Customer Reviews

The Tchaikovsky Handbook: A Guide to the Man and His Music, Volume 2: Catalogue of Letters, Genealogy, Bibliography (Russian Music Studies)

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Amazon has unfortunately confused the two volumes of this indispensable compendium [please see update note, below]. Shown on this web page is the cover of vol. 2, not vol. 1, as the heading wrongly indicates. I ordered from this page without looking closely at the cover and thus thought I was getting vol. 1. I had neither volume previously, so I'm happy to start off with the second book. But if you already have vol. 2 and are trying to complete the set, this is not the page to order from. The cover of the first volume shows Tchaikovsky looking straight into the camera, instead of slightly offside as seen in the vol. 2 cover shown above (the overall color tint is also different). I hope Amazon will correct its listing, so customers can be sure of getting exactly what they're looking for.

Incidentally, vol. 2 is a whopping 882 pages, including 50 pages of separately paginated front matter (of which 22 contain photographs of the Tchaikovsky Museum at Klin, original correspondence, and covers to various publications over the years [e.g., Tchaikovsky's letters, diaries, and musical scores, as well as critical texts and biographies]; also included is the first page of Nadezhda von Meck's first letter to the composer in December 1876, along with his response) -- not 704, as indicated in the Amazon description.

The book itself seems as close to the last word in detailed Tchaikovsky reference material as we are likely to get for many decades to come. I can't wait to see the photographs and thematic index from vol. 1.

UPDATE (Nov. 6, 2011) -- Since I ordered both volumes last spring, Amazon has corrected the page link for each volume. I trust that my comments on the original header confusion are now irrelevant! I've left them in place to show that Amazon does pay attention to what users say and tries to set things straight.

Mind you I have both catalog books from this collection (Vol. 1 & 2). They're for anyone who's a die-hard Tchaikovsky fan. I've never in my life been so touched by anyone's music other than Tchaikovsky's. Great pictures are included in this book - pictures that you cannot find anywhere at the library or other places. All of his works, known to man, are in here. If you need it, this book has got it. I recommend getting both; it's hard to get volume 1 without volume 2.

Mind you I have both catalog books from this collection (Vol. 1 & 2). They're for anyone who's a die-hard Tchaikovsky fan. I've never in my life been so touched by anyone's music other than Tchaikovsky's. Great pictures are included in this book - pictures that you cannot find anywhere at the library or other places. All of his works, known to man, are in here. If you need it, this book has got it. I recommend getting both; it's hard to get volume 1 without volume 2.

Let me first disclose the purpose of my purchase of this book. It was, as you may think it unusual, seeing to the long deceased yet still dearly beloved Chaikovskii, in its sole purpose to please my temporal desire in looking at his photographs. It is not a mystery why Madame von Meck would request for photographs of her beneficiary; Sir Pyotr Ilyich was a handsome gentleman, complemented by a sensitive nature, of which these fine qualities could only beckon for appraisal and admiration, especially among the women of his time.

Through the thick pages of this book, I was able to observe many charming photographs of the man. They are all precious to me. There are a couple of photographs of him already resigned to the inevitable mortal fate, which we would all have to experience one day, leaving the wealth and desires of this temporary world and eventually returning to the state our first ancestors existed in.

The Tchaikovsky Handbook vol. 1 not only provides more than sufficient information about the composer's works and photographs but also a brief biography.

I just got this book from Amazon and I am very satisfied indeed. I waited too long to get it, not realizing that it was huge and heavy, like a text book in school, well worth it's price, and that it had Tchaikovsky's works completely documented, even the posthumous ones, ... and that this would make life easier for a complete fan of his, such as moi. Now I can properly look up the work I am interested in, with the proper title so as to inquire whether the music store can get it for me, since it has not been easy just to get a particular Tchaikovsky piece online.

This book also has the very beginning of each musical piece, the score that is.