Hello,
I recently purchased Richard Taruskin's "On Russian Music" and in the
article "Pathetic Symphonist", originally published in 1995, he makes an
observation that perhaps the (future) publication of Modest Tchaikovsky'
unfinished and long-suppressed autobiography will yield pertinent
information about the composer's attitude towards his homoesexuality that
will lay to rest once for all the idea that Tchaikovsky was a tortured,
unhappy man consumed with guilt about his sexual orientation. Has there
been any movement on this issue? That is, is there any indiction that
Modest's autobiography will be published or available for inspection by
non-Russian musicologists?
Robert Suslowicz
Since 1993 Modest Tchaikovsky's unfinished Autobiography has been
listed as in preparation for publication by Tchaikovsky Museum at Klin.
During my research in the 1990s and earlier this century I had access to
this document and have published all passages related to the composer in
my English book Tchaikovsky through the Others' Eyes (Bloomington,
Indiana University Press, 1999) as well in my two-volume set in Russian - Piotr Chaikovskii. Biografiia. (St Petersburg, Vita Nova, 2009).
So, you can consult those books to learn more
Alexander Poznansky