Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Another woman was to become important in his life, but in a very different way. It was to be a very unusual relationship. Her name was Nadezhda von Meck. She was the wife of a rich man. She loved Tchaikovsky’s music and promised him that she would pay him a lot of money every month so long as he promised her that he would never try to meet her.  Tchaikovsky no longer needed to work. He was able to give up his teaching job at the Conservatory. For several years he spent the winters in Europe and the summers in Russia.  Nadezhda and Tchaikovsky wrote long letters to one another, often quite passionate and dreamy they talked about love, life and how they wanted it to change, but they never saw one another. He had plenty of time to write music: he wrote several operas including Eugene Onegin and his Fourth and Fifth Symphonies, the Violin Concerto, the Serenade for Strings, Capriccio Italienne and the 1812 Overture. Tchaikovsky loved Nadezhda very much but never actually told her his true feelings.