Letter 4614

Tchaikovsky Research
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Date 4/16 February 1892
Addressed to Karl Albrecht
Where written Maydanovo
Language Russian
Autograph Location Moscow (Russia): Russian National Museum of Music (Ф. 37, No. 71)
Publication П. И. Чайковский. Полное собрание сочинений, том XVI-Б (1979), p. 35

Text and Translation

Russian text
(original)
English translation
By Brett Langston
4 февр[аля]

Карлуша! Алексей едет сейчас на почту, и я тороплюсь ответить несколько слов. Ни в какой комиссии при Мин[истерстве] нар[одного] просв[ещения] я не состою, и никто не приглашал меня. А если бы пригласили, я бы отказался. Ты веришь газетным известиям? Неужели ты не знаешь, что они врут! И могу ли я быть в одном обществе с Соловьевым и Фаминцыным?

Вот что, голубчик: приезжай-ка ко мне; очень бы рад был повидаться и побеседовать. Приезжай, когда хочешь, на этой неделе; только дай знать письмецом когда. Анне Леонтьевне и всем твоим приветствия.

Обнимаю,

П. Чайковский

4 February

Karlusha! Aleksey is going to the post office now, and I'm rushing a few words of reply [1]. I am not on any committee of the Ministry of Public Education, and no-one has ever asked me. And were I to be invited, I should refuse. You believe the newspaper reports? Surely you know that they tell lies! How could I belong to the same society as Solovyev and Famintsyn?[2]

Be that as it may, golubchik: come to visit me; I should be very glad to see and talk with you. Come whenever you want this week; just send me a note to say when. Greetings to Anna Leontyevna and all of you.

I hug you,

P. Tchaikovsky

Notes and References

  1. Tchaikovsky was replying to Karl Albrecht's letter of 2/14 February 1892, in which Albrecht asked the composer to recommend his appointment as a member of a committee "to improve the teaching of singing in schools".
  2. Aleksandr Sergeyevich Famintsyn (1841–1896), Russian music critic and composer, with whom Tchaikovsky had long-standing disagreements.