My wife and I just listened to the Tchaikovsky 2nd at the NY
Philharmonic, and in the program notes, I found mention of Bob Davydov,
who was his nephew.
I have known that Tchaikovsky was an anti-semite, and was homosexual,
and after much research on Google and other sites, I could not come up
with the information on the religion of this Davydov. could you tell me if
his sisters son was actually Jewish? My family came from Ukraine in 1891,
and I know that the 2nd Symphony is based on melodies from Ukraine, and
that Bob Davydov was also from near Kiev. Any information you could give
me on this would be appreciated. Thank you, Paul Wolvek
Paul M. Wolvek
Thank you for your contribution to the forum, but you are quite wrong
to suggest that Tchaikovsky was anti-Semitic. His two best friends (Nikolai Rubinstein and
Herman Laroche) were both
Jewish, as were many of his other close friends and colleagues. However,
his nephew Bob (Vladimir)
Davydov was of Russian and Ukrainian ancestry, rather than Jewish, as
you will see from the entries in our People
section.
Brett Langston