hysteria, and deep depression..
             Even as a youngster, Pyotr Tchaikovsky was hypersensitive; the slightest scolding would reduce him to a flood of tears. Besides this, his parents were also worried about his addition to music, which often ironically seemed to upset him. One night after a party, Alexandra found him awake, pointing to his forehead, and crying, "Oh this music, this music! Take it away! It's here and it won't let me sleep!"
             Pyotr's father was in possession of a great variety of music, playable on the "Orchestrion," a rudimentary form of a record player. It was his listening of tunes from the opera Don Giovanni on the Orchestrion that Pyotr dedicated his lifelong admiration to Mozart. "It was due to Mozart that I devoted my life to music," he wrote many years later.
             Tchaikovsky began to play the piano early in childhood. His first teacher was Maria Palchikova, a freed serf. As mentioned earlier, the influence of the czar retained the old caste system. Within a year, Tchaikovsky was able to
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