Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky
Six Pieces
Op. 51

About Peter Ilyitch Tchaikovsky's Six Pieces

These pieces were written at Tchaikovsky's sister's estate at Kamenka in the summer of 1882, at a time when he found work with the opera Mazeppa slightly difficult. He wrote to his brother about the extremely orderly life he was leading there: tea and a newspaper in the morning, composing throughout the day, walks in the afternoon, and letter writing or reading in the evening – This life is very nice, only it is a pity that Kamenka is so disgusting and smelly [...] It is a pity too, that for the sake of some money I accepted an order from the brothers Jurgenson to compose six piano pieces. This gets in the way of my inspiration. I have to force the music out of my head [...]