Pjotr Iljitsch Tschaikowsky (1840–1893)

Today, the degree of popularity of Tchaikovsky's music outside of Russia no doubt surpasses that of the music of all other Russian composers of the 19th century.

Tchaikovsky spent his formative years as a composer in Moscow, where he had been called by Nikolay Rubinstein to teach at the Conservatory. He had previously studied with Nikolays brother Anton at the then newly opened St. Petersburg Conservatory. Due to the influence of many central and western European composers that one believed to detect in his music (Mozart, Schumann, Bellini and Bizet in particular), Tchaikovsky was always considered by his fellow Russians as Western-oriented, despite his roots in the Russian musical tradition.