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Tchaikovsky’s Patroness
- smitty1e 5y agoPossibly she understood the wisdom of never meeting one's heroes.
- chasil 5y agoThere has been speculation that Tchaikovsky's death was a suicide, perhaps related to previous intimate relationships. It is possible that von Meck's withdrawal from his life is related; she might have found out. The wiki has a very brief mention of the suicide speculation, but I have read more extensive discussions elsewhere. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyotr_Ilyich_Tchaikovsky https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyotr_Ilyich_Tchaikovsky
- abecedarius 5y ago> You are paid an enormous, regular annuity . . . but there is a bizarre catch: you can never meet your admirer face-to-face. 'Catch'? Is that how Tchaikovsky himself saw it? (Didn't see much support for this in the article.) It seems a really neurotypical point of view.
- gwern 5y agoI think it's a catch. As it points out, even if you didn't ever want to meet your benefactor, the requirement is still a problem. There you are walking around Italy on vacation, totally care-free, when suddenly -
- abecedarius 5y agoEhh, you'd expect an "oops, didn't mean to" to suffice then. With the article's generally overwrought tone I wouldn't put much weight on its note about the apology as a big deal. Still, maybe I did read it wrong.
- friendlydog 5y ago