Tchaikovsky: None but the Lonely Heart

In a strange relationship that lasted 14 years and was conducted exclusively through letters, Pyotor Ilyich Tchaikovsky and his patroness Nadezhda von Meck were united through the invincible power of a disembodied love in which they both found refuge. Plagued by doubts about the greatness of his music, tormented by the fear that his homosexuality would be discovered, and trapped in a marriage to a woman who was eventually committed to an insane asylum, Tchaikovsky found in von Meck an “invisible angel.” Tchaikovsky: None but the Lonely Heart honors their unique relationship in part through music, including the composer’s Piano Trio in A minor.