The straightwashing of one of the world’s greatest composers.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1873, aged 33. Photograph: UIG/Getty Images

The words are tender and passionate, describing in raw detail the powerful emotions felt by one of the world’s best-loved composers. But until now some of the letters of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, in which he tells of his sexual desires, have been hidden from the world because the objects of those desires were other men.