In light of Russia's invasion into Ukraine, many westerners are understandably doing their level best to distance themselves from President Vladimir Putin and those loyal to him. But some of those ...

They shared the same birthday —May 7 — but that was about all. Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Johannes Brahms simply understood, felt and composed music very differently, and judged each other’s work ...

Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6 in B minor has been overshadowed by the composer’s untimely death just nine days after its premiere. But legends like these can distract us from the nuances of a piece ...

Tchaikovsky was a blazingly inventive genius and brilliant orchestrator who pushed musical intensity towards its outer limits. What makes Tchaikovsky’s music so special? Tchaikovsky possessed an ...

Purchase this and other timeless New Criterion essays in our hard-copy reprint series. In many ways Wiley’s book is a revisionist history. The traditional view, especially prevalent among musicians, ...

Growing up as an avid violinist, Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings was one of my favorite and most rewarding pieces to play. The fact that it was a staple in the repertoire of the New York City ...

I owe my teenage discovery of Tchaikovsky almost entirely to a sadistic sea captain who made Captain Bligh of the Bounty seem like a water baby. While serving in the merchant navy under his rabid ...

The Cannes Film Festival has been careful to steer clear of Russian participation this year, barring “official Russian delegations” and “anyone linked to the Russian government” and also declining to ...

In his latest Cannes competition entry, Russian filmmaker Kirill Serebrennikov ('Petrov’s Flu') chronicles the disastrous marriage between the famous composer and his wife Antonina Miliukova. By ...