Tchaikovsky House Klin

Tchaikovsky rented this house on the edge of Klin in 1892 and lived in it until his death in November 1893, and his brother Modest turned it into a museum within a year - one of the first composer house museums anywhere, and the reason so much survives. The rooms are kept as they were: the study with the desk and the writing things, the library, the bedroom, and the Becker grand piano he used. That piano is played, but rarely - by tradition the winners of the International Tchaikovsky Competition play it, and it is opened on his birthday and the anniversary of his death. The collection holds manuscripts, letters and his personal library. A concert hall was built alongside in the 1960s. He wrote the Sixth Symphony during the Klin period, and the house was preserved through the war after German troops occupied the town in 1941 and used the building.

What you actually see

• The 1893 rooms - study, library and bedroom kept as he left them.
• The Becker piano - played only by Tchaikovsky Competition winners and on two anniversaries.
• The manuscripts - scores, letters and his own library.
• The early museum - a house turned into a museum within a year of his death.

When to go

All year. Two hours. Closed Wednesdays and Thursdays and the last Monday of the month.

Honest expectations

Visits are guided, usually in Russian. Closed days are more numerous than at most museums, so check. The piano is not played on ordinary days. Klin itself is a plain industrial town with little else.

Nearby

Klin town centre is a short ride; Moscow is about an hour and a half by train.