Letter 477 and Nikolay Konradi: Difference between pages

Tchaikovsky Research
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{{letterhead
{{picture|file=Photo030.jpg|caption='''Nikolay Konradi''' (1868-1922)<br/>(centre) with the composer, [[Modest Tchaikovsky]], and his governess Sofya Yershova, at [[Montpellier]] in July 1876}}
|Date=2/14 July 1876 <ref name="note1"/>
Pupil of the composer's brother [[Modest Tchaikovsky]] (b. 1868; d. 1922); born '''''Nikolay Germanovich Konradi''''' (Николай Германович Конради).
|To=[[Karl Albrecht]]  
|Place=[[Vichy]]  
|Language=Russian
|Autograph=[[Moscow]] (Russia): {{RUS-Mcm}} (ф. 37, No. 31)  
|Publication={{bibx|1940/228|Чайковский на Московской сцене}} (1940), p. 259–260 <br/>{{bib|1961/38|П. И. Чайковский. Полное собрание сочинений ; том VI}} (1961), p. 50–51
}}


==Text and Translation==
Nikolay was born without the ability to hear or speak, and in 1876 his parents ([[Herman Konradi|Herman]] and [[Alina Bryullova|Alina]]) engaged the composer's brother [[Modest]] as tutor to the eight-year-old boy. [[Modest]] had mastered a system called "sonic speech" devised by J. Gugentobler, which was designed to help communication with deaf-mute children. Under [[Modest]]'s guidance, Nikolay learned to talk, write and read in three languages, and was educated to graduate level. After the divorce of Nikolay's parents in 1881, and the death of his father the following year, permanent guardianship of Nikolay was granted to [[Modest Tchaikovsky]] in 1882.
{{Lettertext
|Language=Russian
|Translator=Luis Sundkvist
|Original text={{right|''Виши'', 14/2 июля }}
{{centre|Милый Карлуша!}}
Только что приехал в Виши и сейчас же отправился на почту, где в числе нескольких писем получил и твоё. Я решительно в недоумении, как мне поступить. Хотелось бы и с тобой быть, а с другой стороны, хочется быть на ''первом'' представлении. А главное—боюсь Клиндворта! Он мне ещё в Мосвке говорил, что даже мне следует быть на репетициях. Как подумаю об том, что он на меня разгневается!, — просто душа в пятки уходит.  


Я сегодня уже начал леченье, которое продолжится 21 день, из чего следует, что я буду свободен ''5 августа/23 июля''. Если быть на первом представлении, то попутешествовать с тобой я не поспею. Голубчик! реши и устрой это без меня и только напиши мне, как ты решил. Располагай мной как хочешь, ибо из дружбы к тебе я готов даже перенести гнев Вотана—Клиндворта. Итак, буду ждать от тебя извещения: 1) на каком представлении мне быть, 2) если не на первом, то где мы с тобой съедемся, 3) увижусь ли я с тобой в случае, если будем на разных представлениях, 4) нанял ли Клиндворт квартиру для Руб[инштейна], тебя и меня. В пользу 1-го представления говорит то, что я должен написать в своей газете статью, —  а для газеты важно, чтобы именно было рассказано про 1-е представление
After 1876, the composer often stayed with [[Modest]] at the Konradis' estate at [[Grankino]], and was very fond of Nikolay, whom he called "Kolya". However, as Nikolay grew older he quarrelled more frequently with [[Modest]], especially over financial matters, and the composer often found himself acting in the role of peacemaker between the two men.


Ах, Карлуша! С какою завистью я читал твоё письмо. Как у Вас, должно быть, весело и какая славная компания. Мне ''невыразимо'' скучно здесь. Просто до слёз скучно! Вообще с тех пор, как я переехал границу, —  всё время скучаю. Только и было приятного, что в Вене видел сестру, а в Лионе брата Модеста. Скажи Баталке, что я ей напишу. Обнимаю тебя. Адресуй: ''Vichy, Hôtel Bellevue'' № 22
==Correspondence with Tchaikovsky==
{{right|П. Чайковский}}
53 letters from Tchaikovsky to Nikolay Konradi have survived, dating from 1876 to 1893, of which those highlighted in bold have been translated into English on this website:
* '''[[Letter 485]]''' – 7/19 July 1876, from [[Vichy]]
* [[Letter 497]] – 17/29 September 1876, from [[Moscow]] (postscript to a letter to [[Modest Tchaikovsky]])
* '''[[Letter 646]]''' – 12/24 November 1877, from [[Venice]]
* '''[[Letter 836]]''' – 22 May/3 June 1878, from [[Brailov]]
* [[Letter 873]] – 19/31 July 1878, from [[Verbovka]]
* '''[[Letter 1052]]''' – 2/14 January 1879, from [[Clarens]]
* '''[[Letter 1448]]''' – 14/26 March 1880, from [[Saint Petersburg]]
* [[Letter 1537]] – 15/27 July 1880, from [[Simaki]]
* [[Letter 1830]] – 10/22 August 1881, from [[Kamenka]]
* [[Letter 2099]] – 6/18 September 1882, from [[Kamenka]]
* '''[[Letter 2185]]''' – 3/15 January 1883, from [[Paris]]
* [[Letter 2274]] – 24 April/6 May 1883, from [[Paris]]
* [[Letter 2304]] – 22 June/4 July 1883, from [[Podushkino]]
* [[Letter 2322]] – 1/13 August 1883, from [[Podushkino]]
* [[Letter 2375]] – 22 October/3 November 1883, from [[Kamenka]]
* [[Letter 2384]] – 7/19 November 1883, from [[Kamenka]]
* [[Letter 2487]] – 9/21 May 1884, from [[Kamenka]]
* [[Letter 2593]] – 14/26 November 1884, from [[Davos]]
* [[Letter 2682]] – 11/23 April 1885, from [[Maydanovo]]
* [[Letter 2729]] – 1/13 July 1885, from [[Maydanovo]]
* [[Letter 2738]] – 14/26 July 1885, from [[Maydanovo]]
* [[Letter 2795]] – 15/27 October 1885, from [[Maydanovo]]
* [[Letter 2989]] – 1/13 July 1886, from [[Maydanovo]]
* [[Letter 3012]] – 25 July/6 August 1886, from [[Maydanovo]]
* [[Letter 3054]] – 20 September/2 October 1886, from [[Maydanovo]]
* [[Letter 3090]] – 10/22 November 1886, from [[Maydanovo]]
* [[Letter 3286]] – 11/23-12/24 July 1887, from [[Odessa]]
* [[Letter 3296]] – 23 July/4 August 1887, from [[Aachen]]
* [[Letter 3302]] – 28 July/9 August 1887, from [[Aachen]]
* '''[[Letter 3500]]''' – 19 February/2 March 1888, from [[Paris]]
* '''[[Letter 3621]]''' – 17/29 July 1888, from [[Frolovskoye]]
* '''[[Letter 3634]]''' – 1/13 August 1888 (?), from [[Frolovskoye]]
* '''[[Letter 3801]]''' – 17 February/1 March 1889, from [[Leipzig]]
* '''[[Letter 4031]]''' – 10/22 February 1890, from [[Florence]]
* '''[[Letter 4062]]''' – 6/18 March 1890, from [[Florence]]
* '''[[Letter 4074]]''' – 20 March/1 April 1890, from [[Florence]]
* '''[[Letter 4124]]''' – 26 May/7 June 1890, from [[Frolovskoye]]
* [[Letter 4167]] – 6/18 July 1890, from [[Moscow]]
* [[Letter 4180]] – 20 July/1 August 1890, from [[Frolovskoye]]
* '''[[Letter 4337]]''' – 24 February/8 March 1891, from [[Frolovskoye]]
* '''[[Letter 4355]]''' – 20 March/1 April 1891, from [[Paris]]
* '''[[Letter 4372]]''' – 22 April/4 May 1891, from [[New York]]
* [[Letter 4406]] – 14/26 June 1891, from [[Maydanovo]]
* [[Letter 4426]] – 26 June/8 July 1891, from [[Maydanovo]]
* [[Letter 4445]] – 25 July/6 August 1891, from [[Maydanovo]]
* '''[[Letter 4549]]''' – 14/26 November 1891, from [[Maydanovo]]
* '''[[Letter 4582]]''' – 23 December 1891/4 January 1892, from [[Kiev]]
* '''[[Letter 4588]]''' – 31 December 1891/12 January 1892, from [[Warsaw]]
* '''[[Letter 4594]]''' – 8/20 January 1892, from [[Hamburg]]
* [[Letter 4692]] – 20 May/1 June 1892, from [[Klin]]
* [[Letter 4722]] – 9/21 July 1892, from [[Saint Petersburg]]
* [[Letter 4830]] – 18/30 December 1892, from [[Berlin]]
* '''[[Letter 4948]]''' – 3/15 June 1893, from [[Paris]]


Всем кланяюсь
61 letters from Nikolay Konradi to the composer are preserved in the {{RUS-KLč}} at [[Klin]] (a{{sup|4}}, Nos.1676–1736) <ref name="note1"/>.


|Translated text={{right|''[[Vichy]]'', 14/2 July}}
==Bibliography==
{{centre|Dear [[Karlusha]]!}}
* {{bib|1951/52}} (1951)
I've just arrived at [[Vichy]] and headed straight for the post-office, where amongst several letters I also received yours. I am simply at a loss as to what I should do. I would like to be with you, and yet, on the other hand, I also want to be at the ''first'' performance <ref name="note2"/>. The main thing, though, is that I'm afraid of [[Klindworth]]! Back in [[Moscow]] he did after all say to me that I should also attend the rehearsals <ref name="note3"/>. When I just think that he might get angry with me, my heart simply sinks to my boots!
 
Already today I started my course of treatment, which will last 21 days, from which it follows that I shall be free on ''5 August/23 July'' <ref name="note4"/>. If I attend the first performance, then I won't have time to do some travelling with you. Golubchik! Please decide and organise this without consulting me, and just write to me what you have decided upon. You can dispose of me as you like, since for the sake of our friendship I am prepared to endure even the wrath of Wotan-[[Klindworth]] <ref name="note5"/>. And so, I shall wait for you to notify me of the following: 1) what performance I should attend, 2) if it isn't the first, then where we are supposed to meet, 3) whether I shall get to see you if we should happen to attend different performances, 4) whether [[Klindworth]] has rented an apartment for [[Nikolay Rubinstein|Rubinstein]], you, and me <ref name="note6"/>. One factor which speaks in favour of the first performance is that I have to write an article for my newspaper, and for the latter it is important that I should talk about precisely the first performance <ref name="note7"/>.
 
Ah, [[Karlusha]]! With what envy I read your letter. What a merry time all of you must be having and what splendid company you have. I am ''ineffably'' bored here. It is so boring that I could simply weep! Indeed, ever since I crossed the border I have felt bored all the time. The only agreeable things were seeing [[Aleksandra Davydova|my sister]] in [[Vienna]] and my brother [[Modest]] in [[Lyons]]. Tell [[Aleksandra Hubert|Batalka]] that I shall write to her. I embrace you. Address your letter to: ''[[Vichy]], Hotel Bellevue'', No. 22.
{{right|P. Tchaikovsky}}
Regards to everyone.
}}


==Notes and References==
==Notes and References==
<references>
<references>
<ref name="note1">Dated to 1876 from the contents.</ref>
<ref name="note1">The [[Klin]] archive also holds 3 letters written by [[Modest Tchaikovsky]] with postscripts from Nikolay Konradi, dating from 1876 and 1877 (a{{sup|4}}, Nos. 5091, 5092 and 5098), and another letter from 1892 written jointly by Konradi and [[Aleksandr Litke]] (a{{sup|4}}, No. 2158).</ref>
<ref name="note2">At the first complete performance of [[Richard Wagner]]'s ''Der Ring des Nibelungen''. The ''Ring'' cycle (the first run of the tetralogy being spread over the following dates: 13, 14, 16, and 17 August 1876 {{NS}}) was to inaugurate the new Festival Theatre at [[Bayreuth]].</ref>
<ref name="note3">[[Karl Klindworth]], Tchaikovsky's colleague at the [[Moscow]] Conservatory and an admirer of his music, was deeply involved in the run-up to the inaugural ''Ring'' cycle, because Wagner had entrusted him with the task of making piano reductions of all four music dramas in the ''Ring''.</ref>
<ref name="note4">Tchaikovsky's slip of the pen for "4 August/23 July".</ref>
<ref name="note5">In comparing [[Klindworth]] to Wotan, Tchaikovsky probably had in mind not just his friend's quintessentially Germanic appearance, but may also have been alluding ironically to Wotan's wrath against Brünnhilde when she disobeys his orders in ''Die Walküre''.</ref>
<ref name="note6">During Tchaikovsky's brief stay in [[Bayreuth]] from 12 to 18 August 1876 {{NS}}, he shared lodgings with [[Nikolay Rubinstein]], but [[Karl Albrecht]] does not seem to have been with them.</ref>
<ref name="note7">See Tchaikovsky's article ''[[The Bayreuth Music Festival]]'' ([[TH]] 314).</ref>
</references>
</references>
{{DEFAULTSORT:Letter 0477}}
 
[[Category:People|Konradi, Nikolay]]
[[Category:Correspondents|Konradi, Nikolay]]
[[Category:Friends|Konradi, Nikolay]]

Latest revision as of 15:08, 11 April 2024

Nikolay Konradi (1868-1922)
(centre) with the composer, Modest Tchaikovsky, and his governess Sofya Yershova, at Montpellier in July 1876

Pupil of the composer's brother Modest Tchaikovsky (b. 1868; d. 1922); born Nikolay Germanovich Konradi (Николай Германович Конради).

Nikolay was born without the ability to hear or speak, and in 1876 his parents (Herman and Alina) engaged the composer's brother Modest as tutor to the eight-year-old boy. Modest had mastered a system called "sonic speech" devised by J. Gugentobler, which was designed to help communication with deaf-mute children. Under Modest's guidance, Nikolay learned to talk, write and read in three languages, and was educated to graduate level. After the divorce of Nikolay's parents in 1881, and the death of his father the following year, permanent guardianship of Nikolay was granted to Modest Tchaikovsky in 1882.

After 1876, the composer often stayed with Modest at the Konradis' estate at Grankino, and was very fond of Nikolay, whom he called "Kolya". However, as Nikolay grew older he quarrelled more frequently with Modest, especially over financial matters, and the composer often found himself acting in the role of peacemaker between the two men.

Correspondence with Tchaikovsky

53 letters from Tchaikovsky to Nikolay Konradi have survived, dating from 1876 to 1893, of which those highlighted in bold have been translated into English on this website:

61 letters from Nikolay Konradi to the composer are preserved in the Tchaikovsky State Memorial Musical Museum-Reserve at Klin (a4, Nos.1676–1736) [1].

Bibliography

Notes and References

  1. ↑ The Klin archive also holds 3 letters written by Modest Tchaikovsky with postscripts from Nikolay Konradi, dating from 1876 and 1877 (a4, Nos. 5091, 5092 and 5098), and another letter from 1892 written jointly by Konradi and Aleksandr Litke (a4, No. 2158).
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