Reiner Torheit

[Serial_Apologist]

... o, in many people's view, I wd think. Just as there are those who see Elgar as the ne plus ultra of English music.

.

Anthony Payne, for one, rates Tchailovsky way above The Five.

[Serial_Apologist]

Sidebar to this: Tchiakovksy’s reactionary politics aren’t often discussed but he must surely have been the most right-wing composer who ever lived. Were he alive today, I can imagine him being all over Putin (Putin would have discouraged that naturallly!) and would have strongly supportive of Putin’s anti-homosexual laws. He would also have been delighted with the President’s description of him as a ‘person without a family.’

To spite his own sexuality, do you think?

[zola]

Returning to Neil rather than Tchaikovsky, I am sorry to hear this.

Like others, I only met him once at a social function connected to the old R3ok board but found his face to face persona nothing like his online approach which was confrontational and abrasive to say the least. He also stayed with a good friend of mine in Ireland once for a couple of days during an abortive attempt to get some project off the ground over there and was a most personable guest. I do realise though that he was a very easy person to get on the wrong side of and that was not something you ever wanted to do.

[Conchis]

To spite his own sexuality, do you think?

He would have identified himself as a Russian patriot first and foremost and would have rather died (in fact, may have rather died) than identify himself as a homoexual. He was also obsessed with the idea of monarchy (Catherine the Great was his heroine) and he would recognise Putin as the next best thing to a Tsar.

Dostoyevsky would also have been a Putin cheerleader.

Not so sure about Tolstoy, though.

[Conchis]

Returning to Neil rather than Tchaikovsky, I am sorry to hear this.

Like others, I only met him once at a social function connected to the old R3ok board but found his face to face persona nothing like his online approach which was confrontational and abrasive to say the least. He also stayed with a good friend of mine in Ireland once for a couple of days during an abortive attempt to get some project off the ground over there and was a most personable guest. I do realise though that he was a very easy person to get on the wrong side of and that was not something you ever wanted to do.

This is exactly what I heard from another R3OK forumite (not on here) who met him.

The idea of a person’s online persona being at variance to their ‘real life’ one is neither unusual nor uncommon.

[BBMmk2]

A former R3ok member as well. Very sad to hear this. Another member PMed me on Messenger about his passing.

[ahinton]

He would have identified himself as a Russian patriot first and foremost and would have rather died (in fact, may have rather died) than identify himself as a homoexual.

Wasn't he married to a Russian female soprano?

[Dave2002]

Wasn't he married to a Russian female soprano?

I don't think so - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonina_Miliukova

[ahinton]

I don't think so - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonina_Miliukova

I don't quite get that.

I think that her name was/is Svetlana Sozdateleva.

[Conchis]

I don't quite get that.

I think that her name was/is Svetlana Sozdateleva.

Were you referring to Neil McGowan or to Tchaikovsky?

From what I remember, Neil McGowan WAS married (as was P.I.T. of course) and the Russain soprano does ring a distant bell.

[Bryn]

I don't quite get that.

I think that her name was/is Svetlana Sozdateleva.

I too was wondering whether Pete or Neil was the husband being referred to. If Neil was married to Svetlana, then his reviews of her work seem to have been rife with nepotism.

[Dave2002]

I don't quite get that.

I think that her name was/is Svetlana Sozdateleva.

I think there is an ambiguity. If you are thinking about Neil aka Reiner Torheit you may very well be right - but Tchaikovsky was married to Antonina Miliukova. Perhaps the way the posts got ordered, together with mentions of "homoexuals", about which I know very little, muddled the flow.

Svetlana Sozdateleva (https://www.opera.lv/en/artists/arch...na-sozdateleva) has appeared at Glyndebourne in recent years, and is indeed a Russian soprano. I do not know who she is or has been married to.