Abstract

Tchaikovsky: A Tribute gives a fictionalized account of Peter Tchaikovsky's life as experienced and related by Nicolas Conradi, teenaged pupil to Peter's brother Modest. Hailing from Paris, the deaf Kolya is as yet immature--self-centred, inconsistent, pretentious and idealistic. His attempted portrayal of the apparently contrary characters of composer and brother succeeds rather in betraying his own characteristics and flaws. Hailing from Paris, the deaf Nicolas is as yet immature--self-centred, inconsistent, pretentious and idealistic. His attempt to portray the apparently contrary characters of composer and brother succeeds rather in betraying his own, limited self. Nicolas' character and narration set out the manuscript's twin themes: the dynamic between Romanticism and Rationalism and the nature of fiction-making. Allied to the first is an interest in the phenomenon of the sensitive artist, or, rather, in those uniformly obscure figures who support and allow for that phenomenon. Individualism and self-expression are balanced by the more circumspect if more circumscribed reason. Allied to the second is an interest in the contingent nature of interpretation, translation--from fact into fiction especially--and revelation. This meta-fictional quality derives from an imperfect understanding and immense admiration of Vladimir Nabokov, whose style the novella likewise engages and variously travesties. Tchaikovsky is as much a tribute to him as it is to either brother.