Tchaikovsky says somewhere in one of his letters that he owed to Mozart the fact that he had devoted his whole life to music. Did you catch in that sentence two tones? First the tone of humility. He looks to Mozart as the very paragon of musical genius. But also there's the note of enthusiasm. Mozart had been to him not only the one who humbled him but also the one who called out of him the dedication of his whole life to being everything in music that he could be.