On 10 June 1859, the 19-year-old Tchaikovsky graduated as a titular counselor, a low rung on the civil service ladder. Appointed to the Ministry of Justice, he became a junior assistant within six months and a senior assistant two months after that. He remained a senior assistant for the rest of his three-year civil service career. in 1863 Meanwhile, the
Russian Musical Society (RMS) was founded in 1859 by the
Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna (a German-born aunt of
Tsar Alexander II) and her protégé, the pianist and composer
Anton Rubinstein. Previous tsars and the aristocracy had focused almost exclusively on importing European talent. The aim of the RMS was to fulfill Alexander II's wish to foster native talent. It hosted a regular season of public concerts (previously held only during the six weeks of
Lent when the Imperial Theaters were closed) and provided basic professional training in music. In 1861, Tchaikovsky attended RMS classes in
music theory taught by
Nikolai Zaremba at the
Mikhailovsky Palace (now the
Russian Museum). These classes were a precursor to the
Saint Petersburg Conservatory, which opened in 1862. Tchaikovsky enrolled at the Conservatory as part of its premiere class. He studied
harmony and
counterpoint with Zaremba and instrumentation and composition with Rubinstein. He was awarded a silver medal for his thesis, a cantata on
Friedrich Schiller's "
Ode to Joy". This mindset became important in Tchaikovsky's reconciliation of Russian and Western European influences in his compositional style. He believed and attempted to show that both these aspects were "intertwined and mutually dependent". His efforts became both an inspiration and a starting point for other Russian composers to build their own individual styles. Rubinstein was impressed by Tchaikovsky's musical talent on the whole and cited him as "a composer of genius" in his autobiography. He was less pleased with the more progressive tendencies of some of Tchaikovsky's student work. Nor did he change his opinion as Tchaikovsky's reputation grew. He and Zaremba clashed with Tchaikovsky when he submitted his
First Symphony for performance by the
Russian Musical Society in Saint Petersburg. Rubinstein and Zaremba refused to consider the work unless substantial changes were made. Tchaikovsky complied but they still refused to perform the symphony. Tchaikovsky, distressed that he had been treated as though he were still their student, withdrew the symphony. It was given its first complete performance, minus the changes Rubinstein and Zaremba had requested, in Moscow in February 1868. Once Tchaikovsky graduated in 1865, Rubinstein's brother
Nikolai offered him the post of Professor of Music Theory at the soon-to-open
Moscow Conservatory. While the salary for his professorship was only 50
rubles a month, the offer itself boosted Tchaikovsky's morale and he accepted the post eagerly. He was further heartened by news of the first public performance of one of his works, his
Characteristic Dances, conducted by
Johann Strauss II at a concert in
Pavlovsk Park on 11 September 1865 (Tchaikovsky later included this work, re-titled
Dances of the Hay Maidens, in his opera
The Voyevoda). From 1867 to 1878, Tchaikovsky combined his professorial duties with
music criticism while continuing to compose. This activity exposed him to a range of contemporary music and afforded him the opportunity to travel abroad. In his reviews, he praised
Ludwig van Beethoven, considered
Johannes Brahms overrated and, despite his admiration, took
Schumann to task for poor orchestration. He appreciated the staging of
Richard Wagner's
Der Ring des Nibelungen at its première at the
Bayreuth Festival, but not the music, calling
Das Rheingold "unlikely nonsense, through which, from time to time, sparkle unusually beautiful and astonishing details". A recurring theme he addressed was the poor state of
Russian opera.
Relationship with The Five , one of
The Five, In 1856, while Tchaikovsky was still at the School of Jurisprudence and Anton Rubinstein lobbied aristocrats to form the
Russian Musical Society, the critic
Vladimir Stasov and an 18-year-old pianist,
Mily Balakirev, met and agreed upon a
nationalist agenda for Russian music, one that would take the operas of
Mikhail Glinka as a model and incorporate elements from folk music, reject traditional Western practices and use non-Western harmonic devices such as the
whole tone and
octatonic scales. They saw Western-style conservatories as unnecessary and antipathetic to fostering native talent.
Mily Balakirev,
César Cui,
Modest Mussorgsky,
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and
Alexander Borodin became known as the
moguchaya kuchka, translated into English as the "Mighty Handful" or
"The Five". Rubinstein criticized their emphasis on amateur efforts in musical composition; Balakirev and later Mussorgsky attacked Rubinstein for his musical conservatism and his belief in professional music training. Tchaikovsky and his fellow conservatory students were caught in the middle. While ambivalent about much of The Five's music, Tchaikovsky remained on friendly terms with most of its members. In 1869, he and Balakirev worked together on what became Tchaikovsky's first recognized masterpiece, the fantasy-overture
Romeo and Juliet, a work which The Five wholeheartedly embraced. The group also welcomed his
Second Symphony, later nicknamed the
Little Russian. Despite their support, Tchaikovsky made considerable efforts to ensure his musical independence from the group as well as from the conservative faction at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory.
Opera composer , Tchaikovsky's patroness and confidante from 1877 to 1890 {{Listen|type=music|image=none|help=no The infrequency of Tchaikovsky's musical successes, won with tremendous effort, exacerbated his lifelong sensitivity to criticism. Nikolai Rubinstein's private fits of rage critiquing his music, such as attacking the
First Piano Concerto, did not help matters. Other artists included
Adele aus der Ohe,
Max Erdmannsdörfer,
Eduard Nápravník and
Sergei Taneyev. Another factor that helped Tchaikovsky's music become popular was a shift in attitude among Russian audiences. Whereas they had previously been satisfied with flashy virtuoso performances of technically demanding but musically lightweight works, they gradually began listening with increasing appreciation of the composition itself. Tchaikovsky's works were performed frequently, with few delays between their composition and first performances; the publication from 1867 onward of his songs and great piano music for the home market also helped boost the composer's popularity. During the late 1860s, Tchaikovsky began to compose operas. His first,
The Voyevoda, based on a play by
Alexander Ostrovsky, premiered in 1869. The composer became dissatisfied with it, however, and, having re-used parts of it in later works, destroyed the manuscript.
Undina followed in 1870. Only excerpts were performed and it, too, was destroyed. Between these projects, Tchaikovsky started to compose an opera called
Mandragora, to a libretto by Sergei Rachinskii; the only music he completed was a short chorus of Flowers and Insects. The first Tchaikovsky opera to survive intact,
The Oprichnik, premiered in 1874. During its composition, he lost Ostrovsky's part-finished libretto. Tchaikovsky, too embarrassed to ask for another copy, decided to write the libretto himself, modeling his dramatic technique on that of
Eugène Scribe. Cui wrote a "characteristically savage press attack" on the opera. Mussorgsky, writing to
Vladimir Stasov, disapproved of the opera as pandering to the public. Nevertheless,
The Oprichnik continues to be performed from time to time in Russia. After Tchaikovsky's death, Rimsky-Korsakov wrote the opera
Christmas Eve, based on the same story. Other works of this period include the
Variations on a Rococo Theme for cello and orchestra, the
Third and
Fourth Symphonies, the ballet
Swan Lake, and the opera
Eugene Onegin. Tchaikovsky remained abroad for a year after the disintegration of his marriage. During this time, he completed
Eugene Onegin, orchestrated his Fourth Symphony, and composed the
Violin Concerto. He returned briefly to the Moscow Conservatory in the autumn of 1879. For the next few years, assured of a regular income from von Meck, he traveled incessantly throughout Europe and rural Russia, mainly alone, and avoided social contact whenever possible. During this time, Tchaikovsky's foreign reputation grew and a positive reassessment of his music also took place in Russia, thanks in part to the novelist
Fyodor Dostoevsky's call for "universal unity" with the West at the unveiling of the Pushkin Monument in Moscow in 1880. Before Dostoevsky's speech, Tchaikovsky's music had been considered "overly dependent on the West". As Dostoevsky's message spread throughout Russia, this stigma toward Tchaikovsky's music evaporated. The unprecedented acclaim for him even drew a cult following among the young intelligentsia of Saint Petersburg, including
Alexandre Benois,
Léon Bakst and
Sergei Diaghilev. Two musical works from this period stand out. With the
Cathedral of Christ the Saviour nearing completion in Moscow in 1880, the 25th anniversary of the coronation of
Alexander II in 1881, and the 1882 Moscow Arts and Industry Exhibition in the planning stage,
Nikolai Rubinstein suggested that Tchaikovsky compose a grand commemorative piece. Tchaikovsky agreed and finished it within six weeks. He wrote to
Nadezhda von Meck that this piece, the
1812 Overture, would be "very loud and noisy, but I wrote it with no warm feeling of love, and therefore there will probably be no artistic merits in it". He also warned the conductor
Eduard Nápravník that "I shan't be at all surprised and offended if you find that it is in a style unsuitable for symphony concerts". particularly well-known for the use of cannon in the scores. On 23 March 1881, Nikolai Rubinstein died in Paris. That December, Tchaikovsky started work on his
Piano Trio in A minor, "dedicated to the memory of a great artist". First performed privately at the Moscow Conservatory on the first anniversary of Rubinstein's death, the piece became extremely popular during the composer's lifetime; in November 1893, it would become Tchaikovsky's own elegy at memorial concerts in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Return to Russia , now the
Tchaikovsky State House-Museum In 1884, Tchaikovsky began to shed his unsociability and restlessness. That March, Emperor
Alexander III conferred upon him the
Order of Saint Vladimir (fourth class), which included a title of
hereditary nobility and might have been cemented in the composer's mind by the success of his
Orchestral Suite No. 3 at its January 1885 premiere in Saint Petersburg. In 1885, Alexander III requested a new production of
Eugene Onegin at the
Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre in Saint Petersburg. By having the opera staged there and not at the
Mariinsky Theatre, he served notice that Tchaikovsky's music was replacing
Italian opera as the official imperial art. In addition, at the instigation of
Ivan Vsevolozhsky, Director of the Imperial Theaters and a patron of the composer, Tchaikovsky was awarded a lifetime annual pension of 3,000 rubles from the Tsar. This made him the premier court composer, in practice if not in the actual title. Despite Tchaikovsky's disdain for public life, he now participated in it as part of his increasing celebrity and out of a duty he felt to promote Russian music. He helped support his former pupil
Sergei Taneyev, who was now director of Moscow Conservatory, by attending student examinations and negotiating the sometimes sensitive relations among various members of the staff. He served as director of the Moscow branch of the
Russian Musical Society during the 1889–1890 season. In this post, he invited many international celebrities to conduct, including Brahms,
Antonín Dvořák and
Jules Massenet. During this period, Tchaikovsky also began promoting Russian music as a conductor, Within a year, he was in considerable demand throughout Europe and Russia. These appearances helped him overcome life-long
stage fright and boosted his self-assurance. In 1888, Tchaikovsky led the premiere of his
Fifth Symphony in Saint Petersburg, repeating the work a week later with the first performance of his tone poem
Hamlet. Although critics proved hostile, with
César Cui calling the symphony "routine" and "meretricious", both works were received with extreme enthusiasm by audiences and Tchaikovsky, undeterred, continued to conduct the symphony in Russia and Europe. Conducting brought him to the United States in 1891, where he led the
New York Music Society's orchestra in his
Festival Coronation March at the inaugural concert of
Carnegie Hall.
Belyayev circle and growing reputation In November 1887, Tchaikovsky arrived at Saint Petersburg in time to hear several of the
Russian Symphony Concerts, devoted exclusively to the music of Russian composers. One included the first complete performance of his revised First Symphony; another featured the final version of Third Symphony of
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, with whose circle Tchaikovsky was already in touch. Rimsky-Korsakov, with
Alexander Glazunov,
Anatoly Lyadov and several other nationalistically-minded composers and musicians, had formed a group known as the
Belyayev circle, named after a merchant and amateur musician who became an influential music patron and publisher. Tchaikovsky spent much time in this circle, becoming far more at ease with them than he had been with the 'Five' and increasingly confident in showcasing his music alongside theirs. This relationship lasted until Tchaikovsky's death. In 1892, Tchaikovsky was voted a member of the
Académie des Beaux-Arts in France, only the second Russian subject to be so honored (the first was the sculptor
Mark Antokolsky). The following year, the
University of Cambridge in England awarded Tchaikovsky an honorary
Doctor of Music degree. ==Personal life==