The Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky Museum in Klin is the largest Museum in Russia dedicated to the work of the great Russian composer. There are many personal items, manuscripts and scores, and a large number of photographs. The Museum`s exposition gives the most complete impression of his life.
At the beginning of the exhibition, you can get acquainted with the first years of the composer`s life. He was born in 1840, in the small town of Votkinsk (Udmurtia), in the family of mining engineer Ilya Tchaikovsky. Now there is also a Museum there. At first, his parents wanted to make him a lawyer, but still his father hired music teachers and eventually Tchaikovsky became a musician. The first years of his work were quite difficult. Recognition did not come immediately and the lack of money affected.
Part of the exhibition is dedicated to Nadezhda Filaretovna von Mekk. She lived in Moscow in a large mansion on Rozhdestvensky Boulevard. At 44, she had 11 children, her husband had just died, and she started running the Railway company alone, with a huge capital. Nadezhda von Mekk loved music very much and always helped as a musician. She was introduced to Tchaikovsky by Joseph Kotek. Thus began their 13-year-old close friendship by correspondence.
At the very beginning of this friendship, Tchaikovsky married Antonina Milyukova, but this marriage was very short, and then he did not make any other attempts to marry. Baroness von Mekk assigned Tchaikovsky a very large allowance, 6000 rubles a year, so that he stopped teaching and focused only on creativity.
There are also photos of Tchaikovsky and his friends in the Museum of Tchaykovsky. For example, a photo with 22-year-old violinist Joseph Kotek. Over the years, he had close friendships with Vladimir Shilovsky, the poet Alexey Apukhtin, the cellist Anatoly Burundukov, and others. Tchaikovsky made his nephew Vladimir Davydov the main heir, as well as his servant Alexey Safronov.
The Museum houses the Philharmonic hall, which regularly hosts concerts, festivals, and the annual Tchaikovsky Competition. One of the prizes for the contestants is the opportunity to play the piano in the living room of the Memorial House of Tchaikovsky, which was played by the great composer. This honor was awarded to famous foreign artists and composers who came to Klin. Separate halls are dedicated to theatrical sets and costumes for productions of operas and ballets by Tchaikovsky. There are costumes for the operas Queen of spades, Hetman Mazepa, Odette and Odile.
