Tiflis

Tbilisi (თბილისი) is the capital and largest city in the nation of Georgia.

During Tchaikovsky's lifetime the city was known as Tiflis (Тифлис), and it was the administrative centre of the Tiflis province (Тифлисская губерния) of the Russian Empire.

Tchaikovsky in Tiflis

During the second half of the 1880s the composer's brother Anatoly was state prosecutor and later deputy governor in Tiflis. Tchaikovsky visited the city every year between 1886 and 1890.

From	Until	Notes
31 March/12 April 1886	29 April/11 May 1886	During his first visit to the city he spent much time with Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov and his wife Varvara Zarudnaya, and worked on the draft of Act III of the opera The Enchantress. He attended a special Russian Musical Society concert (19 April/1 May), conducted by Ippolitov-Ivanov, which included the premiere of the final version of the overture-fantasia Romeo and Juliet, and a production of his opera Mazepa (25 April/7 May). "Tiflis itself is unusually likable and original, particularly because Europe and Asia confront each other here, a combination of piquant contrasts" .
30 May/11 June 1887	11/23 June 1887	With visits to the theatre almost every day, including a production of The Enchantress (1/13 June).
26 March/7 April 1888	14/26 April 1888	At the end of a long foreign tour, he completed his Autobiographical Account of a Tour Abroad in the Year 1888.
13/25 April 1889	2/14 May 1889	Staying with Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov, while working on his ballet The Sleeping Beauty. He also attended a chamber music concert given in his honour at the Artists' Society (30 April/12 May).
7/19 September 1890	23 October/4 November 1890	Here he completed the symphonic ballad The Voyevoda (4/16 October), and conducted a concert of his own works (20 October/1 November), including the Suite No. 1, the Serenade for String Orchestra, and the overture The Year 1812.

Bibliography

• Тифлисская жизнь (1886)
• Чайковский. Воспоминания (1915)
• 50 лет русской музыки в моих воспоминаниях (1934)
• П. И. Чайковский в Грузий (1940)
• Воспоминания о встрече (1940)
• П. И. Чайковский. Воспоминания (1940)
• Чайковский на Кавказе (1940)
• Чайковский на Кавказе (1940)
• Незабываемое (1940)
• Чайковский в Тифлисе (1940)
• Чествование П. И. Чайковского (1940)
• П. И. Чайковский в Тбилиси (1958)
• Воспоминания о встречах с Чайковским в Тифлисе (1962)
• Из книги 50-лет русской музыки в моих воспоминаниях (1962)
• Воспоминания о встречах с Чайковским в Тифлисе (1973)
• Из книги 50-лет русской музыки в моих воспоминаниях (1973)
• Воспоминания о встречах с Чайковским в Тифлисе (1979)
• Из книги 50-лет русской музыки в моих воспоминаниях (1979)
• Воспоминания о встречах с Чайковским в Тифлисе (1980)
• Из книги 50-лет русской музыки в моих воспоминаниях (1980)
• Незабываемое (1980)
• 50 ans de musique russe (1985)
• Воспоминания о П. И. Чайковском (1990)
• История одной фотографий П. И. Чайковского, датированной 22 октября 1890 (1990)
• Неизвестная страница биографий Чайковского (1991)
• Alexandra Amfiteatrova-Levitskaya (1993)
• Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov (1993)
• Isaak Matkovsky (1993)
• Чайковский на Кавказе (1995)
• Vasily Korgamov (1999)

External Links

• Wikipedia