August Bernhard
Russian musicologist, educator and translator of German descent (b. 1852; d. 1908), born Avgust Rudolfovich Berngard (Август Рудольфович Бернгард)
From 1872 to 1878 he studied music theory at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory under Julius Johansen and Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, where he later became a teacher (1878–1884), inspector (1884–1888), and eventually director (1897–1905).
Bernhard was responsible for translating Tchaikovsky's operas Yevgeny Onegin and The Queen of Spades into German. In 1878 Tchaikovsky suggested him as his successor in the post of instructor of harmony and special theory at the Moscow Conservatory, although Bernhard did not take up this post.
Correspondence with Tchaikovsky
One letter from Tchaikovsky to August Bernhard has survived, dating from 1878, and has been translated into English on this website:
- Letter 914 – 15/27 September 1878, from Moscow.
