Most great composers begin their careers as teenagers, but P. I. Tchaikovsky, who was born in 1840, was a late bloomer. However, we are blessed to have over a quarter of a century of masterpieces from him, including the “Piano Concerto” from 1875, made famous in the U.S. by Van Cliburn in 1958, and his third ballet, “The Nutcracker,” from 1892, made more famous in the U.S. by Walt Disney’s “Fantas…
