Iosif Kotek
Encyclopedia
Iosif Iosifovich Kotek was a Russian violinist remembered for his association with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
. He assisted Tchaikovsky with technical issues in the writing of the solo part in his Violin Concerto in D
. He was also probably his lover at some point, although he was not exclusively homosexual.
, Ukraine
in 1855. He studied violin under Jan Hřímalý
at the Moscow Conservatory
, where he was also a composition student of Tchaikovsky
. From the outset, their attraction was mutual. He held Tchaikovsky's music in the highest regard, and he was the composer's favourite pupil.
Tchaikovsky was infatuated with his studenthe called him "Kotik", Russian
for tomcatand it has been conjectured by some (and asserted unambiguously by others) that they became lovers. They certainly became physically very affectionate, as demonstrated in Tchaikovsky's 1876 letter to his brother Modest
about Kotek: "When he caresses me with his hand, when he lies with his head inclined on my breast, and I run my hand through his hair and secretly kiss it ... passion rages within me with such unimaginable strength ... Yet I am far from the desire for a physical bond. I feel that if this happened, I would cool towards him. It would be unpleasant for me if this marvellous youth debased himself to copulation with an ageing and fat-bellied man."
Kotek graduated in 1876. At that time, a wealthy widow and patron named Nadezhda von Meck
asked the conservatory to provide a violinist to join her household to play chamber music and other pieces. She had eleven children, and also had a large staff including personal physicians and various musicians. Nikolai Rubinstein recommended Kotek. Von Meck had already heard some of Tchaikovsky’s music, and liked it, and it was at Kotek’s suggestion that she contacted Tchaikovsky with a commission for some new violin pieces. Kotek also made her aware of Tchaikovsky's impecunious financial circumstances. Thus started what would become one of the most remarkable artistic liaisons in musical history, a period of 14 years during which she supported him financially to become a full-time composer with no need to teach to earn a living - but they were never to meet in person. For a period, Kotek played the role of an intermediary between Nadezhda and Tchaikovsky.
In 1877, Tchaikovsky dedicated his Valse-Scherzo to Kotek, who orchestrated it.
Although he was exclusively homosexual, Tchaikovsky married Antonina Miliukova
on 18 July 1877. Alexander Poznansky states that Tchaikovsky and Kotek were in an intimate relationship at the time, and his letters to his family prior to the wedding indeed display a great sense of concern about Kotek’s welfare, compared with almost total indifference to the woman he was about to marry. The sole witnesses at the wedding were his brother Anatoly and Iosif Kotek. Tchaikovsky also deposited with his publisher Jurgenson an amount of money he had received from his patroness, to be made available to Kotek should he need it. The Tchaikovsky-Miliukova marriage was doomed from the start, and they soon separated; Tchaikovsky also made a half-hearted suicide
attempt. Iosif Kotek was involved in an elaborate subterfuge to keep the details of these developments from Tchaikovsky’s wider circle, including his parents. This assistance only deepened the mutual attachment the composer and the violinist had for each other.
However, Kotek was not exclusively homosexual, perhaps not even primarily so. He was engaged in a series of amorous episodes with women in Nadezhda von Meck's large household, which caused her to become markedly cold towards him. He asked her for some financial assistance, but she refused. Tchaikovsky instead came to his aid, despite having being accused by Kotek of having revealed to her the true nature of their relationship. He had also contracted syphilis
. After his dismissal by Nadezhda von Meck, Kotek went to Berlin to study with Joseph Joachim
.
In 1878, still recovering from the breakdown of his disastrous marriage and his subsequent suicide attempt, Tchaikovsky went to stay at Nadezhda von Meck’s estate at Clarens
, Switzerland
, along with Modest and Kolya Konradi. They arrived there on 9 March, after which Kotek was summoned from Berlin. He arrived on 14 March carrying a swag of new music for violin – these included Édouard Lalo
'sSymphonie espagnole
- which he and Tchaikovsky played through to great delight. This gave Tchaikovsky the idea of writing a violin concerto, and he immediately set aside his current work on his Piano Sonata in G major
and started on the concerto on 17 March. Kotek gave Tchaikovsky the benefit of his technical advice, and they would play through each new section as it was composed. The composer wrote: "How lovingly [Kotek] busies himself with my concerto! It goes without saying that I would have been able to do nothing without him. He plays it marvelously!" The whole process was finished on 28 March. On 3 April they gave the work a complete run-through, but neither of the Tchaikovsky brothers nor Kotek were satisfied with the Andante middle movement. It was quickly discarded (and later published separately as the Méditation in his Souvenir d'un lieu cher
, Op. 42), with a new slow movement being composed in a single day, 5 April. The orchestration was finished by 11 April.
Tchaikovsky wanted to dedicate the concerto to Kotek, but felt constrained by the gossip this would undoubtedly cause about the true nature of his feelings for the younger man. (He was always at pains to disguise his homosexuality from the general public.)
At the end of 1878, Kotek and Tchaikovsky renewed their friendship in Paris
, but Tchaikovsky was deeply irritated by Kotek’s "unbelievable womanizing", and even said he found his company "more unpleasant than pleasant". In November 1879 he saw Kotek again in Berlin, but still found him more tiresome than attractive.
In October 1879, the German government offered two Mendelssohn
Scholarships, one for composition, the other for practical musicianship. Kotek was the winner of the latter; the former was won by Engelbert Humperdinck
.
That year, Kotek contributed to the arrangement for solo voices, chorus and piano of Tchaikovsky’s opera The Maid of Orleans.
In 1881, Tchaikovsky asked Kotek to perform the Violin Concerto. He refused. The work had finally been premiered that year in Vienna by Adolph Brodsky
, to a notoriously scathing review from Eduard Hanslick
and a muted audience response. Kotek did not want to be publicly associated with the work as it was likely to bring, as he believed, his own name into artistic disrepute. This refusal spelled the final end of their friendship. When he was in Berlin
in 1883, Tchaikovsky toyed with the idea of visiting Kotek, but decided against it.
Kotek continued his studies with Joseph Joachim in Berlin until 1882, and then became a teacher at the Hochschule für Musik.
His health deteriorated in 1884 due to tuberculosis
and he went to Davos
, Switzerland
for treatment. Tchaikovsky put aside their differences and visited him there in November 1884, ministering to him in various ways for six days, before returning to Moscow
. He considered going back when he heard Kotek was gravely ill, but decided against it. Iosif Kotek died on 4 January 1885, aged only 29. Tchaikovsky was informed by telegraph, and had the painful task of informing Kotek's parents of their son's passing.
Kotek's compositions include "Six Practical Studies for the Violin", Op. 8.
Tchaikovsky died on 6 November 1893, which would have been Iosif Kotek's 38th birthday.
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
. He assisted Tchaikovsky with technical issues in the writing of the solo part in his Violin Concerto in D
Violin Concerto (Tchaikovsky)
The Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35, written by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1878, is one of the best known of all violin concertos. It is also considered to be among the most technically difficult works for violin.-Instrumentation:...
. He was also probably his lover at some point, although he was not exclusively homosexual.
Biography
Iosif Kotek was born in Kamenets-PodolskKamianets-Podilskyi
Kamyanets-Podilsky or Kamienets-Podolsky is a city located on the Smotrych River in western Ukraine, to the north-east of Chernivtsi...
, Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
in 1855. He studied violin under Jan Hřímalý
Jan Hřímalý
Jan Hřímalý Jan Hřímalý Jan Hřímalý (also seen as Ivan Voitsekhovich Grzhimali (Иван Войцехович Гржимали (13 April 1844 – 11/24 January 1915) was an influential Czech violinist and teacher, who was associated with the Moscow Conservatory for 46 years 1869-1915....
at the Moscow Conservatory
Moscow Conservatory
The Moscow Conservatory is a higher musical education institution in Moscow, and the second oldest conservatory in Russia after St. Petersburg Conservatory. Along with the St...
, where he was also a composition student of Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
. From the outset, their attraction was mutual. He held Tchaikovsky's music in the highest regard, and he was the composer's favourite pupil.
Tchaikovsky was infatuated with his studenthe called him "Kotik", Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
for tomcatand it has been conjectured by some (and asserted unambiguously by others) that they became lovers. They certainly became physically very affectionate, as demonstrated in Tchaikovsky's 1876 letter to his brother Modest
Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky was a Russian dramatist, opera librettist and translator.-Early life:Modest Ilyich was born in Alapayevsk, the younger brother of the future composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. He graduated from the School of Jurisprudence with a degree in law...
about Kotek: "When he caresses me with his hand, when he lies with his head inclined on my breast, and I run my hand through his hair and secretly kiss it ... passion rages within me with such unimaginable strength ... Yet I am far from the desire for a physical bond. I feel that if this happened, I would cool towards him. It would be unpleasant for me if this marvellous youth debased himself to copulation with an ageing and fat-bellied man."
Kotek graduated in 1876. At that time, a wealthy widow and patron named Nadezhda von Meck
Nadezhda von Meck
Nadezhda Filaretovna von Meck was a Russian businesswoman, who is best known today for her artistic relationship with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. She supported him financially for 13 years, enabling him to devote himself full-time to composition, but she stipulated that they were never to meet. ...
asked the conservatory to provide a violinist to join her household to play chamber music and other pieces. She had eleven children, and also had a large staff including personal physicians and various musicians. Nikolai Rubinstein recommended Kotek. Von Meck had already heard some of Tchaikovsky’s music, and liked it, and it was at Kotek’s suggestion that she contacted Tchaikovsky with a commission for some new violin pieces. Kotek also made her aware of Tchaikovsky's impecunious financial circumstances. Thus started what would become one of the most remarkable artistic liaisons in musical history, a period of 14 years during which she supported him financially to become a full-time composer with no need to teach to earn a living - but they were never to meet in person. For a period, Kotek played the role of an intermediary between Nadezhda and Tchaikovsky.
In 1877, Tchaikovsky dedicated his Valse-Scherzo to Kotek, who orchestrated it.
Although he was exclusively homosexual, Tchaikovsky married Antonina Miliukova
Antonina Miliukova
Antonina Ivanovna Miliukova was the wife, and after 1893, the widow, of Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.After marriage she was known as Antonina Tchaikovskaya.- Early years :...
on 18 July 1877. Alexander Poznansky states that Tchaikovsky and Kotek were in an intimate relationship at the time, and his letters to his family prior to the wedding indeed display a great sense of concern about Kotek’s welfare, compared with almost total indifference to the woman he was about to marry. The sole witnesses at the wedding were his brother Anatoly and Iosif Kotek. Tchaikovsky also deposited with his publisher Jurgenson an amount of money he had received from his patroness, to be made available to Kotek should he need it. The Tchaikovsky-Miliukova marriage was doomed from the start, and they soon separated; Tchaikovsky also made a half-hearted suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
attempt. Iosif Kotek was involved in an elaborate subterfuge to keep the details of these developments from Tchaikovsky’s wider circle, including his parents. This assistance only deepened the mutual attachment the composer and the violinist had for each other.
However, Kotek was not exclusively homosexual, perhaps not even primarily so. He was engaged in a series of amorous episodes with women in Nadezhda von Meck's large household, which caused her to become markedly cold towards him. He asked her for some financial assistance, but she refused. Tchaikovsky instead came to his aid, despite having being accused by Kotek of having revealed to her the true nature of their relationship. He had also contracted syphilis
Syphilis
Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the spirochete bacterium Treponema pallidum subspecies pallidum. The primary route of transmission is through sexual contact; however, it may also be transmitted from mother to fetus during pregnancy or at birth, resulting in congenital syphilis...
. After his dismissal by Nadezhda von Meck, Kotek went to Berlin to study with Joseph Joachim
Joseph Joachim
Joseph Joachim was a Hungarian violinist, conductor, composer and teacher. A close collaborator of Johannes Brahms, he is widely regarded as one of the most significant violinists of the 19th century.-Origins:...
.
In 1878, still recovering from the breakdown of his disastrous marriage and his subsequent suicide attempt, Tchaikovsky went to stay at Nadezhda von Meck’s estate at Clarens
Clarens
Clarens is the name of several places:* Clarens, Free State, a town in Free State Province, South Africa* Clarens, Hautes-Pyrénées, a commune in the Hautes-Pyrénées department of southwestern France...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, along with Modest and Kolya Konradi. They arrived there on 9 March, after which Kotek was summoned from Berlin. He arrived on 14 March carrying a swag of new music for violin – these included Édouard Lalo
Édouard Lalo
Édouard-Victoire-Antoine Lalo was a French composer.-Biography:Lalo was born in Lille , in northernmost France. He attended that city's music conservatory in his youth. Then, beginning at age 16, Lalo studied at the Paris Conservatoire under Berlioz's old enemy François Antoine Habeneck...
'sSymphonie espagnole
Symphonie Espagnole
The Symphonie espagnole in D minor, Op. 21, is a work for violin and orchestra by Édouard Lalo.-History:The work was written in 1874 for violinist Pablo de Sarasate, and premiered in Paris in February 1875....
- which he and Tchaikovsky played through to great delight. This gave Tchaikovsky the idea of writing a violin concerto, and he immediately set aside his current work on his Piano Sonata in G major
Piano Sonata in G major (Tchaikovsky)
The Grand Piano Sonata in G major, Op. 37, was written by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1878. Though initially received with critical acclaim, the sonata has struggled to maintain a solid position in the modern repertoire. Nevertheless, the sonata has been recorded numerous times and...
and started on the concerto on 17 March. Kotek gave Tchaikovsky the benefit of his technical advice, and they would play through each new section as it was composed. The composer wrote: "How lovingly [Kotek] busies himself with my concerto! It goes without saying that I would have been able to do nothing without him. He plays it marvelously!" The whole process was finished on 28 March. On 3 April they gave the work a complete run-through, but neither of the Tchaikovsky brothers nor Kotek were satisfied with the Andante middle movement. It was quickly discarded (and later published separately as the Méditation in his Souvenir d'un lieu cher
Souvenir d'un lieu cher
Souvenir d’un lieu cher , Op. 42, for violin and piano, was written by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky between March and May 1878...
, Op. 42), with a new slow movement being composed in a single day, 5 April. The orchestration was finished by 11 April.
Tchaikovsky wanted to dedicate the concerto to Kotek, but felt constrained by the gossip this would undoubtedly cause about the true nature of his feelings for the younger man. (He was always at pains to disguise his homosexuality from the general public.)
At the end of 1878, Kotek and Tchaikovsky renewed their friendship in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, but Tchaikovsky was deeply irritated by Kotek’s "unbelievable womanizing", and even said he found his company "more unpleasant than pleasant". In November 1879 he saw Kotek again in Berlin, but still found him more tiresome than attractive.
In October 1879, the German government offered two Mendelssohn
Felix Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...
Scholarships, one for composition, the other for practical musicianship. Kotek was the winner of the latter; the former was won by Engelbert Humperdinck
Engelbert Humperdinck
Engelbert Humperdinck was a German composer, best known for his opera, Hänsel und Gretel. Humperdinck was born at Siegburg in the Rhine Province; at the age of 67 he died in Neustrelitz, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.-Life:After receiving piano lessons, Humperdinck produced his first composition...
.
That year, Kotek contributed to the arrangement for solo voices, chorus and piano of Tchaikovsky’s opera The Maid of Orleans.
In 1881, Tchaikovsky asked Kotek to perform the Violin Concerto. He refused. The work had finally been premiered that year in Vienna by Adolph Brodsky
Adolph Brodsky
Adolph Davidovich Brodsky was a Russian violinist.He enjoyed a long and illustrious career as a performer and teacher, starting early in Vienna, going on to Moscow, Leipzig, and New York City and finally Manchester. During its course he met and worked with composers such as Tchaikovsky and...
, to a notoriously scathing review from Eduard Hanslick
Eduard Hanslick
Eduard Hanslick was a Bohemian-Austrian music critic.-Biography:Hanslick was born in Prague, the son of Joseph Adolph Hanslick, a bibliographer and music teacher from a German-speaking family, and one of his piano pupils, the daughter of a Jewish merchant from Vienna...
and a muted audience response. Kotek did not want to be publicly associated with the work as it was likely to bring, as he believed, his own name into artistic disrepute. This refusal spelled the final end of their friendship. When he was in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
in 1883, Tchaikovsky toyed with the idea of visiting Kotek, but decided against it.
Kotek continued his studies with Joseph Joachim in Berlin until 1882, and then became a teacher at the Hochschule für Musik.
His health deteriorated in 1884 due to tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
and he went to Davos
Davos
Davos is a municipality in the district of Prättigau/Davos in the canton of Graubünden, Switzerland. It has a permanent population of 11,248 . Davos is located on the Landwasser River, in the Swiss Alps, between the Plessur and Albula Range...
, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
for treatment. Tchaikovsky put aside their differences and visited him there in November 1884, ministering to him in various ways for six days, before returning to Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
. He considered going back when he heard Kotek was gravely ill, but decided against it. Iosif Kotek died on 4 January 1885, aged only 29. Tchaikovsky was informed by telegraph, and had the painful task of informing Kotek's parents of their son's passing.
Kotek's compositions include "Six Practical Studies for the Violin", Op. 8.
Tchaikovsky died on 6 November 1893, which would have been Iosif Kotek's 38th birthday.