Tchaikovsky
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Iosif Iosifovich Kotek

Иосиф Иосифович Котек

Russian violinist, also known in the West as Joseph or Edward Joseph Kotek. Born on 25 October/6 November 1855 at Kamenets-Podol'sk, near Moscow.

Kotek graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in 1876, where he had studied violin under Jan Hřímalý and music theory/composition under Tchaikovsky. On Nikolai Rubinstein's recommendation he was engaged by Nadezhda Von Meck as her resident violinist. In 1877 Tchaikovsky dedicated his Valse-Scherzo for violin and orchestra to Kotek, who was also allowed to orchestrate the piece. Kotek also assisted Tchaikovsky with technical advice in his Violin Concerto, which was written while the two men were staying at Nadezhda Von Meck's estate at Clarens, Switzerland in 1878.

Tchaikovsky's private correspondence from around this time show that he was infatuated with Kotek, although there is no evidence that the violinist reciprocated his feelings, which quickly cooled. Relations between the two men deteriorated further when Kotek was reluctant to perform Tchaikovsky's concerto, which had been rejected by the original dedicatee (Leopold Auer), and had gained a reputation as unplayable.

In 1882 Kotek moved to Berlin to study with Joseph Joachim (1831-1907) in Berlin, where he became a violin teacher at the Hochschule für Musik. However, in 1884 his health deteriorated due to tuberculosis. On hearing of his grave condition, Tchaikovsky travelled to see his old friend at Davos, Switzerland in November 1884,

Iosif Kotek died at Davos, on 4 January 1885, aged 29.