(no subject)
Here's the Tchaikovsky story I mentioned previously (Taken from Paul Harvey's The Rest of the Story, I believe):
Nadya Von Meck was one of the wealthiest women in Russia, but her vast inherited fortune was little solace in the wake of her husband's death in 1876. There was, however, a piano in her great mansion, and music became a salve for her spiritual wounds.
At the same time in Moscow, there was a 36-year-old composer named Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Unknown to him, his music was even then speaking eloquently to the heart of a lonely widow. He also could not know that this woman, because of her infatuation with his music, was taking an ardent personal interest in him. From his acquaintances, she was learning his temperament, attitudes, needs. In the greatest romantic tradition, Nadya had fallen in love first with Tchaikovsky's music - and then with Tchaikovsky himself.
At last she summoned enough courage to introduce herself to him. Nadya commissioned a number of musical compositions, became Tchaikovsky's patron, his confidante, his inspiration. Thus blossomed one of the most profound and intimate relationships in the history of music.
For 14 years, Peter and Nadya turned to each other for love in a lonely world, for comfort in sorrow, for sharing in joy. For 14 years, some of his most sparkling and passionate music was written for her, and for this the world would owe her a debt of gratitude forever after. For Tchaikovsky, Nadya was salvation itself, at times all that stood between him and insanity.
And then one day she ended the relationship. Neither survived very long without the other. Nadya's health deteriorated rapidly, and Peter died whispering her name.
The secrets that did not die with them are preserved in their correspondence. Indeed, that is all we know of them - and all they knew of each other.
This intense communion of two souls that fostered some of the world's most passionate music - such magnificent ballets as Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty and such moving operas as Eugene Onegin - was a oneness apart. Nadya and Peter, for fear of shattering their beautiful illusion, confined their love to letters.
Never once did they meet.
Hope I didn't violate any copyright laws or anything by posting that...