Hamburg

Tchaikovsky Research


Hamburg is a federal state and the second-largest city in Germany.

During Tchaikovsky's lifetime it was a free city state, which joined the German Empire in 1871.


Tchaikovsky in Hamburg

Tchaikovsky visited Hamburg on the following occasions:

From Until Notes
10/22 July 1861 16/28 July 1861 On his first journey outside Russia, Tchaikovsky found Hamburg to be "incomparably better than Berlin" [1].
29 December 1887/10 January 1888 30 December 1887/11 January 1888 To attend a concert conducted by Hans von Bülow.
5/17 January 1888 10/22 January 1888 To rehearse and conduct a concert of his own works at the Konventgarten (8/20 January), including the Serenade for String Orchestra, the Piano Concerto No. 1 (soloist Vasily Sapelnikov), and the Theme with Variations from the Suite No. 3. There were cordial meetings with Daniel Rahter, Josef Sittard, and Theodor Avé-Lallemant, who "almost with tears in his eyes exhorted me to leave Russia and settle in Germany" [2].
26 February/10 March 1889 4/16 March 1889 To conduct his Symphony No. 5 at a Philharmonic Society concert (3/15 March). At rehearsals he met Johannes Brahms, Josef Sittard, and Willy Burmester. "My new symphony was an enormous success, and everyone without affectation treated me as an old and dear friend" [3].
17/29 May 1891 18/30 May 1891 Returning from his American tour on the steamship Fürst Bismarck, Tchaikovsky stayed overnight at the Hôtel Saint Pétersbourg.
6/18 January 1892 9/21 January 1892 Attending rehearsals and a production of Yevgeny Onegin at the Hamburg Opera Theatre (7/19 January), conducted by Gustav Mahler.
25 August/6 September 1893 29 August/10 September 1893 Attending a production of Iolanta at the Hamburg Opera Theatre (26 August/7 September), conducted by Gustav Mahler, as well as a performance of Leoncavallo's opera Pagliacci in the second half of that evening's double bill, with Berta Foerstrová-Lautererová as Nedda. Tchaikovsky stayed at the house of Bernhard Pollini.

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Notes and References