During the Moscow period of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s life, his work actively developed in several areas: composing, pedagogy, and music journalism.

As a music critic, Pyotr Tchaikovsky published 81 reviews, as a music reviewer of the periodicals “Contemporary Chronicle” (1871) and “Russian Vedomosti” (1872–1875).

In fact, Tchaikovsky became a music critic by chance: in 1871, the critic Herman Laroche left for St. Petersburg, so the Moscow newspaper “Contemporary Chronicle” needed to replace him with an equally competent author. By that time Tchaikovsky had established himself with an article “On the ‘Fantasy on Serbian Themes’ by Rimsky-Korsakov”, published in the 8th  issue of the “Contemporary Chronicle”. Then Tchaikovsky received an offer to permanently lead the department of music criticism in the “Russian Vedomosti”.

In the autumn of 1872, he began his work in the “Russian Vedomosti” and worked there for three years. After a break, when he stopped being a permanent employee, the composer’s journalistic activity ended in 1876 with his letters from Bayreuth in Bavaria about Wagner’s performances.

Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s articles were mainly reviews of the events of Moscow’s musical life: he wrote about concerts of the Russian Musical Society, new productions of operas, and new performers. His “feuilletons” contained many of the composer’s principled views regarding modern and classical music.