Collection: Pëtr Il'ič Čajkovskij

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (7 May 1840 - 6 November 1893) was a Russian composer of the late Romantic period, whose compositions are among the best known in the classical repertoire. He combined in his style characteristics of traditional Russian music with classical musical practice, in contrast to the aesthetic vision of the Group of Five, marked by greater musical nationalism.

Although of early musical talent, Tchaikovsky studied law. In Russia at the time, musical education was not regulated and opportunities to study music academically were limited. When such opportunities arose for him, he abandoned his career as a lawyer and entered the newly formed St Petersburg Conservatory. After his studies, he forged his own Russian musical style, consolidating the use of compositional conventions of classical music alongside traditional Russian music, thus achieving international notoriety, although not always well received by Russian critics.

Despite the popular success, his life was studded with events that led him to depression and a fatalistic vision of existence: in youth the death of his mother, The shipwreck of interpersonal relationships and the unacceptability for society of the time of his homosexuality contributed to this condition. The death is officially attributed to cholera, but its circumstances are debated; suicide has also been hypothesized, either by voluntary contagion with the disease or by other form of poisoning.