Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s piano works have made many a pianist into a renowned virtuoso, yet the composer himself could never have played them with anything like such brilliance. As the son of a mining engineer, described by his nurse as a “porcelain child” on account of his sensitive nature, he was never expected to make his living from music. His parents foresaw a career in the civil service, as befitted the son of a good bourgeois family. “He was undoubtedly very talented, had a fine sense of hearing and a good memory,” wrote Rudolf Kündinger, Tchaikovsky’s piano teacher from childhood, in his diary, nevertheless noting: “One could not yet conclude, however, that he was one day to be a great pianist, let alone a famous composer.”
