Ivan Klimenko
Architect, railway official, amateur musician, and friend of Tchaikovsky (b. 1839; d. 1914 in Rostov-on-Don), born Ivan Aleksandrovich Klimenko (Иван Александрович Клименко).
Klimenko first met Tchaikovsky during the early 1860s at Aleksandr Serov's house in Saint Petersburg, and later became one of the composer's closest friends during his period of residence in Moscow (1866–1878). In 1908, Klimenko published his own reminiscences of the composer: My Recollections of P. I. Tchaikovsky [1].
Dedications
In 1869, Tchaikovsky dedicated his song Why? — No. 5 of the Six Romances, Op. 6, Op. 6 — "to Ivan Aleksandrovich Klimenko".
In 1887, he also wrote the humorous poem "To Klimenko" (TH 389), contained in Letter 3349 (see below).
Correspondence with Tchaikovsky
19 letters from Tchaikovsky to Ivan Klimenko have survived, dating from 1869 to 1893, of which those highlighted in bold have been translated into English on this website:
- Letter 162 – 26 November/8 December 1869, from Moscow
- Letter 177 – late 1860s, from Moscow
- Letter 187 – 1/13 April 1870, from Moscow
- Letter 190 – 1/13 May–4/16 May 1870, from Moscow
- Letter 213 – 26 October/7 November 1870, from Moscow
- Letter 232 – 16/28 March 1871, from Moscow
- Letter 239 – 12/24 September 1871, from Moscow
- Letter 254 – 4/16 February 1872, from Moscow
- Letter 259 – by June 1872, from Moscow
- Letter 260 – by June 1872, from Moscow
- Letter 261 – by June 1872, from Moscow
- Letter 262 – by June 1872, from Moscow
- Letter 276 – 15/27 November 1872, from Moscow
- Letter 278 – 7/19 December 1872, from Moscow
- Letter 560 – 6/18 May 1877, from Moscow
- Letter 561 – 8/20 or 9/21 May 1877, from Moscow
- Letter 563 – 18/30 May 1877, from Moscow
- Letter 3349 – 13/25 September 1887 (?), from Moscow
- Letter 4891 – 11/23 March 1893, from Kharkov
Bibliography
- Письмо в редакцию (1903)
- Мой воспоминания о Петре Ильиче Чайковском (1908)
- Мои воспоминания о Петре Ильиче Чайковском (1908)
- П. И. Чайковский как юморист (1908)
- Musical oddities (1952)
- Об одном адресате Чайковского (письма в редакцию) (1977)
- Er überliess Laroche das eigene Zimmer und hauste selbst auf dem Korridor (1994)
- Мой воспоминания о Петре Ильиче Чайковском (1995)
- Т. И. Клименко (Воспоминания об оце) (1995)
- Ivan Klimenko (1999)
