Michael Cooper <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>Of course Tchaikovsky was gay, which I believe had an indirect but profound
>influence on his music-making.  Homosexuality was a crime punishable by
>death in czarist Russia...  there is speculation Tchaikosky intentionally
>contracted cholera by drinking unboiled water, knowing that his orientation
>was dangerously close to becoming public knowledge.

Speculation which has been quite convincingly refuted in recent years by
the research of Alexander Poznansky and others ...

>Tchaikovsky was a chronically depressed individual, which no doubt was in
>part caused by the difficult secret he kept, and which no doubt partially
>effected the mood which permeates works like the 1st piano concerto and
>the last 3 symphonies, the last of which is plainly programmatic, perhaps
>autobiographical.

Tchaikovsky was no more or less prone to depression than any other musician
-- you only have to read his letters to see that.  He experienced good days
and bad days in roughly equal measures, and his music reflects the whole
range of emotions.  It's unfortunate that we normally hear only a
relatively small proportion of his output.

Anyway, what on earth could be gloomy about his First Piano Concerto?:-)

Brett Langston
The Tchaikovsky Web-Site
http://www.users.zetnet.co.uk/blangston/pitch/