Why do many music critics hate Tchaikovsky?

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1. Ilovepyotr says

   I am not educated in music but for me pyotr’s works are a league of its own. It’s great he did not confine himself in the standards, confines and the musical measurements of the times he was in and just followed the dictates of his soul. He was the true individualist, a rebel, and yes, he just let his heart explode with unbridled passion and we are helplessly caught in his soaring melodies.

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2. acrazycomposer says

   When I was in college my music history teacher was fond of remarking, whenever we were listening to a work of Tchaikovsky, about how 'difficult this transitional passage was' or how this 'modulation was rather clumsy'. Of course, as students listening to these 'masterpieces' of Romanticism, none of us dared contradict the professor, but I hazard the guess that none of us really 'heard' what he was referring to either. I have returned to that repertoire on a number of occasions, particularly the last of Tchaikovsky's symphonies, the 'Pathetique' which is one of my favorite symphonic works of all time.

   One issue that Tchaikovsky faced as a Russian composer of the Romantic period was his lack of enthusiastic involvement in the Russian Nationalist School. While this was not an 'official' organization, his contemporaries were very consciously turning away from the use of the formal western classical traditions in favor of forging a clearly 'Russian' voice in classical music. This is exemplified in the music of the 'The Five' (or 'The Mighty Handful'): Alexander Borodin, Cesar Cui, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Modest Mussorgsky, and their leader, Mily Balakirev. These five composers created the Russian Nationalist School of composition, something that Tchaikovsky was unable to bring himself to enter due to his formalist tastes.

   Tchaikovsky did, of course, honor his Russian roots through the use of relativistic titles; relating his pieces to Russian lore or themes, but the music – for the most part – was strictly western. In general, I believe that the popularity that Tchaikovsky has found among the general audiences today has been his worst enemy amongst the musical snobs. There is one piece in particular that has been performed more times than is healthy even for a great piece of music, and that has likely resulted in many musicians (especially the performers consigned to play it every year at Christmas) to hate the mere mention of the name: Nutcracker.

   The shame of the matter is that Tchaikovsky is much more than that one ballet, the depth of his compositional talent can be found among many great works, but he should not be derided simply because people love one of his ballets and it is subsequently performed more than some think it should be; that is simply the height of musical snobbery and makes us all look bad.

   I would suggest you take a serious listen to his Sixth Symphony – it is a sublime work of intense emotional power. Tchaikovsky was also at his best when he composed his chamber music (small ensembles), and then, of course, there are the iconic works that can not be ignored: the Violin Concerto and the 2nd Piano Concerto. He wrote a lot of music, not all of it is of the caliber that his 'masterpieces' are, but the ones that are gems are truly, great works – worthy of being called masterpieces from any perspective.

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3. Musicman says

   As a composer, Tchaikovsky took some time to develop. His early career was filled with public failures resulting in a disappointed perception from his peers and contemporaries. Early critics said this of him: “No, that cantata is not good. I expected much more from Tchaikovsky”. Later, a friend and co-composer Cezar Cui said “Tchaikovsky is utterly weak.” Some of the perceived weakness came in the form of errors in his early scores, judgment issues of orchestral balance, overly thick orchestration, excessive melodrama, and a general lacking of succinct form in the larger works.

   Tchaikovsky can be considered long winded and lacking a sense of tight control over the shape of his larger works. This may be less noticeable to an audience because of his talent with great melodies and grand finales, however in general, much of his longer works (the symphonies, piano concerto No. 1) suffer from lack of structural coherence.

   Since Tchaikovsky had a talent with melody, his ideas were good, they just weren’t tightly controlled. Another contemporary composer, Taneyev had found the fourth symphony excellent in parts but less impressive overall. This is an indication of improper form when the ideas are good but they fail to deliver on their promise. This resulted in the perception that the symphonies were more like symphonic poems rather than taut symphonies.

   This is not to say they aren’t great crowd pleasers – a great finale was not one of Tchaikovsky’s weaknesses and audiences love the characteristic excitement and great endings making him a concert hall favorite. Additionally, Tchaikovsky was also overtly sentimental in his music which allows for parody. For example his soaring themes in the “Romeo & Juliette Fantasy” are often used as a popular reference to sudden passionate love. He is not considered subtle and is commonly seen as the example for over indulgent music.

   Overall, it is important to note Tchaikovsky did improve in his development as an orchestrator and as a composer of long form but was most successful in the shorter fragmentary works – operas, songs, ballets (a collection of many short movements allowing structural weakness to not be as apparent while retaining his gifts of melody). A friend of mine who is a violinist said Tchiakovsky's early symphonies are terrible to perform with very awkward fingering and poor writing for the instrument but by the later works, he had clearly improved. It is also important to note Tchaikovsky might not have been respected by his peers but was greatly admired by his successors. Rachmaninoff's early works are an example of Tchaikovsky's influence. I do believe some of his works are masterpieces – Symphony No. 6, Nutcracker, Swan Lake.

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