Anna Aleksandrova-Levenson and Lev Mey: Difference between pages

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Russian pianist and teacher (b. 1856; d. 27 December 1930 in Tomsk), born '''''Aleksandra Yakovlevna Levenson''''' (Александра Яковлевна Левенсон); known after marriage as '''''Anna Yakovlevna Aleksandrova-Levenson''''' (Анна Яковлевна Александрова-Левенсон).
{{picture|file=Lev Mey.jpg|caption='''Lev Mey''' (1822-1862)}}
Russian poet and translator (b. 13/25 February 1822 in [[Moscow]]; d. 16/28 May 1862 in [[Saint Petersburg]]), born '''''Lev Aleksandrovich Mey''''' (Лев Александрович Мей).


Anna graduated in 1878 from the [[Moscow]] Conservatory, where she was a student in Tchaikovsky's harmony and instrumentation classes, and studied piano under [[Karl Klindworth]]. She taught in educational institutions in [[Moscow]], but remained in contact with Tchaikovsky, who recommended her as a music teacher to his friend [[Nikolay Kondratyev]] on his estate at [[Nizy]]. Anna's married Nikolay Aleksandrovich Aleksandrov (1858–1936), a chemistry teacher at the German School in Moscow, who was later appointed a professor of pharmacology at Tomsk University. Their son Anatoly Nikolayevich Aleksandrov (1888–1982) later became a famous composer, and edited Tchaikovsky's string quartets in volume 31 of Tchaikovsky's ''[[Complete Collected Works]]'' (1955).
==Biography==
Born into a gentry family of modest means, Lev was enrolled at the [[Moscow]] Institute for the Nobility in 1831 and in recognition of his excellent academic results was awarded a state scholarship in 1836 so that he could study at the Lyceum of [[Tsarskoye Selo]] (the famous ''alma mater'' of [[Pushkin]]). He spent five years there, during which he also made his first attempts at writing poetry. In 1841, Mey returned to [[Moscow]], where he became a junior clerk in the office of the city's Governor-General. Over the following years he would devote his spare time to studying theology, classical Greek and Roman authors, and the old Russian chronicles, in particular. From the second half of the 1840s onwards he frequented the literary salon of Mikhail Pogodin (1800–1875), professor of Russian History at [[Moscow]] University. In this way Mey became acquainted with the leading Slavophiles and began publishing verses in their periodical ''Moskvitianin'' (Москвитянин). He eventually came to form part of the journals so-called "young editorial staff", together with the dramatist [[Aleksandr Ostrovsky]] and the poet and critic Apollon Grigoryev (1822–1864).


==Correspondence with Tchaikovsky==
Mey's historical drama ''The Tsar's Bride ''(Царская невеста) was published in 1849 and staged in [[Moscow]] that very year. Set in the reign of Ivan the Terrible, during the heyday of the ''oprichniki'' (the vicious organization of henchmen set up by that Tsar), and with a conflict of love and jealousy as its driving theme, it was a resounding success. Audiences were delighted by the play's fresh and natural language, as well as its authentic atmosphere, which distinguished it sharply from the pseudo-historical melodramas of the preceding decade. [[Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov]] would write an opera based on Mey's play in 1898.
33 letters from Tchaikovsky to Anna Aleksandrova-Levenson have survived, dating from 1877 to 1893, of which those highlighted in bold have been translated into English on this website.
* [[Letter 582]] – 13/25 July 1877, from [[Saint Petersburg]]
* [[Letter 1640]] – 9/21 December 1880, from [[Moscow]]
* [[Letter 1728]] – 15/27 April 1881, from [[Saint Petersburg]]
* [[Letter 1783]] – 13/25 June 1881, from [[Kamenka]]
* [[Letter 1827]] – 6/18 August 1881, from [[Kamenka]]
* [[Letter 1851]] – 3/15 September 1881, from [[Kamenka]]
* [[Letter 1948]] – 28 January/9 February 1882, from [[Rome]]
* [[Letter 1968]] – 14/26 February 1882, from [[Naples]]
* [[Letter 2045]] – 18/30 June 1882, from [[Grankino]]
* [[Letter 2072]] – 29 July/10 August 1882, from [[Kamenka]]
* [[Letter 2092]] – 1/13 September 1882, from [[Kamenka]]
* [[Letter 2159]] – 13/25 November 1882, from [[Kamenka]]
* [[Letter 2231]] – 1/13 March 1883, from [[Paris]]
* [[Letter 2296]] – 31 May/12 June 1883, from [[ Podushkino]]
* [[Letter 2319]] – 1/13 August 1883, from [[Podushkino]]
* [[Letter 2371]] – 19/31 October 1883, from [[Kamenka]]
* [[Letter 2470]] – 21 April/3 May 1884, from [[Kamenka]]
* [[Letter 2782]] – 6/18 October 1885, from [[Maydanovo]]
* [[Letter 2811]] – 19 November/1 December 1885, from [[Maydanovo]]
* '''[[Letter 2856]]''' – 15/27 January 1886, from [[Maydanovo]]  
* '''[[Letter 2857]]''' – 16/28 January 1886, from [[Maydanovo]]
* [[Letter 2976]] – 18/30 June 1886, from [[Maydanovo]]
* [[Letter 3036a]] – 3/15 September 1886, from [[Maydanovo]]
* '''[[Letter 3279a]]''' – June 1887, from [[Borzhom]]
* '''[[Letter 3299]]''' – 26 July/7 August 1887, from [[Aachen]]
* '''[[Letter 3628]]''' – 30 July/11 August 1888, from [[Frolovskoye]]
* '''[[Letter 3885]]''' – 26 June/8 July 1889, from [[Frolovskoye]]  
* '''[[Letter 3952]]''' – 6/18 October 1889, from [[Moscow]]
* '''[[Letter 3964]]''' – 27 October/8 November 1889, from [[Moscow]]
* '''[[Letter 3989]]''' – 22 December 1889/3 January 1890, from [[Moscow]]
* '''[[Letter 4134]]''' – 4/16 June 1890, from [[Frolovskoye]]
* '''[[Letter 4397a]]''' – early/mid June 1891 (?), from [[Moscow]]
* '''[[Letter 4894]]''' – 19/31 March 1893, from [[Moscow]].


55 letters from Anna Aleksandrova-Levenson to the composer, dating from 1880 to 1893, are preserved in the [[Klin]] House-Museum Archive.
In 1850, Mey married S. G. Polyanskaya, and two years later was appointed to the post of inspector at one of the principal schools in [[Moscow]]. However, his wife was alarmed at the way he was ruining his health by joining in Apollon Grigoryev's drinking-bouts and she persuaded Mey to move to [[Saint Petersburg]] in 1853. There they suffered considerable financial hardship to start with, but their situation improved when Mey secured a job as proof-reader with the journal ''Library for Reading'' (Библиотека для чтения). Most of what he published now consisted of translations rather than original verse, and in fact he translated from an astonishing range of languages: English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Czech, Ukrainian, Belorussian, Ancient Greek, and Hebrew! Some critics appreciated him more as a translator than as an original poet, although some of Mey's own poems on subjects from classical antiquity and Russian folklore display an equally fine craftsmanship and poetic feeling, his verses being distinguished mainly by their "imagism".
 
Another historical drama in blank verse followed in 1859: ''The Maid of Pskov'' (Псковитянка), also set in the times of Ivan the Terrible and even showing the latter tsar on the stage both as stern autocrat and loving father. Given that the play gave such prominence to the freedom-loving spirit of the citizens of Pskov, it is not surprising that the censors banned it shortly after its premiere. Together with [[Pushkin]]'s ''Boris Godunov'', Mey's two historical dramas are regarded as having paved the way for the notable efforts in this genre by [[Ostrovsky]] and [[Aleksey Tolstoy]] during the 1860s. ''The Maid of Pskov'' would also serve as the basis for the young [[Rimsky-Korsakov]]'s first opera which he composed in 1872 while sharing lodgings with [[Modest Musorgsky]], who was working on his version of ''Boris Godunov'' at the same time.
 
Mey died in 1862, when a three-volume edition of his collected works was in progress (he only lived to see the first volume), and for a number of years after his death he was forgotten by most readers, especially as he had been dismissed by the radical critics of the 1860s as an exponent of 'pure art' without concrete views on society and its problems. However, thanks to the composers who turned to his works in later years Mey was rescued from this unjust oblivion. He was especially popular with the members of the "Mighty Handful", who set many of his poems to music, attracted by the simplicity and sincerity of his verse and by the genuine folk colour of his Russian-themed songs.
 
Mey's remarkably fine translation of Mignon and the Harpist's poignant song ''Nur wer die Senhsucht kennt'' from [[Goethe]]'s ''Wilhelm Meister'' novel inspired one of Tchaikovsky's most well-known and beloved romances: ''None But the Lonely Heart'', No. 6 of the [[Six Romances, Op. 6]] (1869), which was championed in Western Europe soon after its composition by [[Ivan Turgenev]] and [[Pauline Viardot]].
 
==Tchaikovsky's Settings of Works by Mey==
* Stanza X from ''Octaves'' (1844) — set to music by Tchaikovsky as ''I Never Spoke to Her'' (Я с нею никогда не говорил), No. 5 of the [[Six Romances, Op. 25]] (1875).
* ''My Spoiled Darling ''(1849), a translation from the Polish of [[Adam Mickiewicz]]'s poem ''Do D.D.: Wizyta'' (1826) — set to music by Tchaikovsky as ''My Spoiled Darling'' (Моя баловница), No. 6 of the [[Six Romances and Songs, Op. 27]] (1875).
* ''Harpist's Song'' (1857), a translation from the German of ''Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt'', which is sung as a duet by Mignon and the Harpist in Book 4 of [[Goethe]]'s novel ''Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre ''(1795) — set to music by Tchaikovsky as ''None But the Lonely Heart'' (Нет, только тот, кто знал), No. 6 of the [[Six Romances, Op. 6]] (1869).
* ''Was it the Mother Who Bore Me? ''(1857), a translation from the Polish of [[Teofil Lenartowicz]]'s ballad ''Tęsknota'' (1843) — set to music by Tchaikovsky as ''Was it the Mother Who Bore Me?'' (Али мать меня рожала?), No. 5 of the [[Six Romances and Songs, Op. 27]]  (1875).
* ''Why?'' (1858), a translation from the German of [[Heinrich Heine]]'s poem ''Warum sind denn die Rosen so blaß?'', from the cycle ''Lyrisches Intermezzo'' (1822) — set to music by Tchaikovsky as ''Why?'' (Отчего?), No. 6 of the  [[Six Romances, Op. 6]] (1869).
* ''The Canary ''(1859) — set to music by Tchaikovsky as ''The Canary'' (Канарейка), No. 4 of the [[Six Romances, Op. 25]] (1875).
* ''Evening'' (1859), a translation from the Ukrainian of [[Taras Shevchenko]]'s poem ''The Little Cherry-Orchard'' (1847) — set to music by Tchaikovsky as ''Evening'' (Вечер), No. 4 of the [[Six Romances and Songs, Op. 27]] (1875).
* ''I Should Like in a Single Word ''(1859), translation from the German of [[Heinrich Heine]]'s poem ''Ich wollt', meine Schmerzen ergössen'', from the cycle ''Die Heimkehr'' (1824) — set to music by Tchaikovsky as ''I Should Like in a Single Word'' (Хотел бы в единое слово), No. 1 of the [[Two Songs (1875)]] (1875).
* ''Song'' (1860) — set to music by Tchaikovsky as ''As They Chanted: "Fool"'' (Как наладили: «Дурак»), No. 6 of the [[Six Romances, Op. 25]] (1875).
* ''The Corals. A Song ''(1861), a translation from the Polish of Ludwik Kondratowicz's ballad ''Dumka kozacka'' (1854) — set to music by Tchaikovsky as ''The Corals'' (Корольки), No. 2 of the [[Six Romances, Op. 28]] (1875).
* ''Why? ''(1861) — set to music by Tchaikovsky as ''Why? ''(Зачем?), No. 3 of the [[Six Romances, Op. 28]] (1875).


==Bibliography==
==Bibliography==
* {{bib|1905/3}} (1905)
* K. K. Bukhmeier (К. К. Бухмейер), introductory article in: ''Л. А. Мей: Избранные произведения ''(Leningrad, 1972)
* {{bib|1906/1}} (1906)
* Polina Vaidman, [http://www.tchaikov.ru/mey.html Entry on Lev Mey] for the Belcanto Tchaikovsky Pages (in Russian)
* {{bib|1906/27}} (1906)
* Wikipedia entry for ''[[wikipedia:The_Maid_of_Pskov|The Maid of Pskov]]'' (opera by [[Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov]], 1873)
* Wikipedia entry for '' [[wikipedia:The_Tsar's_Bride_(opera)|The Tsar's Bride]]'' (opera by [[Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov]], 1899)


[[Category:People|Aleksandrova-Levenson, Anna]]
[[Category:People|Mey, Lev]]
[[Category:Correspondents|Aleksandrova-Levenson, Anna]]
[[Category:Writers|Mey, Lev]]
[[Category:Pianists|Aleksandrova-Levenson, Anna]]

Revision as of 22:08, 27 December 2022

Lev Mey (1822-1862)

Russian poet and translator (b. 13/25 February 1822 in Moscow; d. 16/28 May 1862 in Saint Petersburg), born Lev Aleksandrovich Mey (Лев Александрович Мей).

Biography

Born into a gentry family of modest means, Lev was enrolled at the Moscow Institute for the Nobility in 1831 and in recognition of his excellent academic results was awarded a state scholarship in 1836 so that he could study at the Lyceum of Tsarskoye Selo (the famous alma mater of Pushkin). He spent five years there, during which he also made his first attempts at writing poetry. In 1841, Mey returned to Moscow, where he became a junior clerk in the office of the city's Governor-General. Over the following years he would devote his spare time to studying theology, classical Greek and Roman authors, and the old Russian chronicles, in particular. From the second half of the 1840s onwards he frequented the literary salon of Mikhail Pogodin (1800–1875), professor of Russian History at Moscow University. In this way Mey became acquainted with the leading Slavophiles and began publishing verses in their periodical Moskvitianin (Москвитянин). He eventually came to form part of the journals so-called "young editorial staff", together with the dramatist Aleksandr Ostrovsky and the poet and critic Apollon Grigoryev (1822–1864).

Mey's historical drama The Tsar's Bride (Царская невеста) was published in 1849 and staged in Moscow that very year. Set in the reign of Ivan the Terrible, during the heyday of the oprichniki (the vicious organization of henchmen set up by that Tsar), and with a conflict of love and jealousy as its driving theme, it was a resounding success. Audiences were delighted by the play's fresh and natural language, as well as its authentic atmosphere, which distinguished it sharply from the pseudo-historical melodramas of the preceding decade. Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov would write an opera based on Mey's play in 1898.

In 1850, Mey married S. G. Polyanskaya, and two years later was appointed to the post of inspector at one of the principal schools in Moscow. However, his wife was alarmed at the way he was ruining his health by joining in Apollon Grigoryev's drinking-bouts and she persuaded Mey to move to Saint Petersburg in 1853. There they suffered considerable financial hardship to start with, but their situation improved when Mey secured a job as proof-reader with the journal Library for Reading (Библиотека для чтения). Most of what he published now consisted of translations rather than original verse, and in fact he translated from an astonishing range of languages: English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Czech, Ukrainian, Belorussian, Ancient Greek, and Hebrew! Some critics appreciated him more as a translator than as an original poet, although some of Mey's own poems on subjects from classical antiquity and Russian folklore display an equally fine craftsmanship and poetic feeling, his verses being distinguished mainly by their "imagism".

Another historical drama in blank verse followed in 1859: The Maid of Pskov (Псковитянка), also set in the times of Ivan the Terrible and even showing the latter tsar on the stage both as stern autocrat and loving father. Given that the play gave such prominence to the freedom-loving spirit of the citizens of Pskov, it is not surprising that the censors banned it shortly after its premiere. Together with Pushkin's Boris Godunov, Mey's two historical dramas are regarded as having paved the way for the notable efforts in this genre by Ostrovsky and Aleksey Tolstoy during the 1860s. The Maid of Pskov would also serve as the basis for the young Rimsky-Korsakov's first opera which he composed in 1872 while sharing lodgings with Modest Musorgsky, who was working on his version of Boris Godunov at the same time.

Mey died in 1862, when a three-volume edition of his collected works was in progress (he only lived to see the first volume), and for a number of years after his death he was forgotten by most readers, especially as he had been dismissed by the radical critics of the 1860s as an exponent of 'pure art' without concrete views on society and its problems. However, thanks to the composers who turned to his works in later years Mey was rescued from this unjust oblivion. He was especially popular with the members of the "Mighty Handful", who set many of his poems to music, attracted by the simplicity and sincerity of his verse and by the genuine folk colour of his Russian-themed songs.

Mey's remarkably fine translation of Mignon and the Harpist's poignant song Nur wer die Senhsucht kennt from Goethe's Wilhelm Meister novel inspired one of Tchaikovsky's most well-known and beloved romances: None But the Lonely Heart, No. 6 of the Six Romances, Op. 6 (1869), which was championed in Western Europe soon after its composition by Ivan Turgenev and Pauline Viardot.

Tchaikovsky's Settings of Works by Mey

  • Stanza X from Octaves (1844) — set to music by Tchaikovsky as I Never Spoke to Her (Я с нею никогда не говорил), No. 5 of the Six Romances, Op. 25 (1875).
  • My Spoiled Darling (1849), a translation from the Polish of Adam Mickiewicz's poem Do D.D.: Wizyta (1826) — set to music by Tchaikovsky as My Spoiled Darling (Моя баловница), No. 6 of the Six Romances and Songs, Op. 27 (1875).
  • Harpist's Song (1857), a translation from the German of Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt, which is sung as a duet by Mignon and the Harpist in Book 4 of Goethe's novel Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre (1795) — set to music by Tchaikovsky as None But the Lonely Heart (Нет, только тот, кто знал), No. 6 of the Six Romances, Op. 6 (1869).
  • Was it the Mother Who Bore Me? (1857), a translation from the Polish of Teofil Lenartowicz's ballad Tęsknota (1843) — set to music by Tchaikovsky as Was it the Mother Who Bore Me? (Али мать меня рожала?), No. 5 of the Six Romances and Songs, Op. 27 (1875).
  • Why? (1858), a translation from the German of Heinrich Heine's poem Warum sind denn die Rosen so blaß?, from the cycle Lyrisches Intermezzo (1822) — set to music by Tchaikovsky as Why? (Отчего?), No. 6 of the Six Romances, Op. 6 (1869).
  • The Canary (1859) — set to music by Tchaikovsky as The Canary (Канарейка), No. 4 of the Six Romances, Op. 25 (1875).
  • Evening (1859), a translation from the Ukrainian of Taras Shevchenko's poem The Little Cherry-Orchard (1847) — set to music by Tchaikovsky as Evening (Вечер), No. 4 of the Six Romances and Songs, Op. 27 (1875).
  • I Should Like in a Single Word (1859), translation from the German of Heinrich Heine's poem Ich wollt', meine Schmerzen ergössen, from the cycle Die Heimkehr (1824) — set to music by Tchaikovsky as I Should Like in a Single Word (Хотел бы в единое слово), No. 1 of the Two Songs (1875) (1875).
  • Song (1860) — set to music by Tchaikovsky as As They Chanted: "Fool" (Как наладили: «Дурак»), No. 6 of the Six Romances, Op. 25 (1875).
  • The Corals. A Song (1861), a translation from the Polish of Ludwik Kondratowicz's ballad Dumka kozacka (1854) — set to music by Tchaikovsky as The Corals (Корольки), No. 2 of the Six Romances, Op. 28 (1875).
  • Why? (1861) — set to music by Tchaikovsky as Why? (Зачем?), No. 3 of the Six Romances, Op. 28 (1875).

Bibliography

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