Eduard Nápravník
Czech conductor and composer (b. 24 August 1839 [N.S.] in Býšť, near Hradec Králové; d. 10/23 November 1916 in Petrograd), known in Russia as Eduard Frantsevich Nápravník (Эдуард Францевич Направник).
The son of a Czech village schoolmaster, as a child Nápravník played the organ at Pardubice Cathedral. In 1854, he enrolled at the Prague Organ School, and later studied and taught at the Maydl Institute (1856–1861), taking lessons from Johann Friedrich Kittl (1806–1868), director of the Prague Conservatory.
In 1861 Nápravník emigrated to Russia, where he worked as conductor of an amateur orchestra, as well as teaching the piano and performing in chamber concerts. In 1863, he was appointed assistant to Konstantin Lyadov at the Mariinsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg, and became principal conductor after Lyadov's retirement six years later.
Tchaikovsky and Nápravník
Five of Tchaikovsky's operas were premiered under Nápravník's direction at the Mariinsky Theatre: The Oprichnik (1874), Vakula the Smith (1876), The Maid of Orleans (1881), The Queen of Spades (1890) and Iolanta (1892). The Maid of Orleans was dedicated to Nápravník, who also gave the first performances of many of the composer's other works in the Russian Musical Society concerts in Saint Petersburg, where he was principal conductor from 1869 to 1881.
The composer thought very highly of Nápravník's talents, and the conductor's wife Olga (1844–1902), and their children Aleksandr ("Sasha") (1866-1939), Vladimir ("Volodya") (1869–1948), Olga (1870–1920), Varvara (1873–1942), and Konstantin (1874-1911). The composer's brother Modest also wrote the libretto to Nápravník's opera Dubrovsky (1894).
He retired from the Mariinsky Theatre in 1914, after serving more than half a century of conducting at the Imperial Theatres.
Dedications
Tchaikovsky dedicated his opera The Maid of Orleans, TH 6 (1878–79), to Eduard Nápravník.
Correspondence with Tchaikovsky
85 letters from Tchaikovsky to Eduard Nápravník have survived, dating from 1872 to 1893, of which those highlighted in bold have been translated into English on this website:
- Letter 255 – 4/16 May 1872, from Moscow
- Letter 334 – 18/30 December 1873, from Moscow
- Letter 340 – 19 February/2 March 1874, from Moscow
- Letter 367 – 19/31 October 1874, from Moscow
- Letter 379 – by 27 December 1874/8 January 1875, from Moscow
- Letter 382 – 1/13 January 1875, from Moscow
- Letter 441 – 27 January/8 February 1876, from Moscow
- Letter 459 – late March/early April 1876, from Moscow
- Letter 461 – 26 April/8 May 1876, from Moscow
- Letter 507 – 18/30 October 1876, from Moscow
- Letter 514 – between 12/24 and 14/26 November 1876, from Moscow
- Letter 521 – 15/27 December 1876, from Moscow
- Letter 923 – 27 September/9 October 1878, from Moscow
- Letter 962 – 7/19 November 1878, from Kamenka
- Letter 1143 – 29 March/10 April 1879, from Saint Petersburg
- Letter 1296 – 17/29 September 1879, from Saint Petersburg
- Letter 1323 – 31 October/12 November 1879, from Saint Petersburg
- Letter 1447 – 13/25 March 1880, from Saint Petersburg
- Letter 1449 – 14/26 March 1880, from Saint Petersburg
- Letter 1475 – 10/22 April 1880, from Moscow
- Letter 1579 – 5/17 September 1880, from Kamenka
- Letter 1586 – 12/24 September 1880, from Kamenka
- Letter 1596a – 18/30 September 1880, from Kamenka
- Letter 1643 – 11/23 December 1880, from Moscow
- Letter 1679 – 14/26 February 1881, from Saint Petersburg
- Letter 1786 – 17/29 June 1881, from Kamenka
- Letter 1801 – 3/15 July 1881, from Kamenka
- Letter 1909 – 7/19 December 1881, from Rome
- Letter 1918 – 26 December 1881/7 January 1882, from Rome
- Letter 2114 – 21 September/3 October 1882, from Kamenka
- Letter 2126 – 7/19 October 1882, from Kamenka
- Letter 2182 – 28 December 1882/9 January 1883, from Saint Petersburg
- Letter 2197 – 14/26 January 1883, from Paris
- Letter 2332 – 1931 August 1883, from Podushkino
- Letter 2335 – 31 August/12 September 1883, from Podushkino
- Letter 2343 – 10/22 September 1883, from Verbovka
- Letter 2415 – 22 January/3 February 1884, from Moscow
- Letter 2423 – 4/16 February 1884, from Moscow
- Letter 2451a – 4/16 March 1884, from Saint Petersburg
- Letter 2458 – 26 March/7 April 1884, from Moscow
- Letter 2550 – 14/26 September 1884, from Pleshcheyevo
- Letter 2575 – 25 October/6 November 1884, from Saint Petersburg
- Letter 2581 – 1/13 November 1884, from Saint Petersburg
- Letter 2612 – 1/13 December 1884, from Paris
- Letter 2639 – 5/17 January 1885, from Moscow
- Letter 2915 – 20 March/1 April 1886, from Maydanovo
- Letter 3057 – 23 September/5 October 1886, from Maydanovo
- Letter 3070 – 7/19 October 1886, from Maydanovo
- Letter 3089 – 8/20 November 1886, from Saint Petersburg
- Letter 3095 – 13/25 November 1886, from Klin
- Letter 3133 – 26 December 1886/7 January 1887, from Maydanovo
- Letter 3139 – 31 December 1886/12 January 1887, from Maydanovo
- Letter 3140 – 1/13 January 1887, from Maydanovo
- Letter 3147 – 14/26 January 1887, from Moscow
- Letter 3154 – 22 January/3 February 1887, from Moscow
- Letter 3184 – 15/27 February 1887, from Maydanovo
- Letter 3357 – 19 September/1 October 1887, from Maydanovo
- Letter 3364 – 23 September/5 October 1887, from Moscow
- Letter 3366 – 25 September/7 October 1887, from Maydanovo
- Letter 3403 – 16/28 November 1887, from Moscow
- Letter 3674 – 21 September/3 October 1888, from Frolovskoye
- Letter 3677a – 23 September/5 October 1888, from Frolovskoye
- Letter 3723 – 8/20 November 1888, from Saint Petersburg
- Letter 3899 – 9/21 July 1889, from Frolovskoye
- Letter 3913 – 31 July/12 August 1889, from Frolovskoye
- Letter 4194 – 5/17 August 1890, from Frolovskoye
- Letter 4206 – 25 August/6 September 1890, from Kamenka
- Letter 4219 – 19 September/1 October 1890, from Tiflis
- Letter 4225 – 3/15 October 1890, from Tiflis
- Letter 4229 – 5/17 October 1890, from Tiflis
- Letter 4238 – 19/31 October 1890, from Tiflis
- Letter 4351 – 15/27 March 1891, from Paris
- Letter 4358 – 25 March/6 April 1891, from Paris
- Letter 4370 – 20 April/2 May 1891, from New York
- Letter 4500 – 7/19 October 1891, from Maydanovo
- Letter 4510 – 13/25 October 1891, from Maydanovo
- Letter 4570 – 9/21 December 1891, from Maydanovo
- Letter 4589a – December 1891 (?), from Warsaw
- Letter 4619 – 16/28 February–5 March 1892, from Moscow and Saint Petersburg
- Letter 4622 – 19 February/2 March 1892, from Maydanovo
- Letter 4663 – 13/25 April 1892, from Moscow
- Letter 4666 – 17/29 April 1892, from Moscow
- Letter 4709 – 18/30 June 1892, from Vichy
- Letter 4786 – 18/30 October 1892, from Klin
- Letter 4909 – 5/17 April 1893, from Klin
- Letter 4982 – 22 July/3 August 1893, from Klin
44 letters from Nápravník to Tchaikovsky have survived, dating from 1873 to 1893, of which one is preserved in the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art in Moscow, and the remaining 43 are in the Tchaikovsky State Memorial Musical Museum-Reserve at Klin (a4, Nos. 3050–3092).
Bibliography
- Второй симфонический концерт Русского музыкального общества (1874)
- [Письмо к редактору] (1886)
- Памяти Чайковского (1908)
- П. И. Чайковский и Онегин (1913)
- Переписка П. И. Чайковского и Е. Ф. Направника (1872-1893) (1924)
- Přátelské vztahy Čajkovského k Nápravníková (1958)
- Переписка Е. Ф. Направника с П. И. Чайковским (1959)
- Дружба, рожденная музыкой (1970)
- Чайковский и Направник (1971)
- Направник и Чайковский (1985)
- Дар фонду культуры. Пять писем Чайковского (1990)
- Неизвестные страницы эпистолярия Чайковского (1990)
- Эдуард Францевич Направник и его современники (1991)
- Перед вами. Автограф Чайковского (1993)
- Письма вернулись к автору спустя 100 лет (1994)
- Спустя сто лет в дом Чайковского в Клину возвратились его письма (1994)
- Peter Tschaikowsky und seine Oper Eugen Onegin (1994)
- Paris vaut bien une messe! Bisher unbekannte Briefe, Notenautographie und andere Čajkovskij-Funde (1998)
- Eduard Nápravník (1999)
- Vier bisher nicht bekannte Čajkovskij-Dokumente von 1888-1891 (2006)
