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Tchaikovsky

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893) maintained for fourteen years one of the most unusual relationships in musical history: a correspondence with the wealthy widow Nadezhda von Meck, who provided him with a substantial annual income on the single condition that they never meet in person. They exchanged over twelve hundred letters. In 1890 she abruptly ended the arrangement, claiming poverty; Tchaikovsky died three years later, still bewildered by the break. The true reason has been debated ever since, with evidence pointing towards her son-in-law Władysław Pachulski, whose manoeuvres within the household are now widely considered to have poisoned the relationship.

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