This book is the first single-volume biography of Tchaikovsky to be published since important new information was discovered about the composer's life and suicide. In 1979 Alexandra Orlova, who worked in the Tchaikovsky Museum at Klin, emigrated from Russia and smuggled out of the country a suppressed edition of Tchaikovsky's letters to his relatives, carefully preserved for over forty years. She also brought with her what is now widely accepted as the correct account of his suicide. The author sheds new light on Tchaikovsky's private life, examining subjects including his disastrous marriage, his enigmatic relationship with his patroness, Madame von Meck, and his fixations on younger men. At the same time he follows the composer's career and traces the circumstances in which his major works were composed. Alan Kendall is a writer and musician and his previous biographies of composers have been on Vivaldi, Britten, Beethoven, Boulanger, Paganini and Gershwin. He is General Editor of "The Heritage of Music", a four-volume history of Western music to be published by the Oxford Universi ty Press.