Under Review

Reviews by Robert Blaisdell

Morrison, a professor of Music and Slavic Languages at Princeton and an accomplished biographer and historian, writes with an expert’s directness about Tchaikovsky’s life and work. The most thoroughly engaging section is his introduction, wherein he takes a broad view: “Tchaikovsky (with Mozart as his model) kept his music accessible, infectious and pliant.” To justify the “Empire” of the title, the author reminds us of the discomfiting truth that Tchaikovsky’s “compositions supported the state and speak to the imperial effort to Russify conquered territories.” Morrison is impatient with other biographers and commentators, and he makes short work of trendy academic theories about Tchaikovsky’s homosexuality.

His history of the composition of the ballet Swan Lake is particularly interesting: “Its origins are unclear, owing to the loss and destruction of records concerning the unprecedented commission, the sources for the scenario, and the 1877 premiere production. Tchaikovsky had mixed feelings about his achievement, though, then again, he had mixed feelings about most of his achievements. In his diary, he said that hearing Swan Lake gave him ‘a moment – just one – of absolute happiness’…” This compelling section reminds me that Morrison’s Bolshoi Confidential: Secrets of the Russian Ballet from the Rule of the Tsars to Today, where he also told this ballet’s history, is a finer, more coherent book.