TCHAIKOVSKY, PETER I.

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Piotr Chikovski) was born in Votkinsk, Russia, in 1840. His greatness as a composer is sometimes overshadowed by the numerous accounts of his tragic personal life and, more recently, by the way he died. He was the second son of Lieutenant Colonel Ilya Petrovich Tchaikovsky , chief inspector of the Kamsko-Votkinsk mines and metallurgical works (and an amateur flutist), and Alexandra Andreyevna Assier , the granddaughter of an epileptic Frenchman...