Nikolay Bernard

Russian music publisher (b. 1844; d. 1905), born Nikolay Matveyevich Bernard (Николай Матвеевич Бернард).

The son of the pianist and composer Matvey Ivanovich Bernard (1794–1871), Nikolay inherited his father's music publishing business in Saint Petersburg. As the publisher of the musical magazine Nuvellist (Нувеллист), Bernard commissioned Tchaikovsky to write the Two Songs (1873), Two Songs (1875), and the piano cycle The Seasons (1875–76), all of which received their first publications in Nuvellist. Bernard's publishing house was taken over by Jurgenson in 1885.

Correspondence with Tchaikovsky

6 letters from Tchaikovsky to Nikolay Bernard have survived, dating from 1875 to 1889, all of which have been translated into English on this website:

• Letter 419 – 24 November/6 December 1875, from Moscow
• Letter 426 – 13/25 December 1875, from Moscow
• Letter 440 – 23 January/4 February 1876, from Saint Petersburg
• Letter 454 – 17/29–18/30 March 1876, from Moscow
• Letter 1933 – 14/26 January 1882, from Rome
• Letter 3752 – 3/15 January 1889, from Frolovskoye

One letter from Nikolay Bernard to Tchaikovsky, dating from 1882, is preserved in the Tchaikovsky State Memorial Musical Museum-Reserve at Klin.

Bibliography

• Автографы музыкальных деятелей, 1839-1889 (1889)
• Хронограф жизни П. И. Чайковского и важнейших актов его творчества (1922)