What made Tchaikovsky a genius composer?

A few months ago I gave a lecture on the life and works of Tchaikovsky. He spent his musically formative years in St. Petersburg, which was home to "The Five" or "The Mighty Handful" (Mily Balakirev, Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Ale... read more

So Tchaikovsky was the first to fuse musical styles, did it in a popular fashion, and created works that challenge musicians. Whether you consider genius defined by innovation, popularity, or technical aspects, he earned his place among the giants of music. read more

Rubinstein was impressed by Tchaikovsky's musical talent on the whole and cited him as"a composer of genius" in his autobiography. He was less pleased with the more progressive tendencies of some of Tchaikovsky's student work. read more

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was a Russian composer of the Romantic era. He wrote music for the ballets, Swan Lake and The Nutcracker, symphonies, fantasies, operas, and much more. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was a Russian composer of the Romantic era. read more