A last, affectionate look

Three decades ago, in one of modern musicology’s great labours of love, David Brown began work on his definitive four-volume study of Tchaikovsky. Fifteen years after his initial researches, he laid out the composer on his death-bed and pulled up the sheet, so to speak, in 1991. Brown’s efforts transformed Tchaikovsky’s reputation from that of sentimental tunesmith of the ‘1812’ Overture, the B flat Piano Concerto and a few sugary ballets (as they were perceived) to towering figure of late Romanticism and an opera composer of genius.

Even the Russians were startled. Given the repressive censorship of the Soviet years, Brown’s discoveries were remarkable, though since he had learned Russian during National Service his techniques may have been sharper than those of the average academic researcher, more accustomed to sorting index cards than engaging in counter-intelligence. Musicians hitherto embarrassed to say Tchaikovsky’s name aloud admitted being secret devotees. They even started playing his lesser known works.