Pieces for Violin
In the last year of his life Tchaikovsky was supposedly writing one or more pieces for violin, presumably with piano accompaniment (TH 248) [1].
On 7/19 October 1893, Tchaikovsky told the cellist Yulian Poplavsky that "during October he expected to write a concerto for flute which he had already conceived... then several small pieces for violin" [2]. The composer's death on 25 October/6 November 1893 prevented him from realising this project, and there are no references to these pieces in his correspondence, or any surviving musical sketches.
However, it is possible that he had already conceived some of these pieces, since the journalist V. P. Sokolnikov maintained that during Tchaikovsky's visit to Odessa in January 1893, he had played through part of a piece to the violinist Konstantin Gavrilov [3]. There are no reports to substantiate Sokolnikov's account.
Notes and References
- ↑ See The Tchaikovsky Handbook. A guide to the man and his music, vol. 1 (2002), p. 423. Not included in ČW.
- ↑ Quoted in Alexander Poznansky, Tchaikovsky's last days. A documentary study (1995), p. 39.
- ↑ See Музыкальное наследие Чайковского. Из историй его произведений (1958), p. 425.
