsky wrote of his passionate love for him in his diary.

The well-known crisis in Tchaikovsky's sexual life came in 1877, when he married Antonina Milyukova - an impulsive and ill-considered gesture. It seems he was under the impression that he would be able to lead an entirely platonic relationship with his bride, and that both she and his family would take pleasure in the mere fact of marriage. This design fell apart almost immediately, and Tchaikovsky, soon unwilling to see or speak to his luckless wife, fled abroad to recuperate after suffering a nervous breakdown.

After this disaster, Tchaikovsky was very circumspect with women - for example, he scrupulously avoided any face-to-face meetings with his patroness, Nadezhda von Meck. He now resigned himself (with some relief) to the life of a discreet homosexual, forming a long-lasting relationship with his servant Alyosha Sofronov, while from time to time he had temporary relationships with men of his own social class, like the violinist Josef Kotek, and while abroad he would sometimes seek the services of male prostitutes. The exact nature of his profound love for his nephew Bob Davydov, the dedicatee of the Sixth Symphony, may never be known.

Do we need to know all this and more? Perhaps we do, if only to provide a corrective to the myth that Tchaikovsky's homosexuality was a cruel, inescapable "Fate" that made his life miserable and made him write hysteria-ridden music. It certainly troubled him at times, but it did not lead to social exclusion, loneliness, or, indeed suicide (as another of the myths would have it). He tended to bemoan his sexuality only at times of crisis. For the rest of the time, it brought him both sorrows and joys much like any other individual, straight or gay. While critics continue looking for signs of "essential" difference in his music, such as "queer" tonal relations and homoerotic symbolism, audiences, perhaps more level-headedly, are happy to embrace Tchaikovsky's universal humanity with open hearts.
© Dr Marina Frolova-Walker/BBC

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