Q 01/05

In which town in the Russian Empire was Tchaikovsky born in 1840?

A) Votkinsk

B) Kazan

C) Saratov

D) Vologda

Answer · why

A) Votkinsk

Votkinsk, where his father managed the ironworks, was his home for only eight years: his father retired in 1848 and the family left that autumn.

Q 02/05

To which musical period does Tchaikovsky belong?

A) The Classical

B) The Baroque

C) The Modernist

D) The Romantic

Answer · why

D) The Romantic

The Romantic era prized personal feeling, and Tchaikovsky's tuneful, open-hearted melodies were written to stir it, which is why his music remains amo...

Q 03/05

Family legend says Tchaikovsky's Cossack great-grandfather Fyodor Chaika fought at which decisive battle of 1709?

A) Poltava

B) Kulikovo

C) Borodino

D) Narva

Answer · why

A) Poltava

Poltava is where family tradition placed the Cossack Fyodor Chaika; the family later lengthened Chaika, the Slavic word for gull, into Tchaikovsky.

Q 04/05

In his fifties Tchaikovsky travelled to France to visit Fanny Dürbach, who had been what to him?

A) His first piano teacher

B) His governess

C) His stepmother

D) His godmother

Answer · why

B) His governess

His governess from 1844 to 1848, Fanny Dürbach kept his childhood exercise books and letters for decades, and her memories supplied many of the storie...

Q 05/05

Tchaikovsky began piano lessons at five and soon knew which composer's music?

A) Chopin

B) Liszt

C) Glinka

D) Schubert

Answer · why

A) Chopin

Chopin's mazurkas came his way in those first years at the piano; a year before the lessons began, aged four, he had made his first recorded attempt a...