Letter 2909

Tchaikovsky Research
Date 8/20 March 1886
Addressed to Aleksandr Ostrovsky
Where written Moscow
Language Russian
Autograph Location Moscow (Russia): Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum (Ostrovsky collection)
Publication А. Н. Островский и русские композиторы. Письма (1937), p. 170
П. И. Чайковский. Полное собрание сочинений, том XIII (1971), p. 296

Text and Translation

Russian text
(original)
English translation
By Luis Sundkvist
8 марта 1886 г[ода]

Глубокоуважаемый Александр Николаевич!

На другой день, после того как я посетил Вас, у меня сделалась сильная простудная лихорадка с чудовищным флюсом, вследствие чего я уже четверо суток сижу безвыходно в комнате и, к величайшему моему огорчению, просижу ещё несколько дней. Таким образом мне завтра невозможно иметь удовольствие обедать у Вас. В надежде, что Вы позволите мне вместо завтрашнего дня явиться к обеду в другой раз и покорнейше прося Вас сообщить мои извинения Марье Васильевне.

Остаюсь глубоко уважающий и преданный Вам,

П. Чайковский

8 March 1886

Deeply respected Aleksandr Nikolayevich!

On the next day after I visited you [1], I developed a strong catarrhal fever with a monstrous dental abscess, as a result of which I have now been sitting in my room without going anywhere for four days. To my utmost vexation I shall have to stay put here for a few more days yet. Thus, tomorrow it is impossible for me to have the pleasure of dining at your place. In the hope that you will allow me, instead of tomorrow, to turn up for dinner with you on some other occasion, and most humbly asking you to pass on my apologies to Marya Vasilyevna [2].

I remain your profoundly respectful and devoted,

P. Tchaikovsky

Notes and References

  1. Tchaikovsky had arrived in Moscow from Maydanovo on 2/14 March 1886 to attend the rehearsals and the first performance of his Manfred symphony, which was to be conducted by Max Erdmannsdörfer at a Russian Musical Society concert in memory of Nikolay Rubinstein on 11/23 March. During the first days of his stay in Moscow he paid various social visits, including to Ostrovsky on 4/16 March (as he recorded in his diary). Later that evening, however, he felt ill, and the diary entry for the next day, 5/16 March, reads: "the pain in my cheek has been torturing me all day"; on 6/18 March: "By morning a large abscess had formed. It was less painful, but I felt ill all day, and the fever endured".
  2. Marya Vasilyevna (née Bakhmeteva; 1845–1906) was Ostrovsky's second wife. From 1863 to 1865 she was an actress at the Moscow Maly Theatre.