Alina Bryullova

Tchaikovsky Research
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Mother of Nikolay Konradi (b. 1849; d. 1932), born Alina Ivanovna Meyer (Алина Ивановна Мейер); known after her first marriage as Alina Ivanovna Konradi (Алина Ивановна Конради), and after her second marriage as Alina Ivanovna Bryullova (Алина Ивановна Брюллова).

It was from Alina's first marriage to the agriculturist Herman Konradi (1833–1882) that she had a deaf-mute son Nikolay ("Kolya"), to whom Tchaikovsky's brother Modest became tutor in 1876. The composer and his brother often stayed at the Konradis' estate at Grankino, and knew the family well, although relations with Alina became strained after she divorced from her husband in 1881, and Modest was granted permanent guardianship of Kolya the following year.

During the 1880s Alina married her second husband Vladimir Aleksandrovich Bryullov (1846–1918), the manager of the Russian National Museum.

Although Tchaikovsky's letters reveal that in private he found Alina a very "unsympathetic" person, for Nikolay and Modest's sake he concealed his misgivings.

Dedications

In 1893 Tchaikovsky dedicated the piano piece Echo rustique — No. 13 of the Eighteen Pieces, Op. 72 — to Alina Bryullova.

Correspondence with Tchaikovsky

2 letters from Tchaikovsky to Alina Bryullova (Konradi) have survived, dating from 1879 and 1880, both of which have been translated into English on this website:

4 letters from Alina Bryullova (Konradi) to the composer, dating from around 1878 to 1881, are preserved in the Klin House-Museum Archive.

Bibliography