Letter 5020

Tchaikovsky Research
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Date 23 August/4 September 1893
Addressed to Michał Hertz
Where written Saint Petersburg
Language German
Autograph Location Moscow (Russia): Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum
Publication Чайковский на Московской сцене (1940), p. 484–485
Чайковский и зарубежные музыканты (1970), p. 86
П. И. Чайковский. Полное собрание сочинений, том XVII (1981), p. 174–175.

Text and Translation

German text
(original)
English translation
By Luis Sundkvist
Moskau
23 August 1893

Sehr geehrter Herr!

Die Musik[,] die ich vor einigen Jahren für Hamlet geschrieben habe, ist eigentlich kein ernstes Kunstwerk. Ich habe sie nämlich für den Benefis vom einem Freunde sehr schnell gemacht[,] nur um ihm das vergnügen zu schaffen[,] meine Nahme auf der Anonce drucken zu lohnen. Sie ist für ein ganz kleine Orchester orchestrirt und passt zu einem grossen Kaiserlichen Theater nicht. Daher rahte ich Ihnen[,] meine so genannte Hamlet-Musik nicht zu spielen. Ich habe eine grosse Hamlet-Ouvertüre componirt; sie könnten sie spielen, aber sie ist zu gross, mehr eine Simphonische Dichtung als Ouvertüre und braucht einen sehr starcken Orchester.

Ich empfehle Ihnen die schone Hamlet-Musik von Genz Henschel.

Jedenfalls kann ich Ihnen in Ihren Verlegenheit nicht helfen, da ich selbst vollständig vergessen habe[,] wie und wann, d. h. bei welchen Scenen und Worten die Musik einfallen soll.

Bitte um Einschuldigung.

Ihr ergebenster,

P. Tschaikovsky

Moscow [1]
23 August 1893

Most respected Sir!

The music for Hamlet which I wrote a few years ago is not really a serious work of art. I wrote it in fact very quickly for the benefit performance of a friend [2], just to afford him the pleasure of being able to print my name on the playbill. It is scored for a very small orchestra and is not suitable for a large imperial theatre. I therefore recommend you not to play my so-called Hamlet music [3]. I have composed a big Hamlet overture: you could play that, though it is too big—more of a symphonic poem than an overture—and requires a very strong orchestra.

I recommend to you the beautiful Hamlet music by George Henschel [4].

In any case, I cannot help you out of your predicament, because I have myself completely forgotten how and when, i.e. at which scenes and lines the music is supposed to set in.

I beg your forgiveness.

Your most devoted,

P. Tchaikovsky

Notes and References

  1. This appears to have been a slip of the pen by Tchaikovsky, who was in Saint Petersburg at this time.
  2. The French actor Lucien Guitry.
  3. Michał Hertz had written (in German) to Tchaikovsky on 16/28 August 1893, explaining that the Warsaw Theatre intended to stage Shakespeare's Hamlet using Tchaikovsky's incidental music. He asked Tchaikovsky if he could provide more specific indications as to the scenes and lines in the play which were meant to be illustrated by the musical numbers in the score published by Jurgenson. Hertz's letter is included in Чайковский на московской сцене (1940), p. 482–483.
  4. The German-born British singer, conductor and composer Sir George Henschel (1850–1934) composed his incidental music to Hamlet for the actor-manager Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree's acclaimed production of the tragedy at the Haymarket Theatre, London, in 1892. Tchaikovsky had been acquainted with Henschel since 1875, and during his last visit to London in June 1893 he spent some time with Henschel and his family. It is likely that on this occasion Henschel showed him the score of his incidental music for Hamlet which had been published in September 1892 — see Stanford, the Cambridge Jubilee, and Tchaikovsky (1980), p. 401–402.