Tchaikovsky's closet

Yes, it has been a while since I had time to write to this blog. Last Wednesday I left the Ruth Ellis Center early to head down to Orchestra Hall for a bit of the Tchaikovsky Festival, now underway (I went back Friday evening for a concert that featured his 6th Symphony). However, the Wednesday event wasn't music, it was a panel discussion about Tchaikovsky's "rumored" homosexuality, as the advertising put it. The panel was moderated by Dr. John Corvino, the Gay Moralist, though I wish he had been given a larger role – all he did was introduce the others and try to signal when time was up.

The first speaker was Leonard Slatkin, artistic director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the one conducting the concerts of the festival. He talked about why Tchaikovsky is worthy of being featured in a three week festival – the first Russian symphonist, one who excelled in symphonies, concertos, tone poems, ballets, operas, chamber music, and songs.

The second panelist was Dr. Jonathan Anderson, Assistant Professor of Composition at Wayne State University (just up the street from Orchestra Hall). I worked with Anderson for one semester as I was working on my thesis composition and my advisor took a sabbatical. It was Anderson's first semester on campus. He still isn't telling his students he is gay just to make sure it doesn't mess up his chances to get tenure (so I didn't know when I worked with him). He talked at length about Tchaikovsky's homosexuality – no "rumor" here. There is lots of evidence in the letters between the composer and his brother Modest, who was also gay. Anderson said Tchaikovsky wasn't as closeted as one might think he needed to be in Russia of the late 19th Century (and certainly in Russia of today). It also appears he did his best work after his disastrous marriage, after which he became more accepting of his orientation. Between the Lines has a nice story of Anderson talking about Tchaikovsky, which covered many of the points that were covered in the panel.

Since Tchaikovsky's death in 1893 at the age of 53 there have been riddles on how and why he died so young and unexpectedly. I'd go through them, but Anderson says most of them have been disproven, leaving us simply wondering. We're not sure he was killed by cholera, as had been believed. There has also been lots of discussion about whether the Pathetique 6th Symphony is a suicide note of sorts. It has an unusual gloomy last movement rather than the expected triumphant ending, and Tchaikovsky conducted the premier just 10 days before he died. But Slatkin says the symphony was completed in August that year and after that Tchaikovsky wrote a movement of a third piano concerto in a bright and upbeat mood that does not sound like someone considering suicide.

The third panelist was Nancy Schlichting, CEO of Henry Ford Health System. I was puzzled why she was on the panel and what she might add to the discussion. Actually, quite a bit, but not directly. She is a lesbian who is leading a corporation. She talked about needing to be closeted while younger, of being outed, and of making sure her current board of directors didn't care she is a lesbian – of course, it helped that the chairman of the board was Alan Gilmour, who is gay.

Slatkin said that over the course of a long career conducting many pieces of music from gay composers he hasn't found any gay notes. He hasn't found any female notes either (he is married to a composer).