Russian symphony : thoughts about Tchaikovsky
Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky was a remarkable example of an artist who was completely wedded to his art, whose whole being was dedicated to constant intensive creative work to the exclusion of everything else. His life and his art were inseparably interwoven. "I literally cannot live without working," he wrote once, "for as soon as one piece of work is finished and one would wish to relax, instead of resting, i.e., abandoning oneself to the pleasures of the weary toiler who has earned the right to the alluring dolce far niente, one is a prey to depression and melancholy, to thoughts of the futility of earthly existence, fear for the future, fruitless regrets about the irretrievable past, the meaning of earthly existence, in a word, all that which poisons the life of a man who is not engrossed in the work and inclined to hypochondria, and the result is the desire to tackle some new work without delay." A group of Soviet musicians and composers under the leadership of Dmitri Shostakovich gathered their thoughts and impressions of Russia's most influential musical mind and presented this unusual volume of musical criticism. This book is a work of collaboration of leading contemporary Soviet artists who throw the light of their own genius on the work and life of their eminent teacher. There is an extensive index of Tchaikovsky's musical and literary works
Print Book, English, [1947]
Philosophical Library, New York, [1947]