Letter 598a

Tchaikovsky Research
Date 6/18 September 1877
Addressed to Anton Door
Where written Kamenka
Language French
Autograph Location unknown [1]
Publication Tchaikovsky Research Bulletin No. 1 (February 2011), p. 15 (extracts only, in English translation)
Чайковский. Новые материалы к творческой биографии (2013), p. 247-248 (extracts only; with Russian translation, p. 248)

Text and Translation

This incomplete text is based on the extracts published in Stargardt's 1980 and 1988 catalogues [2], which may contain differences in formatting and content from Tchaikovsky's original letter.

French text
(original)
English translation
By Luis Sundkvist
[...] Ma musique n'a pas eu de chance à Vienne. J'en suis désolé. Dans tous les cas, permettez moi de vous serrer [la main] bien cordialement et vous remercier pour la peine que vous vous êtes donné pour me faire connaître aux Viennois. Je ne perd pas courage. Si ma musique en vaut la peine, mon temps viendra [...]

Je pars demain à Moscou, pour recommencer pour la 12ème fois mon cours d'harmonie!!! Comme c'est amusant.

Je me suis marié, il y a deux mois. Est-il vrai que vous vous êtes marié aussi?

[...] My music hasn't had any luck in Vienna. I am very aggrieved by this. In any case, allow me to shake [your hand] most cordially and to thank you for the trouble which you have taken in making me known to the Viennese. I have not lost heart. If my music is worth it, my time will come [...]

Tomorrow I am leaving for Moscow to recommence, for the twelfth time, my harmony class!!! How amusing that is.

I was married — two months ago. Is it true that you too have married? [...]

Notes and References

  1. The autograph was auctioned in 1980 and 1988 by J. A. Stargardt, Marburg.
  2. See Autographen aus allen Gebieten (Marburg, 1980), p. 268 and Autographen aus allen Gebieten. Katalog Nr. 641 (Marburg, 1988), p. 358–359 (including facsimile of last page). We are most grateful to Herbert Albrecht of J. A. Stargardt, Berlin, for providing us with a scan from the latter catalogue.