12 April 2023

Tchaik­ovsky's great Russian music patron: Madame von Meck.

In Women in C19th Russia told of the lives of wo­men across Russia, from weal­thy St Petersburg noble wo­men to Siberian peas­ants, and their cont­ribution to the arts. Rosslyn & Tosi showed how women tried for great­er auton­omy and developed a presence in Russ­ia's cul­ture from 1800-1917. But the important role pl­ay­ed by the cultural salons meant that if women did try serious music, it was in the form of songs and instrum­ent­al works suitable for homes.

Family von Meck c1875
Baroness holding youngest daughter. Engineer Karl von Meck in centre, with dark hat.

Consider Russian rulers’ influence on Enlightenment. Led by Alexandra Fedorovna (1798–1860), wife of Czar Nicholas I (1796–1855), the Imper­ial household loved music. Alexandra was an ac­tive patron of court mus­icals, where she and Nich­olas played the piano, and she enc­ourag­ed the nobility to get involved. Women’s educat­ion was now incl­ud­ing lit­erat­ure, music, draw­ing, dancing and lan­g­uages, designed to improve noble girls’ marriage prospects.

Only when St Peters­burg Conservatoire and Moscow Conservatoire op­en­ed in 1862 and 1866 respectively could musicians as­p­ire to high status in Russian society. Although much of this credit belonged to An­t­on Rubin­stein (1829–94), nothing could have been done without the sup­port of his Imperial patron, Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna (1807–73). The great­est benef­ic­iaries of conser­vatoire training were of course men. Young women students were dedicat­ed, but they would have no public careers.

Married at 16, Nadeshda von Meck (1831-1894) helped her rail­­way engine­er husband in build­ing his empire, while having 11 surv­iv­ing children and dev­el­oping her reputation as a good musician. She could not make music a car­eer, because of Imperial Russia’s rigid societal-gender rul­es. But Madame was not sat­is­fied just with giving private con­certs for family and friends. She preferred to be directly involved in the music world and she certainly had the funds and passion to succeed.

When writing his will, engineer Karl von Meck knew his wife could man­age her po­w­er well, though he couldn’t have foreseen that she’d become one of Russia’s best patrons of the arts. Karl’s sudden death from heart-failure in 1876 left her controlling great wealth. But owing to his early death, 45 year old Madame von Meck became a lonely recluse with 11 child­ren.

Now examine the relationship between the brilliant Russian composer Py­otr Il­yich Tchaik­ovsky (1840-93) and Madame von Meck. In 1876 the widow was already a strong upper-class matron with cultivated tas­­t­es. She took the family to Italy each summer, so the Par­is Conserv­at­oire of Music sent young 
 students there, to instruct and play music with her.


violinist Iosif Kotek with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, 1877

Tchaikovsky and Von Meck got together because of young vio­linist Iosif Kotek, Tchai­kovsky’s ex-pupil. Kotek sugg­ested to Mad­ame, then his own patron and employer, that she reach out to the comp­oser. The friendship started with a fan letter from the widow, sent Dec 1876. She’d heard Tchaikovsky’s mus­ic at con­certs, particul­ar­ly The Tempest,  and loved it. While she was grieving her husband, music sust­ained her.

After his disas­tr­ous mar­r­iage in 1877, gay Tchaikovsky had a break­down and fled over Europe. So von Meck stepped in properly, paying off his large debts and sending a monthly cheque. They were equally lonely & depressed. The widow needed him to provide arrange­ments of his own works, for  violin and piano, for her to perform.


Nadezhda von Meck became a widow in 1876
Wiki

A way of supporting the later C19th career aspirations of men was by providing substantial financial support. In Tchaikovsky’s case, von Meck proved vital in deal­­ing with his personal & profess­ion­al dif­ficul­t­ies. The composer was grateful & thrilled when she began to commission compositions from him, and paid him! Bold­ly he also began to ask von Meck for more loans. In time she gave him 6,000 Russian rubles a year, a lavish sal­ary. He was able to quit the Moscow Conserv­atory, where he taught music theory, and devote himself to composing full time.

In mid 1880, teenage Claude Debussy (1862–1918) was among the students sent to Villa Oppenheim in Flor­en­ce. He too came un­der Madame von Meck’s pat­­ronage. She engaged Debussy to play duets with her and her children, travelling to her palatial resid­ences in Eur­ope in the Conservatory’s summer hol­idays.

By mutual planning, the two never met and their relat­ion­ship was con­­d­ucted through a series of long lett­ers. Their correspondence lasted from 1877-90, and 1,200+ of their letters survived! Madame’s money was instrumental in allowing her mentee to establish himself as Russ­ia’s first full-time professional compos­er. Throughout this er­a, Tchaikovsky enj­oyed great financial security.

It was traditional for an artist to dedicate a masterpiece to the val­ued pat­r­on, and Tchaikovsky did! He dedicated his Sym­p­h­ony #4, performed in Moscow in Feb 1878, to Madame von Meck, thus al­so af­firming her as an equal partner in its creation. The letters sug­g­ested that she was directly in­volved in pl­anning the compos­ition and the lar­ger prog­r­amme. She also patronised him while he was writing the
 opera Eugene Onegin, prem­iered in Mos­cow in 1879. 


 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky,
c1888 by Émile Reutlinger

Tchai­k­ovsky’s only obligations to von Meck were producing beautiful music AND replying to her impas­s­ion­ed letters. This was unus­ual back th­en; it was more common for patrons to show off their protégés and to keep them as companions in public ev­ents. In return, the mus­ician added prest­ige and soph­ist­icat­ion to the pat­ron. But von Meck and Tchaikovsky remained solely corres­p­ond­ents.

 When she abrupt­ly ended the relat­ion­ship and cash-flow in 1890, it caused Tchaikovsky real pain. In fact the loss of von Meck’s emotional and financial sup­port made Tchaik­ov­s­ky’s 3 final years of life miserable. In 1893 cholera killed him.     


Women in C19th Russia: Lives and Culture, 2012 
by Wendy Rosslyn and Alessandra Tosi eds

Another important supporter was pianist, conductor and composer Nikolay Rubinstein who became very popular within the city's literary-artistic circles. In 1860, he was appointed head of the Moscow branch of the Russian Musical Society, where he arranged and conducted concerts, and established the RMS music classes that led to the opening of the Moscow Conservatory. Nikolay made Tchaikovsky the Professor of Music Theory, encouraged his musical abilities and gave him lodgings. Rubinstein did a great deal to promote Tchaikovsky's music, and in 1866-80 he conducted the premieres of most orchestral compositions that Tchaikovsky wrote. Tchaikovsky was very grateful for Rubinstein's support, dedicating many of his works to him.

Read Beloved friend: Story of Tchaikowsky and Nadejda von Meck by Catherine Bowen, 1946.


 



26 comments:

Deb said...

Tchaikovsky was very aware of how dependent he was on the Imperial court, the Emperor, Dukes and their generous moneys. But I have never heard of this amazing woman, Madam Von Meck.

roentare said...

What a story. I learnt so much about this woman Madam Von Meck. There are always more background stories to any famous personality.

DUTA said...

Nadejda - nice russian name and she looks rather nice in the picture.
Lucky Tchaikovsky to get such a generous matron! His music was worth every ruble. I'm paricularly fond of his ballet music: Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Nutcracker.

Fun60 said...

How fortunate was Tchaikovsky to have such patronage and how grateful are we that he was able to devote his time to composing instead of teaching.

Andrew said...

An early version of a woman with 'My gay boyfriend' except the relationship was only conducted by letters, and true to form, it ended in tears. I wonder what he did that triggered Madame to end the relationship.

Student of History said...

Deb, Nadeshda von Meck grew up in a wealthy landowning, music playing family and married a railway tycoon. So she was well connected to the moneyed class. But her claim to fame was her passionate love of music, which she had intensely studied and showed off in concerts, and her foreign language skills. Yet, as you say, you have never heard of this amazing woman.

Student of History said...

roentare, it is very true that there are always more background stories to any famous personality than we know. Famous, respectable people want to 1] hide embarrassing family stories, 2] ignore their past career failures, 3] ignore their past sexual failures etc. But the reason you didn't know of Madam Von Meck was because she was a woman.

Student of History said...

DUTA, you picked your favourite Tchaikovsky ballet music that were the three Helen selected - Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, Nutcracker. She also likes Igor Stravinsky: The Firebird, The Rite of Spring, Petrushka.

Student of History said...

Fun60, true! Tchaikovsky and all other aspiring musical stars clearly understood the importance of sincere patronage, and expressed their gratitude openly. They even encouraged their own patrons to share the love around with other musicians who needed the support.

Teaching music would have at least been a tolerable fallback position, if there wasn't enough income to support the family from the chosen career. Consider poor Jan Vermeer who had to be an innkeeper; James Joyce worked as a bank clerk; and Henri Rosseau was a toll collector.

Student of History said...

Andrew, the relationship ended suddenly and without much explanation. Von Meck's son later wrote: The first was that it had become physically impossible for my mother to continue her correspondence with Pyotr Ilyich owing to a sharp decline in her faculties, following pneumonia in winter 1889-1890.

The second reason was purely on moral grounds. Following my mother's illness, my older brother then became mortally ill. My mother was so shaken by this illness that to her everything and everyone else became secondary, and she devoted herself to taking care of my brother during his last days. My mother saw my brother's illness as a divine punishment for her having indulged in correspondence and friendly relations with Pyotr Ilyich, instead of devoting herself wholly to her children.

https://en.tchaikovsky-research.net/pages/Nadezhda_von_Meck

Look and Learn said...

Once free of the ties of teaching, Tchaikovsky began to travel widely throughout the world but he still kept in touch with Nadejda by letter. Soon the income from his compositions grew so that he was no longer dependent on the money she provided for him.

Almost inevitably their relationship began to crumble. Mainly it seems the reason was the result of a misunderstanding. Fearing, mistakenly as it turned out, that she was near bankruptcy, Madame von Meck decided that she could no longer make Tchaikovsky a regular allowance. The composer felt the ending of their friendship very deeply. Although he was now famous throughout Europe, his fame seemed to do little to ease his unhappiness. Towards the end of his life he completed one of his most famous works – his Sixth Symphony/Pathetique. Its first performance was a success but a few days later he was dead from cholera.

Luiz Gomes said...

Boa tarde e boa quarta-feira com muita saúde e paz.
Obrigado pela excelente explicação e materiais.
Luiz Gomes

My name is Erika. said...

That's quite a tale. Having a wealthy patron seemed to be a good thing to have. I've read a few other comments too and it is interesting about this composer's life. He was very talented, but I knew little of his life. Hope your week is going well.

Student of History said...

Look and Learn, thank you. Did people know that the income from Tchaikovsky's compositions grew so that he was no longer dependent on the money von Meck provided for him? Von Meck's son suggested it was all her decision, albeit a decision made from old age and disease.

Student of History said...

Luiz, the Russian royals, upper classes and intellectuals were so committed to leading the world in the arts, especially music, they created every technique known to support their rising stars - patronage, royal concerts, paid education at Par­is Conserv­at­oire of Music and in Italy.

Student of History said...

Erika, Tchaikovsky came from a very large and emotional family, and must have struggled throughout his childhood and teens. When his young mother died, Ilya was left in charge of all the youngest siblings. Tchaikovsky spent 9 years boarding student at a School of Jurisprudence which both enhanced his homosexual preferences and left him open to rape and ridicule. For a very very talented man, it seems he suffered from depression and uncertainty all his adult life.

mem said...

Thankyou so much for this post . I had heard about Madame but had never investigated. So very interesting .

Hels said...

mem

Fascinating yes. My family is very Russian in its cultural practices. I learned ballet with Borovansky for years and my late mother loved playing Tchaikovsky (and other Russians) on the piano. Yet neither of us had known the name Nadeshda von Meck.

I have a lot more reading to do, clearly!

Roland D. Yeomans said...

Nadezhda von Meck has an intriguing face but not as intriguing as her life. I was fascinated by your post today. The architecture of the French Quarter has made my historical fantasies truly colorful ...and made my writing a bit more challenging to do it justice! https://rolandyeomans.blogspot.com/2023/04/k-is-for-misunderstaning.html

hels said...

Roland
Thank you for reading the post.

The difference is that the von Meck story is (largely) not a historical fantasy. Although only a half of 1200 letters between Tchaikovsky and his patron survived, they have been carefully preserved, translated and published in a book. I hope you can get access to it.

Luiz Gomes said...

Boa tarde e bom final de semana com muita saúde e paz.

Luiz Gomes

Mandy said...

Very interesting - as is the speculation in the comments as to why the composer and his patron parted ways, and whether it caused financial (or emotional) ruin to the former

Hels said...

Luiz

it is so important to learn about the culture of other nations, I think. I hope you enjoy this look at 19th century Russia.

Hels said...

Mandy

the end of the patron-protégé relationship was certainly a terrible, emotional wrench for both parties, but at that stage in Tchaikovsky's career, the financial risks were largely mitigated.

I cannot imagine 14 years of an intimate relationship ending overnight with little explanation. It would break my heart, and I am not deeply depressed and constantly anxious about my sexuality.

mem said...

What an interesting bunch off people you come from Helen . You should do a memoir post !!

Hels said...

mem

I selected both my mother's parents and cousins very carefully :)