Ivan Turgenev and Hamlet (incidental music): Difference between pages

Tchaikovsky Research
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{{picture|file=Ivan Turgenev.jpg|caption='''Ivan Turgenev''' (1818-1883), in an 1879 portrait by Ilya Repin}}
Tchaikovsky's incidental music to [[Shakespeare]]'s tragedy '''''Hamlet''''' (Гамлет), Op. 67b ([[TH]] 23 ; [[ČW]] 16), was written in January 1891 for a French production of the play in [[Saint Petersburg]]. It makes use of music from earlier works, including the overture-fantasia ''[[Hamlet (overture-fantasia)|Hamlet]]'' that Tchaikovsky had written three years earlier.
Russian writer (b. 28 October/9 November 1818 in Oryol; d. 22 August/3 September 1883 in Bougival, near [[Paris]]), born '''''Ivan Sergeyevich Turgenev''''' (Иван Сергеевич Тургенев), also known in France as '''''Ivan Tourguéniev'''''.


==Biography==
==Instrumentation==
One of the leading Russian writers of the nineteenth century, Turgenev for some thirty years was the most well-known representative of Russian literature in Western Europe and America until he was somewhat thrown into the shade by his close contemporaries [[Fyodor Dostoyevsky]] and [[Lev Tolstoy]]. Turgenev was born into a gentry family with estates in the central Russian province of Oryol. He lost his charming but irresponsible father at the age of 16 and grew up mainly under the stern hand of his mother Varvara Petrovna (b. Lutovinova; 1788–1850). In 1834, he started studying philosophy at [[Saint Petersburg]] University, graduating three years later. At that time Turgenev was still considering a career as a professor of philosophy, but during his studies he had also made his first literary attempts: a drama in the style of [[Byron]] and translations of [[Shakespeare]] and [[Goethe]]. During summer vacations on his mother's estate he was appalled at her cruel treatment of the family's serfs, and this made him into an implacable enemy of the institution of serfdom. In [[Saint Petersburg]], in January 1837, he caught a glimpse of [[Pushkin]] a few days before his death: the great poet would always remain his "idol and teacher". Turgenev set sail for Germany in May 1838, in order to enrol at the University of [[Berlin]], where he intended to deepen his knowledge of philosophy. Among his companions abroad were the poet and philosopher Nikolay Stankevich (1813–1840) and the future revolutionary Mikhail Bakunin (1814–1876). Together with Bakunin, he frequently attended concerts and opera performances in [[Berlin]].
Tchaikovsky's music is scored for soprano and baritone soloists, and a theatre orchestra of 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets (in B-flat), 2 bassoons + 2 horns (in F), 2 trumpets (in B-flat), bass trombone + 3 timpani, tambourine, tam tam, bell (in C) + violins I, violins II, violas, cellos, and double basses.


In the spring of 1841 Turgenev returned to Russia, and on his family estate Spasskoye fell in love with one of his mother's seamstresses, a serf called Avdotya (d. 1875). She bore him a daughter Pelageya the following year, but Turgenev, who had left for [[Saint Petersburg]], was unaware of her existence until 1850. That year, though, he acknowledged her as his daughter and sent her to [[Paris]], to be brought up with the children of [[Pauline Viardot]]. Pelageya was given the more French-sounding name of Paulinette and eventually even forgot her native language, but she was not happy in France. She died in 1919. Turgenev never married and had no other children <ref name="note1"/>.
There are two singing roles:
* ''Ophélie'' (Ophelia) — soprano
* ''Fossojeur'' (Gravedigger) — baritone.


Turgenev obtained his Master's degree in philosophy at [[Saint Petersburg]] University in 1842, but realised that in the reactionary climate of Tsar Nicholas I's reign a teaching post in that subject was impossible, and in 1843 he joined the staff of the Ministry of Interior, where he had some hopes of contributing to agrarian reform. Turgenev's civil service career only lasted until 1845, and already in those years he had been devoting most of his energies to literature anyway, publishing various short stories, poems, and review articles. He was encouraged in these endeavours by his friend and mentor, the great critic Vissarion Belinsky (1811–1848). Another fateful meeting during those years was that with the mezzo-soprano [[Pauline Viardot]] in 1843, when she arrived in [[Saint Petersburg]] for her first tour with the Italian Opera Company. Turgenev was infatuated with her, but his feelings were not requited. For many years he followed her around Europe, eventually resigning himself to the role of a family friend in the Viardot household, since he also got on very well with [[Pauline Viardot|Pauline]]'s husband, the art historian Louis Viardot (1800–1883).
==Movements and Duration==
Tchaikovsky's original score contains an overture and 17 individual numbers, of which one (No. 5a) has not been published. The titles of numbers are translated into English, with French headings and vocal incipits (in italics) taken from the published score. Where the English and French titles are the same, only the former are shown.


In January 1847, the first of Turgenev's ''Notes of a Hunter'' was published: by 1852 twenty-two of these sketches had appeared in which Turgenev, with a unique gift for observation (especially for the beauties of nature) and great poetic feeling, described what he had seen on his frequent hunting tours in the Russian countryside. Turgenev's sensitive portrayals of the various peasants he had come across, as well as his subtly ironic vignettes of their masters, and of the land-owning gentry in general, were one of the most powerful indictments of the system of serfdom. Reading ''Notes of a Hunter'' strengthened Tsar [[Alexander II]] in his resolve to abolish serfdom, and so Turgenev's work indirectly helped pave the way for the Emancipation Act of 1861. [[Tolstoy]] would later argue that these sketches were Turgenev's most enduring contribution to Russian literature.
{| class="wikitable"
|colspan="2"|
|colspan="2"|'''Overture''' (''Ouverture'')<br/>Lento lugubre — Allegro vivacissimo (256 bars)
|
|-
| width="15%" rowspan="4"|'''''Act I'''''
| width="8%"|No. 1
| width="45%" colspan="2"|'''Melodrama''' (''Mélodrame'')<br/>Moderato assai (23 bars)
| width="30%"|
|-
| No. 2
|colspan="2"|'''Fanfare'''<br/>Allegro vivo (9 bars)
|
|-
| No. 3
|colspan="2"|'''Melodrama''' (''Mélodrame'')<br/>Moderato assai (10 bars)
|
|-
| No. 4
|colspan="2"|'''Melodrama''' (''Mélodrame'')<br/>Allegro giusto ed agitato (112 bars)
|
|-
| rowspan="3"|'''''Act II'''''
| No. 5
|colspan="2"|'''Entr&#39;acte'''<br/>Allegro semplice (138 bars)
|
|-
| No. 5a
|colspan="2"|'''Fanfare''' (4 bars)
|
|-
| No. 6
|colspan="2"|'''Fanfare'''<br/>Allegro (8 bars)
|
|-
| rowspan="2"|'''''Act III'''''
| No. 7
|colspan="2"|'''Entr&#39;acte'''<br/>Andante quasi Allegretto (28 bars)
|
|-
| No. 8
|colspan="2"|'''Melodrama''' (''Mélodrame'')<br/>Allegro giusto ed agitato (73 bars)
|
|-
| rowspan="4"|'''''Act IV'''''
| No. 9
|colspan="2"|'''Entr&#39;acte'''<br/>Andante non troppo (103 bars)
|
|-
| No. 10
|colspan="2"|'''Ophelia&#39;s Scene''' (''Scène d&#39;Ophélie'')<br/>Andantino (44 bars)
| ''Votre amoureux, á quels gages?''
|-
| rowspan="2"|No. 11
| width="4%"|(a)
| '''Ophelia&#39;s Second Scene''' (''Deuxième scène d&#39;Ophélie'')<br/>Moderato (15 bars)
| ''On l&#39;a porté convert de fleurs''  
|-
| width="4%"|(b)
| '''End of Ophelia&#39;s Second Scene''' (''Fin de la deuxième scène d&#39;Ophélie'')<br/>Allegro vivo (73 bars)
| ''Non, non! Ne me dis pas!''
|-
| rowspan="5"|'''''Act V'''''
| No. 12
|colspan="2"|'''Entr&#39;acte'''<br/>Marcia. Moderato assai (72 bars)
|
|-
| No. 13
|colspan="2"|'''Gravedigger&#39;s Song''' (''Chant du Fossoyeur'')<br/>Andantino (14 bars)
| ''Fou d&#39;amour, dans mon ivresse''
|-
| No. 14
|colspan="2"|'''Funeral March''' (''Marche funèbre'')<br/>Marcia. Moderato assai (72 bars)
|
|-
| No. 15
|colspan="2"|'''Fanfare'''<br/>Allegro giusto (8 bars)
|
|-
| No. 16
|colspan="2"|'''Final March''' (''Marche finale)<br/>''Allegro risoluto ma non troppo (19 bars)
|
|}


From February 1847 to June 1850 Turgenev was based abroad, living mainly in France and spending long periods at Courtavenel, the château of [[Pauline Viardot]] and her husband near [[Paris]]. Together with his friend, the political exile Aleksandr Herzen (1812–1870), Turgenev was an eyewitness of the revolutionary events in [[Paris]] in 1848. During these years Turgenev wrote several comedies, and his efforts in this genre would culminate in ''A Month in the Country'' (1855), which in some respects anticipated the plays of [[Anton Chekhov]] forty years later. Shortly after his return to Russia in the summer of 1850 his mother died, and the inheritance he received gave Turgenev considerable financial independence. However, for almost two years (1852–53) he was confined to his country estate in Spasskoye by order of Tsar Nicholas I, who had been angered by the tone of Turgenev's obituary of [[Gogol]].
In the published score, No. 1 is marked to be played twice (on each appearance of the ghost). No. 8 is a shortened version of No. 4, and No. 14 is an exact repeat of No. 12.  


The following ten years saw a surge in Turgenev's creative powers, resulting in a series of splendid novels — ''Rudin'' (1856), ''A Nest of the Gentry'' (1859), ''On the Eve'' (1860), and ''Fathers and Children'' (1862) — in which he sought to chronicle both the past and present of the educated classes in Russia, as well as pointing to future developments, in particular the rise of a non-gentry intelligentsia, epitomized by his most famous character, the 'nihilist' Bazarov in ''Fathers and Children''. He also wrote several short stories — a genre to which he was well suited thanks to his fine poetic touch. In 1855, Turgenev had taken the young [[Lev Tolstoy]] under his wing, and although they were to quarrel in 1861 (almost leading to a duel!), they became friends again in later years. When [[Pauline Viardot]] retired from the stage in 1864 and settled with her family in Baden-Baden, Turgenev moved there himself. Thereafter he would come to Russia only for a few months each year, usually in the summer to write in the seclusion of Spasskoye, or in the winter, to catch up with the latest artistic developments in [[Saint Petersburg]] and [[Moscow]], as well as to oversee the publication of his works. His next novel,'' Smoke'', appeared in May 1867, and when [[Dostoyevsky]] called on him in Baden-Baden that summer Turgenev found himself accused of having lost touch with Russia. The quarrel between the two writers would not really be patched up until the [[Pushkin]] festivities in [[Moscow]] in June 1880. Turgenev's pessimistic reflections about Russian music in ''Smoke'' also provoked the indignation of [[Vladimir Stasov]] and the members of the "Mighty Handful".
A complete concert performance of Tchaikovsky's music to ''Hamlet'' lasts around 50 minutes.


As a result of the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71) and the collapse of the regime of Napoleon III, the Viardots decided to return to France, and Turgenev moved into the top floor of their house in [[Paris]]. During the 1870s Turgenev, who was by now famous across all Europe and beyond, became the life and soul of many Parisian literary gatherings, befriending such notable writers as Flaubert and Zola. In 1875, Henry James went to [[Paris]] expressly to make his acquaintance. Frequently invited to major cultural events (such as the Sir Walter Scott centenary festival in Edinburgh in 1871 or the [[Paris]] Literary Congress of 1878), Turgenev was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Civil Law by the University of Oxford in 1879 for his contribution to the liberation of the serfs in Russia. In between all this travelling and his generous efforts on behalf of various young Russians (artists and political exiles) who sought out his help in [[Paris]], Turgenev found the time to complete his last novel, ''Virgin Soil'' (1877), about the idealistic members of the intelligentsia who tried to spread revolutionary ideas amongst the peasantry.
==Composition==
In late January/early February 1888, Tchaikovsky received a letter from his friend the actor [[Lucien Guitry]] informing him that Grand Duchess Mariya Pavlovna (1854–1920), a sister-in-law of Tsar [[Alexander III]], wanted to organize a gala charity production in the Mariinsky Theatre in late March/early April. Among other things, she wanted Act III from [[Shakespeare]]'s tragedy ''Hamlet'' to be staged, with [[Guitry]] in the title role, and with an overture by Tchaikovsky. [[Guitry]], however, realised that the composer might not have enough time to write a whole overture by that deadline, and he asked him instead for an entr'acte to fill the interval between the Players' Scene and the scene in the Queen's closet where Hamlet kills Polonius <ref name="note1"/>.  


Whenever he visited [[Moscow]] and [[Saint Petersburg]] in these last years of his life, he was always given enthusiastic welcomes by the cities' students and the Russian public in general, although at the [[Pushkin]] festivities in June 1880 he was eclipsed by his old 'enemy' [[Dostoyevsky]]. Turgenev's last stay in Russia was in the summer of 1881, and amongst those who came to see him at Spasskoye were the poet [[Yakov Polonsky]] (who had been a loyal friend for many years) and [[Tolstoy]]. It was also during this stay that Turgenev wrote one of his most mysterious stories: ''The Song of Triumphant Love'', which Tchaikovsky would later consider setting to music (see [[TH 227]]). In early 1882, the onset of a severe illness left him bedridden in [[Paris]] for most of the time, but in spite of the great pains which he suffered, Turgenev managed to complete one more story: ''Klara Milich'' (1883), inspired by the tragic fate of [[Yevlaliya Kadmina]]. He also dictated some shorter pieces in French to [[Pauline Viardot]], who was always at his side during the final phase of his illness. On 3 September 1883 {{NS}} Turgenev died in his country house in Bougival, near [[Paris]]. His remains were taken to Russia and buried in the Volkov Cemetery, [[Saint Petersburg]], next to the grave of his mentor Belinsky. Tens of thousands of people lined the streets of the city to pay their last respects to one of Russia's most beloved writers.
Three years previously, in April 1885, Tchaikovsky had been so impressed by [[Guitry]]'s performance as Edmund Kean in [[Alexandre Dumas]]' play inspired by the great English actor's life: ''Kean, or Disorder and Genius'' (in which there is a scene where Kean plays Hamlet), that he wrote to [[Guitry]] urging him to perform a Shakespearian role, promising that "in the event that you should play ''Hamlet'' or ''Romeo'', I shall write an overture and entr'actes specially tailored to the resources of the orchestra at the ''Mikhaylovsky Theatre''. It will be a great pleasure for me, and I shall be proud to participate a little in your triumph" <ref name="note2"/>.


==Tchaikovsky and Turgenev==
Now reminded of his earlier promise, Tchaikovsky agreed to write the music for ''Hamlet''. Although [[Guitry]] subsequently wrote to Tchaikovsky to tell him that the production had been cancelled, the composer was so captivated by the idea of setting ''Hamlet ''to music — something he had already considered twelve years earlier — that in the course of the summer he proceeded to write his [[Hamlet (overture-fantasia)|overture-fantasia]] on the subject.  
In his memoirs of Tchaikovsky, [[Aleksandr Glazunov]] made the following observation: "If I had to come up with a way of characterizing the music of our great Russian composers, I would compare [[Borodin]] with a knight-prince from pre-Muscovite times, [[Musorgsky]] with a thoughtful peasant, [[Rimsky-Korsakov]] with a sorcerer from our ''byliny'' [epic poems], but Tchaikovsky I would liken to a Russian gentleman (барин) of a Turgenevan cast of mind. Tchaikovsky adored the countryside, he liked and, from his point of view, understood the people. He knew how to strike up a rapport with them, and wherever he went they all liked him" <ref name="note2"/>. This was by no means the first time that a parallel was drawn between Tchaikovsky and Turgenev — in this case invoking the love of the countryside which they both shared, as well as the sympathy for the Russian peasant which guided the author of ''Notes of a Hunter'', and which, though less obviously in Tchaikovsky's music, certainly manifested itself in the composer's kindness towards the peasants of [[Maydanovo]] and [[Frolovskoye]].


Tchaikovsky's foreign contemporaries, in particular, were liable to make such a comparison, since for many years Turgenev had been the most prominent ambassador of Russian literature in the West, just as Tchaikovsky's works were at last putting Russian music on the map, in spite of the resistance which they encountered in certain quarters. Thus, it was not so wide off the mark when one of the few Austrian critics who gave a favourable review of the [[Violin Concerto]] after its performance in [[Vienna]] on 4 December 1881 {{NS}}, with [[Adolph Brodsky]] as the soloist, said that the first movement's "mysterious, gentle middle section" reminded him of the female heroines of Turgenev <ref name="note3"/>. For western readers had long since been marvelling at the unusual, and indeed often "mysterious", combination of tenderness and spiritual fortitude which they encountered in such unforgettable creations of Turgenev's as Liza in'' A Nest of the Gentry'' or Yelena in ''On the Eve'', and that Austrian critic was evidently struck in a similar way by the unexpected contrast between the [[Violin Concerto]]'s lyrical themes and its more exuberant passages and overall development. The Irish composer Sir [[Charles Villiers Stanford]], who was largely responsible for the University of [[Cambridge]]'s decision to award an honorary doctorate to his Russian colleague in June 1893, also made an interesting comparison between Tchaikovsky and Turgenev (it is quoted in the entry on [[Stanford]]), though this time in terms of the European 'polish' which he thought distinguished these two men from their more 'roughly hewn' compatriots! However, both Turgenev and Tchaikovsky saw themselves very much as Russian artists and protested against those who, for various reasons, tried to dismiss their works as 'cosmopolitan' (as [[César Cui]], for example, did with some of Tchaikovsky's earlier works).
Two years later, however, Tchaikovsky fulfilled his earlier promise to write proper stage music for ''Hamlet'' for the farewell performance which [[Guitry]] was due to give at the Mikhaylovsky Theatre on 9/21 February 1891, and for which the actor had chosen [[Shakespeare]]'s tragedy in a French translation by [[Alexandre Dumas]] ''père'' and [[Paul Meurice]]. Together with a copy of the play, in which he had marked all the points at which he wished the music to set in, [[Guitry]] sent Tchaikovsky a letter with more detailed instructions, adding jestingly at the end that the last thing he wanted was to appear "like a second [[Détroyat]]" in the composer's eyes, and so he asked him not to trouble himself too much over this music <ref name="note3"/>.  


Thus, Turgenev always emphasized that the most important quality in a Russian artist was truthfulness in the portrayal of life, and that such sincerity was by far more valuable than subjectivity or even the quest for beauty, although, as he saw it, ''realism'' by no means excluded beauty, but was rather a prerequisite of the latter. "Russian art seeks, through the truth, to attain beauty", Turgenev was fond of saying <ref name="note4"/>. Tchaikovsky, too, even if in some letters to [[Nadezhda von Meck]] and diary entries he was wont to admit that opera was based on a certain suspension of belief <ref name="note5"/>, considered himself part of the great tradition of Russian realism that reached such heights in the nineteenth century. As he put it in a letter of 1891 to [[Vladimir Pogozhev]]:
In 1890, [[Lucien Guitry]] approached Tchaikovsky once more with a request for music to ''Hamlet'', for a benefit performance that would be [[Guitry]]'s last appearance on the Russian stage <ref name="note4"/>. The composer agreed, and began work around 7/19 January 1891 at [[Frolovskoye]], but with little enthusiasm, as he confessed to [[Modest Tchaikovsky]] in a letter of 11/23 January: "''Hamlet'' is coming along. But it is such unpleasant work!" <ref name="note5"/>. On 22 January/3 February, he told [[Anatoly Tchaikovsky]] that he had finished the music to ''Hamlet'' and sent it to [[Guitry]] <ref name="note6"/>.


{{quote|I think that I really am endowed with the ability to express ''truthfully'', ''honestly'', and ''straightforwardly'' through music those feelings, moods, and images which the text [of a poem or opera libretto] awakens in me. In this sense I am a ''realist'' and a deeply Russian person" <ref name="note6"/>.}}
It appears that the Fanfare (Act II, No. 5a) was written during rehearsals for the stage production. The manuscript score is dated 8/20 February 1891.


Given this affinity in their artistic outlook, it is not surprising that Turgenev was one of Tchaikovsky's favourite authors ever since his youth. In 1867, for instance, he preferred to stay at home and read the novel ''Smoke'' than to attend the festivities in honour of the visit to [[Moscow]] by the heir to the throne, [[Alexander III|Aleksandr Aleksandrovich]], freshly married to [[Mariya Fyodorovna|Princess Dagmar]] of Denmark (see Tchaikovsky's letter to his brother [[Anatoly]], quoted in the section below, where a compilation of letter and diary excerpts referring to Turgenev is presented). And although in later years Tchaikovsky made it clear that for him [[Tolstoy]] was "the greatest of all writers and artists who have ever existed anywhere" <ref name="note7"/>, and that while comparing his works to those of Turgenev in the autumn of 1884, his enthusiasm for the latter had started to wane a little (see the letter to [[Nadezhda von Meck]] below), this does not mean that he ceased to cherish Turgenev. Thus, [[Herman Laroche]], who in his obituary of the composer discussed Tchaikovsky's literary interests (noting, in particular, his discovery of [[George Eliot]] in later years), recalled how at [[Maydanovo]] in the hours after dinner which were not appointed for work, Tchaikovsky would often ask his guests "to read aloud works by his beloved authors: [[Gogol]], [[Lev Tolstoy]], Turgenev, [[Ostrovsky]], and Flaubert" <ref name="note8"/>. It is also significant that in 1887 Tchaikovsky was considering using a story by Turgenev as the basis for a vocal work, perhaps even an opera: ''[[Song of Triumphant Love]]'' ([[TH 227]]) — something that never seems to have crossed his mind with regard to any of [[Tolstoy]]'s works (perhaps because he knew of the latter's aversion to the operatic genre!).
==Arrangements==
The three vocal numbers (Nos. 10, 11 and 13) were also arranged by the composer for voices with piano in January 1891. All the remaining numbers were arranged for solo piano by [[Eduard Langer]].


Turgenev for his part was, of all the major Russian writers, the one who showed the greatest enthusiasm for Tchaikovsky's music — for, although [[Tolstoy]] was indeed moved to tears by the ''Andante cantabile'' in [[String Quartet No. 1]] when he heard it at a specially arranged private concert in 1876, in later years he showed very little interest in his younger contemporary's works and, unlike Turgenev, chose not to attend the premiere of ''[[Yevgeny Onegin]]'' in 1879, even though his estate was not that far from [[Moscow]] — certainly much closer than [[Paris]], where Turgenev had his main place of residence!
==Subject==
The play ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'' was written between 1599 and 1601 by the English dramatist [[William Shakespeare]] (1564–1616). The French translation of the play made by [[Alexandre Dumas]] (1802-1870) and [[Paul Meurice]] (1818-1905) was first performed in [[Paris]] in 1847.


Turgenev's interest in Tchaikovsky also started remarkably early on, several years in fact before such eminent musicians as [[Hans von Bülow]] started championing the Russian's music in Western Europe. Thus, Turgenev, during his two-month stay in Russia in early 1871, attended the concert in the [[Moscow]] Hall of the Nobility on 16/28 March 1871 whose programme was drawn up exclusively from chamber music works and vocal pieces by Tchaikovsky, featuring, in particular, the premiere of [[String Quartet No. 1]] and a performance by [[Yelizaveta Lavrovskaya]] of the song ''None But the Lonely Heart'' (No. 6 of the [[Six Romances, Op. 6]]). Although Turgenev arrived late and missed the quartet, his appearance at this concert (which [[Nikolay Rubinstein]] had urged Tchaikovsky to organize in order to generate more interest in his music, as well as to earn some much-needed money) was quite significant in many respects. [[Nikolay Kashkin]] would later describe the occasion as follows:
==Performances==
The performance of ''Hamlet'' with [[Guitry]] in the title-role took place as scheduled at the Mikhailovsky Theatre in [[Saint Petersburg]] on 9/21 February 1891 with Tchaikovsky's incidental music. The parts of Ophelia and the Gravedigger were performed by A. Laine and H. Lorther respectively.


{{quote|This concert was attended, amongst other people, by I. S. Turgenev, who was then in [[Moscow]] and had become interested in the young composer ever since hearing about him while living abroad. This attention on the part of the renowned writer was noticed and interpreted in a favourable sense for the composer, all the more so given that Turgenev expressed himself in the most sympathetic manner about his works, although he missed the most important of them — the quartet — because he arrived after the concert had already started" <ref name="note9"/>}}
Writing to his brother [[Anatoly]], the composer reported: "My music to ''Hamlet'', put on for [[Guitry]]'s benefit, went down very well with everyone. [[Guitry]] was superb" <ref name="note7"/>. The first performance in [[Moscow]] took place on 21 November/3 December 1891 at the Maly Theatre.


The only way that Turgenev could then have heard about Tchaikovsky while he was living abroad (that is, mainly in Germany before 1871) was from reviews in the Russian newspapers to which he subscribed (or which he had access to in reading-rooms), and it is quite possible that [[Laroche]]'s articles for the ''Contemporary Chronicle'' (Современная летопись) on the premieres of the opera ''[[The Voyevoda (opera)|The Voyevoda]]'' and the symphonic fantasia ''[[Fatum]]'' in 1869 had caught his attention, especially since the opera was based on a play by [[Aleksandr Ostrovsky]], a dramatist whom Turgenev thought very highly of. Certainly, no foreign critic of note seems to have written about Tchaikovsky yet, even though by the start of the 1870s some of his songs and piano pieces were being published in Germany (in pirate editions), and it was in fact not until [[Hans von Bülow]]'s words of praise for Tchaikovsky in an 1874 article about the premiere of [[Glinka]]'s ''A Life for the Tsar'' in Italy that the western press started to take notice of the young Russian composer.
In 1893, the conductor [[Michał Hertz]] in [[Warsaw]] sought Tchaikovsky's permission to perform his music to ''Hamlet'' in a production by the [[Warsaw]] dramatic theatre, but the composer declined after consulting his brother [[Modest]], who in his view did not consider it to be a serious artistic work. "I wrote it very quickly for the ''benefit'' of one of my friends, only so that he could amuse himself in seeing my ''name'' on the concert bill. It is scored for a very small orchestra, and would not be suitable for a Grand Imperial Theatre". Instead, Tchaikovsky suggested that [[Michał Hertz|Hertz]] might wish to consider using the "wonderful music to ''Hamlet'' by [[George Henschel]]" <ref name="note8"/>.


The fact that Turgenev was able to form such a positive opinion of Tchaikovsky's talent on the basis of the few songs, chamber music and piano pieces which he heard at that concert on 16/28 March 1871 certainly does great credit to his musical judgement. The song ''None But the Lonely Heart'', in particular, became one of his life-long favourites, and it would re-appear in his last published story: ''Klara Milich'' (1883). Although Tchaikovsky was also present at this concert featuring his works, he does not seem to have been introduced to Turgenev, not even fleetingly — it is very likely that Tchaikovsky implored his colleagues not to force him to speak to the famous writer. This would certainly be in keeping with what we know of his later, well-documented efforts to avoid making Turgenev's personal acquaintance. (In fact he would probably have preferred not to have met [[Tolstoy]] face to face either in 1876, but the latter was a more tenacious man than Turgenev, and he threatened the staff at the [[Moscow]] Conservatory that he would not leave the building until Tchaikovsky had received him!) All the same, Turgenev was so impressed by ''None But the Lonely Heart'' that he ordered a copy of the song album in which it appeared to be sent to [[London]], where he was temporarily living with the Viardots. In a letter from there on 15/27 April 1871, he thanked a Russian friend for having sent this album and informed her that [[Pauline Viardot]] had also liked the setting of Mignon's song very much and that she intended to perform it at one of her private concerts. In this letter Turgenev also explained that Madame [[Viardot]] had asked him to thank Tchaikovsky in her name (implying that the copy of the [[Six Romances, Op. 6]] had perhaps been personally inscribed by the composer), and that he was going to send Tchaikovsky copies of all three of [[Pauline Viardot]]'s song-albums which had been published in [[Saint Petersburg]] so far <ref name="note10"/>. All this indicates that some letters must have been exchanged between Turgenev and Tchaikovsky in 1871, but unfortunately they have not come to light yet <ref name="note11"/>.
[[Guitry]], however, was delighted with the music Tchaikovsky had provided. After he had returned to France for good he sent Tchaikovsky, as a token of his gratitude, a bronze cockerel by the French sculptor Auguste Cain (1822–1894). This present can still be seen today in the composer's living-room at the [[Klin]] House-Museum.


Turgenev himself referred to such a correspondence in his reply to a letter from his good friend, the poet [[Yakov Polonsky]], who in February 1872 had written to him enthusiastically about the ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'' overture. This is what Turgenev said in his reply: "Tchaikovsky I saw in [[Moscow]] [in March 1871]: I've also heard his music and have corresponded with him, but I did not make his personal acquaintance. He seems to me a very likeable person, and his talent is indisputable — at any rate, it is a far more significant talent than that of all these Messrs [[Cui]], [[Balakirev]], and other nonentities, whom (just like the late [[Dargomyzhsky]], too) certain people are trying to make out to be geniuses" <ref name="note12"/>. This comparison of Tchaikovsky with the members of the "Mighty Handful", always to the detriment of the latter (with the exception of [[Rimsky-Korsakov]]), is one that Turgenev would frequently make in his letters to [[Vladimir Stasov]] in the 1870s, provoking the latter's fury and indignation. And even though Turgenev was later greatly impressed by what he heard of [[Musorgsky]]'s ''Boris Godunov'' and ''Khovanshchina'' at a private concert organized for him in [[Saint Petersburg]] on 22 May/3 June 1874 (with [[Musorgsky]] himself performing excerpts from his operas at the piano) <ref name="note13"/>, during his last visit to Russia in the summer of 1881 he stressed in conversations with [[Polonsky]] that of the Russian composers who came after [[Glinka]] he considered Tchaikovsky to be the most talented <ref name="note14"/>.
==Publication==
In June 1892 [[Pyotr Jurgenson]] published the full score and orchestral parts. The vocal-piano reduction — with the vocal numbers (Nos. 10, 11 and 13) arranged by the composer, and the remaining numbers by [[Eduard Langer]] — was issued together with a re-issue of the full score in February 1896.


To return to that letter of 1872 to [[Polonsky]], though, Turgenev explained to his friend that he had not yet had a chance to hear the ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'' overture. Two years later he ordered a copy of a piano duet arrangement of the overture from Russia, but after [[Pauline Viardot]] played it through they were not as impressed by the work as they had been expecting <ref name="note15"/>. It does not seem to have been until the all-Tchaikovsky concert in [[Saint Petersburg]] on 25 March/6 April 1880 that Turgenev was finally able to hear a proper performance of the overture.
The full score of Tchaikovsky's incidental music was published in volume 14 of Tchaikovsky's ''[[Complete Collected Works]]'', edited by Irina Iordan (1962). The vocal-piano reduction was not published as part of the collected works.


In November 1876, [[Sergey Taneyev]], who had graduated with flying colours from the [[Moscow]] Conservatory the previous year, set off for [[Paris]], where he intended to spend a few months getting to know the French music world. As he had done for many other young Russian artists (mostly painters) who came to [[Paris]] in the 1870s, Turgenev helped [[Taneyev]] to find affordable accommodation, and in a letter he sent to his mother [[Taneyev]] said of him: "I have never liked anyone so much as I like Turgenev: he is intelligent, kind, simple, frank, and speaks so well that one could go on listening to him forever" <ref name="note16"/>. Knowing that his former student was regularly attending the musical soirées organized by [[Pauline Viardot]], Tchaikovsky, who had some vague plans for arranging a concert featuring his works in [[Paris]] in March 1877, wrote to [[Taneyev]] in January asking if he thought that it might be possible to persuade Madame [[Viardot]] to perform some of his songs at such a concert and enclosed a letter to that effect which [[Taneyev]] was to pass on to Turgenev (Tchaikovsky's letter to [[Taneyev]] is quoted below). Unfortunately, due to lack of funds Tchaikovsky had to abandon the idea of organizing a concert in [[Paris]] that year, and it is not clear whether [[Taneyev]] passed on his message for Turgenev <ref name="note17"/>.
==Autographs==
Tchaikovsky's autograph score has been lost, but his manuscript of the additional fanfare (Act II, No. 5a) is now preserved in the {{RUS-SPsc}} in [[Saint Petersburg]] {{TOW2|gamlet|(ф. 384, No. 54)}}.


Turgenev continued to keep track of Tchaikovsky's development as a composer, and at the World Fair which was held in [[Paris]] in the summer of 1878 he had the opportunity to hear some of his more recent works: the ''[[Sérénade mélancolique]]'' and the ''[[Valse-Scherzo, Op. 34|Valse-Scherzo]]'', which was in fact given its world premiere in [[Paris]] that summer — on 8/20 September 1878, with the Polish virtuoso [[Stanisław Barcewicz]] as the soloist and [[Nikolay Rubinstein]] conducting. In a letter of 2/14 November 1878 to his agent in Russia, Turgenev asked him to try to obtain copies of the scores of these concertante pieces for violin. It seems very likely that Turgenev was hoping that Madame [[Viardot]]'s son Paul, a gifted violinist, would study these works and add them to his repertoire. In this letter to his agent, Turgenev also asked him to send to [[Paris]] a copy of the vocal-piano reduction of ''[[Yevgeny Onegin]]'', which had recently been published in [[Moscow]] by [[Jurgenson]] (in October 1878) <ref name="note18"/>. It is interesting that Turgenev seems to have been made aware of the existence of Tchaikovsky's new opera by a letter which [[Tolstoy]] sent him on 27 October/8 November 1878, asking: "What's Tchaikovsky's ''[[Yevgeny Onegin]]'' like? I haven't heard it, but I'm very interested" <ref name="note19"/>. Evidently rumours had reached [[Tolstoy]] in Yasnaya Polyana that preparations were underway at the [[Moscow]] Conservatory for a production of the opera, and the fact that he thought Turgenev (with whom he had only recently been reconciled after their quarrel of 1861) might be able to tell him something about it, confirms that Turgenev's keen interest in Tchaikovsky's music was widely known.
==Recordings==
{{reclink}}


As it turned out, though, Turgenev had not in fact been aware of ''[[Yevgeny Onegin]]'' until [[Tolstoy]] mentioned it to him in that letter, and he duly hastened to order a copy of the vocal-piano reduction of the opera. About a month later he replied to [[Tolstoy]]:
==Related Works==
{{quote|Tchaikovsky's ''[[Yevgeny Onegin]]'' has arrived here in the form of a piano score. Madame [[Viardot]] has started to go through this work in the evenings. The music is undoubtedly remarkable; the lyrical, melodious passages are particularly good. But what a libretto! Can you imagine: [[Pushkin]]'s verses describing the characters are put into the mouths of the characters themselves. […Turgenev gives an example from the libretto referring to Lensky…]}}
The Overture is an abridged and re-scored version of the overture-fantasia ''[[Hamlet (overture-fantasia)|Hamlet]]'', and themes from the latter are used in two of the Melodramas (Act I, Nos. 1 and 3), and the concluding march (Act V, No. 16).
{{quote|Tchaikovsky's name has risen greatly in general estimation here after the Russian Concerts in the ''Trocadéro'' [in the summer of 1878]; in Germany, on the other hand, his name has, for a long time already, been the object if not of esteem, then at least of attention. In [[Cambridge]] one Englishman, a professor of music, even told me in dead earnest that Tchaikovsky is the most remarkable musical personality of our times. I listened to him open-mouthed!" <ref name="note20"/>.}}


Now Turgenev had travelled to England in October 1878 to do some hunting with his English friends, but he had also found the time to visit the universities of Oxford and [[Cambridge]]. In his excellent book ''Turgenev and England'' (1981), Patrick Waddington suggests that the academic whom Turgenev met in [[Cambridge]] and who spoke so admiringly about Tchaikovsky was George Macfarren (1813–1887), the University's Professor of Music at the time, but in his notes Professor Waddington admits that it might also have been [[Charles Villiers Stanford]], who was then serving as organist at Trinity College and also teaching music there <ref name="note21"/>. In view of the latter's subsequent role in the award of an honorary doctorate to Tchaikovsky in 1893, it may well have been [[Stanford]], rather than Macfarren, who so astonished Turgenev by this early manifestation of the esteem in which the Russian composer was held in England.
Tchaikovsky also re-used music from three other earlier works:
 
* The Entr'acte (Act II, No. 5) is an abridged version of the ''Alla tedesca'' movement from his [[Third Symphony]] (1875)
In early 1879, when rehearsals for the premiere of ''[[Yevgeny Onegin]]'' by students of the [[Moscow]] Conservatory were in full swing, the paths of Tchaikovsky and Turgenev crossed in some very interesting ways. On 6/18 February 1879, the composer had arrived in [[Paris]] from [[Clarens]], where he had been working on ''[[The Maid of Orleans]]''. [[Nadezhda von Meck]] was herself also in [[Paris]] at the time, and on 19 February/3 March she wrote to Tchaikovsky, asking him why he did not visit Turgenev and "his wife" [[Pauline Viardot]]. With some irritation, as a letter to his brother [[Anatoly]] the following day indicates (see the list below), Tchaikovsky hastened to explain to his benefactress why he was averse to paying any social visits, even to someone who, as he knew, had shown so much interest in his music as Turgenev (the relevant excerpts from this letter of 19 February/3 March–20 February/4 March 1879 are likewise given below). In this very interesting letter Tchaikovsky also pointed out her misunderstanding as to Turgenev ever having been married to Madame [[Viardot]], and reflected on how this "strange, but touching" spiritual friendship between the two had caused the great writer to live in [[Paris]] for so many years — something that he himself would never have been able to contemplate, since he detested the French capital!
* The Entr'acte (Act III, No. 7) is based on the Melodrama (Act II, No. 10) from the incidental music to ''[[The Snow Maiden]]'' (1873)
 
* The Entr'acte (Act IV, No. 9) is a reworking of the ''[[Elegy]]'' for string orchestra (1884).
However, even if Tchaikovsky had overcome his dislike of social formalities and decided to call on Turgenev and the Viardots, he would have been disappointed — because Turgenev had in fact left [[Paris]] at the end of February and set off for Russia!
 
During this stay in Russia (8/20 February–21 March/2 April 1879), Turgenev was enthusiastically fêted by the general public and, in particular, by the university students of [[Moscow]] and [[Saint Petersburg]]. One of the reasons for this was the triumphant success of the first performance in [[Saint Petersburg]], at the Aleksandrinsky Theatre on 17/29 January 1879, of Turgenev's famous 1855 comedy ''A Month in the Country'' (which in its time had been forbidden by the censorship for its subversive portrayal of the gentry class). Now, when this play could at last be staged, with the great actress Mariya Savina (1854–1915) in the role of Verochka, audiences were delighted at its freshness of style, its sympathetic portrayal of ordinary people, with all their emotions, foibles and frustrations. Aleksandra Sholp has rightly argued that this revival of ''A Month in the Country'' and the premiere of Tchaikovsky's ''[[Yevgeny Onegin]]'' just two months later were highly significant landmarks for the development of 'lyrical drama' in Russia: just as Tchaikovsky had originally entitled his opera "''lyrical scenes''" to emphasize its intimacy and simplicity of design, so Turgenev's play in many ways heralded the genre of 'lyrical comedy' which [[Anton Chekhov]] was to develop so richly <ref name="note22"/>.
 
It is therefore all the more significant that Turgenev, who was to some extent familiar with the music of ''[[Yevgeny Onegin]]'' thanks to the vocal-piano reduction which [[Pauline Viardot]] had been playing through in [[Paris]], as well as with the libretto, which he had studied with some bemusement (as that letter to [[Tolstoy]] indicates), actually attended a rehearsal of Tchaikovsky's opera at the [[Moscow]] Conservatory on 17 February/1 March 1879. This is what he wrote about it in a letter to Madame [[Viardot]]'s daughter Claudie the following day:
{{quote|Yesterday evening I was at the Conservatory, where [[Nikolay Rubinstein]] conducted a dress rehearsal of Tchaikovsky's opera ''[[Yevgeny Onegin]]''. I found the music enchanting: it is ardent, passionate, youthful, very colourful and highly poetic. The orchestral accompaniment, especially, is distinguished by a remarkable freshness and verve. But the roles were all sung by students, from which you can picture to yourself what the quality of the singing must have been like! [...Turgenev then makes some ironic remarks about the student singing the part of Lensky…] On the other hand, [[Mariya Klimentova-Muromtseva|Mlle Klimenko]] [''sic''], who sang the heroine Tatyana, really does have a beautiful, albeit still quite uncouth, voice and a genuinely dramatic temperament — in able hands she may eventually become a notable artist. In short, I enjoyed myself" <ref name="note23"/>.}}
 
Again, this appraisal of Tchaikovsky's latest work testifies to Turgenev's admirable musical sensitivity. A few days later, on 1/13 March 1879, he attended a soirée in [[Vladimir Kashperov]]'s flat at which Tchaikovsky's loyal publisher [[Pyotr Jurgenson]] was also present. The following day, [[Jurgenson]] reported what had happened in a letter to the composer (who was still in [[Paris]]):
{{quote|It turns out that Turgenev is an ardent admirer of yours: he knows, and owns copies of, all your works, practically all of them! He asked me about those that hadn't been published yet; whether the [[Grand Sonata|sonata]] was ready; and, lastly, whether, in view of his gout, I could send someone to his hotel with copies of the ''[[Liturgy]]'', your last [[Six Romances, Op. 38|songs]], and your [[Souvenir d'un lieu cher|pieces for violin]]. He talked a lot about ''[[Onegin]]'', praised the music enthusiastically, and laughed good-naturedly about the libretto, which he referred to as a ''Chimborazo''…" <ref name="note24"/>.}}
 
By comparing the opera's libretto, which had been drawn up by Tchaikovsky himself and [[Konstantin Shilovsky]], to the Chimborazo mountain in Ecuador, Turgenev probably wanted to say that it was 'the height of absurdity'. As that letter to [[Tolstoy]] quoted above suggests, Turgenev was clearly bemused at the way some of [[Pushkin]]'s verses describing the characters of his novel had been adapted by the librettists so as to have them sung by the characters on the stage! Moreover, he may also have been baffled by the 'liberties' which Tchaikovsky had taken in the opera's final scene, dramatizing Onegin's interview with Tatyana, which was presented in such sober terms in [[Pushkin]]'s novel (for more details, see the entry on [[Dostoyevsky]]), although it is worth emphasizing that this did not in any way diminish his appreciation for what Tchaikovsky had achieved in ''[[Yevgeny Onegin]]''. On the contrary, as [[Jurgenson]] also noted in his letter to the composer, when [[Kashperov]], who was somewhat resentful of Tchaikovsky's success, argued at this soirée that some parts of ''[[Onegin]]'' resembled [[Bellini]]'s ''Norma'', Turgenev had "very nicely managed to change the subject" <ref name="note25"/>.
 
Tchaikovsky himself left [[Paris]] on 28 February/12 March, and after stopping at [[Berlin]] for a few days reached [[Saint Petersburg]] on 9/21 March. He made his way to [[Moscow]] on 16/28 March, just in time to attend the last dress rehearsal of his opera. Turgenev, however, had already travelled over to [[Saint Petersburg]], where a further series of banquets and galas in his honour awaited him: thus, he was unfortunately not present at the premiere of ''[[Yevgeny Onegin]]'' at the Maly Theatre in [[Moscow]] on 17/29 March 1879. Now, the composer's brother [[Modest]], discussing the audience's lukewarm reception of the opera — though not of Tchaikovsky himself, whom everyone was glad to see back in [[Moscow]], and who was enthusiastically applauded at the end of the performance — put this down to three factors: (1) the fact that the singers were still all students; (2) the proximity of the period in which the opera was set to the present time and place; and (3) the liberties which the librettists had taken with [[Pushkin]]'s verses, to which in some cases they had even dared to add their own, and "all of this taken together seemed to the overwhelming majority of the public — which was represented by I. S. Turgenev in one of his letters — even before they had actually heard the music, to be an act of impudence, thus predisposing people against the composition from the very start, and the word 'sacrilege' was uttered all over the auditorium" <ref name="note26"/>. However, as Aleksandra Sholp has pointed out, [[Modest Tchaikovsky]] was mistaken in 'blaming' Turgenev for the fact that so many spectators were supposedly prejudiced against'' [[Yevgeny Onegin]]'' at its premiere in 1879. For that letter of his to [[Tolstoy]] in which he had criticized the opera's libretto was not actually made public until 1884 (a year after Turgenev's death, when a first edition of his correspondence was published), and, as we have seen, on such occasions as the soirée in [[Kashperov]]'s flat two weeks before the premiere, Turgenev had spoken enthusiastically about Tchaikovsky's music and defended it against such detractors as [[Kashperov]]! <ref name="note27"/>
 
During Turgenev's next stay in Russia, in the first half of 1880, he had several opportunities to hear Tchaikovsky's music, including some works which were new to him. The first such opportunity was at a soirée in [[Saint Petersburg]] on 20 March/1 April 1880 at which [[Anna Frideburg]] had performed "a song by Tchaikovsky (which I was not familiar with) — it is beautiful, heart-felt, and superb. I will send it to you" <ref name="note28"/>. The song in question was ''Amid the Din of the Ball'' (No. 3 of the [[Six Romances, Op. 38]]). A few days later Turgenev attended the all-Tchaikovsky concert which took place in [[Saint Petersburg]] on 25 March/6 April 1880 and featured the [[Suite No. 1]], the Letter Scene from ''[[Yevgeny Onegin]]'' (sung by [[Aleksandra Panayeva]]), the ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'' overture-fantasia, various songs, and an arrangement for violin with orchestra of the ''Andante cantabile'' from [[String Quartet No. 1]]. [[Modest Tchaikovsky]] noted Turgenev's presence at this concert in his biography of the composer <ref name="note29"/>, and it seems that, just as had happened at that concert in [[Moscow]] in 1871, his brother avoided being introduced to one of the most prominent admirers of his music! Turgenev was unfortunately unable to attend a private performance of excerpts from ''[[The Maid of Orleans]]'' at the home of [[Yuliya Abaza]] on 30 March/11 April 1880 <ref name="note30"/>.
 
The following anecdote recounted by [[Alina Bryullova]] in her memoirs as an example of one of Tchaikovsky's 'social phobias' — having to talk to fellow passengers in railway carriages — probably did not take place during Turgenev's stay in Russia in 1880, since Tchaikovsky seems to have travelled from [[Saint Petersburg]] to [[Moscow]] at an earlier date than Turgenev (namely on 1/13 April) <ref name="note31"/>, but it is still worth quoting here to recapitulate why the composer went to such lengths to avoid meeting Turgenev face to face, even though he so admired him:
{{quote|On another such occasion Tchaikovsky met [Aleksandr] Verzhbilovich [a cellist] on the train corridor. 'Oh, Pyotr Ilyich, how timely! You know what, Turgenev is travelling in the same carriage as me. He is very keen to make your acquaintance. I'll just go and fetch him!' Verzhbilovich rushed off, but Pyotr Ilyich, as stealthily as a thief in the night, made his way into the third class carriage and hid there until the train had pulled into [[Moscow]] and the very last passenger had got off. 'Why did you do that?' I asked him when he told me about this just like a school-boy who has tricked his teacher; 'Don't you like Turgenev?' — 'I love him terribly, I worship him, but what would I have said to him? It would have been very awkward for me, and that's why I ran away'" <ref name="note32"/>.}}
 
The last time that we can say for sure that Tchaikovsky saw Turgenev (even if again he did not exchange any words with him) was the sad occasion of the funeral service for [[Nikolay Rubinstein]] at the Russian Orthodox church in [[Paris]] on 14/26 March 1881. Shortly afterwards Tchaikovsky wrote a letter-article entitled ''[[The Last Days of N. G. Rubinstein's Life]]'' ([[TH 315]]) in which he noted how Turgenev, amongst others, had visited the great pianist and conductor in the final phase of his illness, and how these visits had been a great source of encouragement for [[Nikolay Rubinstein|Rubinstein]], who right up to the very end had hoped that his health would improve.
 
Tchaikovsky did stay in [[Paris]] again in January–May 1883, but by then Turgenev was himself gravely ill and had only a few months left to live. Tchaikovsky, who had his own worries on his mind during this stay in the French capital (he was looking after his niece [[Tatyana Davydova]]), evidently saw no reason to call on Turgenev now given that he had chosen not to do so on earlier visits to [[Paris]].
 
In 1884, a year after Turgenev's death, a first edition of his correspondence was published in [[Saint Petersburg]], and from an entry in [[Modest Tchaikovsky]]'s diary we find out that on 8/20 December 1884 the composer had "become engrossed in reading Turgenev's letters" <ref name="note33"/>. In April 1885, a provincial teacher called [[Pavel Pereletsky]] wrote to Tchaikovsky, insisting that he should not write operas on subjects like ''[[The Maid of Orleans]]'' or ''[[The Enchantress]]'', but rather return to the style of ''[[Yevgeny Onegin]]'', and recommended him to use a scenario based on Turgenev's novel ''On the Eve''! Tchaikovsky's reply is quoted in the entry for [[Pereletsky]] and contains some valuable reflections on this novel, as well as his views on what constituted a viable subject for opera and what didn't.
 
From a diary entry of 15/27 May 1886, when we was on his way from [[Marseilles]] to [[Paris]], we find out that Tchaikovsky was reading one of Paul Bourget's ''Essais de psychologie contemporaine'' which dealt with Turgenev <ref name="note34"/>. Two weeks later, on 31 May/12 June 1886, Tchaikovsky at last paid his long overdue first visit to [[Pauline Viardot]] at her house in [[Paris]], and apart from being shown the autograph score of [[Mozart]]'s'' Don Giovanni'', we know that he spoke with her a lot about Turgenev, and that she told him about the composition of the enigmatic story ''The Song of Triumphant Love'' (see Tchaikovsky's letter of 28 June/10 July 1886 to [[Nadezhda von Meck]], quoted below). It is almost certain that this memorable meeting with Madame [[Viardot]] prompted Tchaikovsky, while staying at [[Maydanovo]] in February 1887, to read ''The Song of Triumphant Love'', amongst other stories by Turgenev. But this particular story, which describes the spell-binding power of music and also reveals something of Turgenev's frustrations in life, caught Tchaikovsky's imagination, as recorded in a diary entry for 1/13 February 1887 (see below), which also refers to a "strange dream" about Madame [[Viardot]]. Indeed, the composer was so much absorbed in the mysterious atmosphere of Turgenev's story that soon afterwards he made some sketches for a vocal work to be entitled ''[[Song of Triumphant Love]]'' ([[TH 227]]). This project was unfortunately never realised.
 
Further diary entries show that in February 1887 Tchaikovsky also read Turgenev's last published story ''Klara Milich'' (1883), also known by the title'' After Death'' (После смерти), in which the great writer, who was celebrated for his portraits of young women attaining spiritual maturity through the often bitter experience of first love, responded to the tragic fate of [[Yevlaliya Kadmina]] — a singer and actress for whom Tchaikovsky had felt the greatest admiration ever since she appeared in student performances at the [[Moscow]] Conservatory.
 
==Correspondence with Tchaikovsky==
No correspondence between Tchaikovsky and Turgenev has come to light yet, but there is clear evidence that they did exchange letters:
* In a letter from Turgenev to Mariya Miliutina, 15/27 April 1871 (sent from [[London]], where he and the Viardots were living during the Franco-Prussian War), the writer thanks her for sending a copy of the [[Six Romances, Op. 6]] and says that [[Pauline Viardot]] had asked him to write to Tchaikovsky on her behalf and send him a copy of her own song albums.
* In a letter from Turgenev to [[Yakov Polonsky]], 2/14 March 1872 (sent from [[Paris]]), quoted in more detail above, the writer says that he had "corresponded with Tchaikovsky" shortly after seeing him at that concert in [[Moscow]] on 16/28 March 1871.
* In [[Letter 535]] to [[Sergey Taneyev]], 12/24 January 1877 (quoted below), Tchaikovsky says that he had enclosed a letter for Turgenev in which he asked if [[Pauline Viardot]] would be willing to take part in the concert which he wanted to organize in [[Paris]] in March 1877 (but which never worked out because of lack of funds).
 
==References to Ivan Turgenev and his Works==
===In Tchaikovsky's Letters===
* [[Letter 98]] to [[Anatoly Tchaikovsky]], 2/14 May 1867, from [[Moscow]]:
{{quote|There's no point telling you about the celebrations which took place here [to mark a visit by Grand Duke [[Alexander III|Aleksandr Aleksandrovich]] and his wife [[Mariya Fyodorovna]]], since you'll have read about them in the newspapers. I didn't go to the festivities in the Sokolniki Park because I preferred instead to read ''Smoke'' (Дым) to the end. I spent the whole evening on it and don't regret it" <ref name="note35"/>.}}
* [[Letter 535]] to [[Sergey Taneyev]], 12/24 January 1877, in which Tchaikovsky discusses with his former student (who was then staying in [[Paris]] and had met Turgenev) the possibility of organizing a concert in the French capital featuring his works ([[Édouard Colonne]] had in principle agreed to conduct at such a concert):
{{quote|Now this is what I wanted to discuss. Would it be seen as madness on my part if I were to ask [[Viardot]], through Turgenev, to take part in my concert? After all, she has performed my songs, hasn't she? If it's a crazy idea, then just throw away the enclosed letter. But if you think it's all right, then please go to Turgenev and hand him this letter" <ref name="note36"/>.}}
* [[Letter 1116]] to [[Anatoly Tchaikovsky]], 20 February/4 March 1879, from [[Paris]]:
{{quote|[I am angry] with [[Nadezhda Filaretovna]]! Yes, with her! For it really is true, as the saying goes, that women have ''long hair but short intellect''. I mean, she is supposed to be an intelligent and sensitive woman, and I've described myself to her quite sufficiently, but even so — just imagine this — in her last letter she asked me: 'Why don't you call on Turgenev and [[Pauline Viardot|Madame Viardot]]?'. This infuriated me greatly because it means that in my reply I will again have to describe to her my unsociable character, my hatred of having to make acquaintances".}}
* [[Letter 1115]] to [[Nadezhda von Meck]], 19 February/3 March–20 February/4 March 1879, from [[Paris]], in which Tchaikovsky explains why he did not wish to call on Turgenev during his stay in the city:
{{quote|You asked me, dear friend, why I do not visit Turgenev. This question forces me to give a very extensive and detailed reply […]}}
{{quote|All my life I have been tormented by all obligatory social relations with people. By nature I am an unsociable person. Every new acquaintance, every new meeting with someone whom I do not know has always been a source of the most agonizing moral anguish for me […] Not once in my life have I ever taken any step to make the acquaintance of this or that interesting personality. And whenever such an acquaintance did take place because it could not be avoided, I invariably just felt disillusioned, saddened, and worn out afterwards […Tchaikovsky then describes his meetings with [[Tolstoy]] in December 1876, and how awkward he had felt …] : I shall generalize what I'm trying to say. In my view it is only possible to enjoy somebody's company when, as a result of many years of contact and shared interests (especially family interests), one can actually be oneself in that person's presence. If that isn't the case, then having to associate with others is a burden, and my moral constitution is such that I am incapable of putting up with this burden. : That is why, dear friend, I do not call on Turgenev or on anyone else. […] : Now I have calmed down. I have become wholly convinced that it is pointless to continue any attempts to re-educate myself at my age. If, let us say, three years ago I had had the occasion to spend some time in [[Paris]], I would probably have ended up by not calling on anyone, just like now, but back then that would have tormented me; I would have reproached myself. Turgenev has expressed much sympathy for my music several times, [[Viardot]] has performed my songs. It would seem that I ought to have visited them, wouldn't it? — and that would indeed probably even have been of benefit to me. Now, though, I have reconciled myself to the idea that my successes are paralyzed by my unsociability and have calmed down completely. […] : Allow me to correct one delusion which you are under (as, by the way, many other people are, too). Turgenev is not married, and never has been, to [[Viardot]]. She is married to Louis Viardot, who is still alive and healthy. This M. Viardot is a very respected writer and, amongst other things, a translator of [[Pushkin]]. Turgenev and [[Viardot]] are united by a very touching and utterly pure friendship, which has long since become such a habit that they cannot live without one another. This is a wholly unquestionable fact. […] : Everything that you say about French customs and their civility, which at bottom masks a frightful coarseness, is quite right. You know, Turgenev is a mystery for me in the way he has made [[Paris]] into his second homeland! Spending all one's life amongst this swarm of insolent fellows and complacent slaves of routine who profoundly despise everything that isn't [[Paris]] or France — to me that it is incomprehensible! Such is the strength of his friendship with [[Viardot]]. It is strange, but touching!"}}
* [[Letter 1276]] to [[Nadezhda von Meck]], 29 August/10 September–31 August/12 September 1879, from [[Simaki]], in which Tchaikovsky discusses the character of his benefactress's new house violinist [[Władysław Pachulski]]:
{{quote|I don't know why, but it seems to me that in [[Władysław Pachulski|Pachulski]] there are traits which bring to mind a Turgenevan hero, that is someone who is very capable, who is endowed with a wholly sincere and ardent yearning to realise the most grandly conceived plans, and yet…" <ref name="note37"/>.}}
* [[Letter 2562]] to [[Nadezhda von Meck]], 1/13–3/15 October 1884, from her estate at [[Pleshcheyevo]]:
{{quote|At your house I have been reading a huge number of books — in particular, lots of Russian classics, whereby I've noticed that as much as my inclination for [[Lev Tolstoy]] has become stronger, so my feelings about Turgenev have grown markedly cooler. I wonder why that is so? — I really can't explain it to myself. I've also read here [[Goethe]]'s ''Wilhelm Meister'', which I didn't know before" <ref name="note38"/>.}}
* [[Letter 2955]] to [[Nadezhda von Meck]], 19/31 May 1886, from [[Paris]]:
{{quote|How nice it is to be able to verify with one's own eyes the success of our country's literature in France. All the shop-windows here flaunt translations of [[Tolstoy]], Turgenev, [[Dostoyevsky]], Pisemsky, and Goncharov. In the newspapers one constantly comes across enthusiastic articles about one or the other of these writers. Maybe such a time will also come for Russian music!"}}
* [[Letter 2988]] to [[Nadezhda von Meck]], 28 June/10 July 1886, from [[Maydanovo]]:
{{quote|With regard to your question as to whether [[Viardot]] still remembers Turgenev, I can assure you that not only does she remember him, but we spent almost all the time talking about him, and she told me in detail how together they wrote ''The Song of Triumphant Love''. […Then Tchaikovsky tells his benefactress how Madame [[Viardot]] had shown him the autograph score of [[Mozart]]'s ''Don Giovanni'' and what this had meant for him — see the entry on [[Pauline Viardot]]] <ref name="note39"/>.}}
* [[Letter 2985]] to [[Modest Tchaikovsky]], 25 June/7 July 1886:
{{quote|I read [Paul Bourget's novel] ''Crime d'amour'' onboard a boat on the Mediterranean Sea, and I also liked it very much. To me it seems that it was written under the influence of ''Turgenev'' and even [[Tolstoy]]. Bourget is far close to them than to Zola. As for [Goncharov's novel] ''Oblomov'', I read it again not so long ago in [[Pleshcheyevo]]…" <ref name="note40"/>.}}
* [[Letter 3651]] to [[Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich]], 26 August/7 September 1888, in which Tchaikovsky discusses the metric properties of Russian verse, as well as one of his favourite poets [[Afanasy Fet]] (1820–1892):
{{quote|What I would like to point out is that I wish we could more often see such deviations from the standard poetic devices as you have pleased to indicate in [[Fet]]'s poetry. After all, the Russian language, as Turgenev rightly observed in one of his poems in prose, is something infinitely rich, strong, and great, and I am not at all convinced that only the tonic system of verse is intrinsic to it…" <ref name="note41"/>.}}
 
===In Tchaikovsky's Diaries===
* Entries for 31 July/12 August and 1/13 August 1886, [[Maydanovo]]:
{{quote|''July 31''. […] While reading the article by ''Voguë'' (''Le roman Russe'') about Turgenev, I cried. Went for a walk […] After dinner I read ''Bourget'' (about Turgenev, Amiel and the Goncourt brothers etc) […] ''August 1.'' […] Read ''Voguë'' on [[Dostoyevsky]] and cried again" <ref name="note42"/>.}}
* Entry for 1/13 February 1887, [[Maydanovo]]:
{{quote|… Then tea, work, dinner, and reading of Turgenev (''The Song of Triumphant Love''). This made a strong impression on me. Strange dreams at night: Madame [[Viardot]] and ''[[Laroche]]''" <ref name="note43"/>.}}
* Entry for 3/15 February 1887, [[Maydanovo]]:
{{quote|…Worked all evening on the same [changes to Act IV of ''[[The Enchantress]]'']. Very difficult. After dinner I read ''Klara Milich''" <ref name="note44"/>.}}
* Entry for 4/16 February 1887, on the way from [[Maydanovo]] to [[Moscow]]:
{{quote|… Set off for [[Moscow]] at 7 o'clock. On the way I read Turgenev's short stories and was delighted" <ref name="note45"/>.}}
 
==Bibliography==
* {{bib|1885/5}} (1885)
* {{bib|1889/43}} (1889)
* {{bib|1940/299}} (1940)
* {{bib|1960/43}} (1960)
* {{bib|1973/121}} (1973)
* {{bib|1975/88}} (1975)
* {{bib|1980/147}} (1980)
* {{bib|1993/178}} (1993)
* {{bib|1998/65}} (1998)
* {{bib|2021/15}} (2021)


==External Links==
==External Links==
* [[wikipedia:Ivan_Turgenev|Wikipedia]]
* {{imslpscore|Hamlet_(incidental_music),_Op.67b_(Tchaikovsky,_Pyotr)|Hamlet (incidental music)}}
* ''[http://www.turgenevmusica.info/en/tchaikovsky.html Turgenev and Tchaikovsky]'' (with music samples)


==Notes and References==
==Notes and References==
<references>
<references>
<ref name="note1">In an article by two leading Russian Turgenev scholars, evidence has been presented which suggests that the writer may have had another illegitimate daughter: Yevdokiya Ivanovna Kuzmina (1860-1919). It is not known who her mother was, but Turgenev clearly took an interest in Yevdokiya's fate, sending her an encouraging letter in 1881 — a few years after she had completed her schooling at an orphanage in 1878 and had decided to become a teacher — and, significantly, bequeathing to her the royalties from performances of his plays. See Nazarova, L. and Golovanova, {{und|Евдокия Ивановна Кузьмина}}, ''Нева'', No. 7 (2001), p. 202-206. These findings are also discussed in: N. P. Generalova, {{und|И. С. Тургенев: Россия и Европа}} ([[Saint Petersburg]], 2003), p. 32-33.</ref>
<ref name="note1">Letter from [[Lucien Guitry]] to Tchaikovsky, 25 January/6 February 1888 — [[Klin]] House-Museum Archive. This letter has been published in {{bib|1970/6|Чайковский и зарубежные музыканты}} (1970), p. 209–210, p. 108–110 (Russian translation).</ref>  
<ref name="note2">{{bib|1980/51}} (1980), p. 210. This extract is also included in {{bib|1993/33|Tchaikovsky Remembered}} (1993), p. 100.</ref>
<ref name="note2">[[Letter 2677a]] to [[Lucien Guitry]], 1/13 April 1885.</ref>
<ref name="note3">This review, which appeared in the 9 December 1881 {{NS}} issue of the ''Wiener Abendpost'' is quoted in {{bib|1940/107|Дни и годы П. И. Чайковского. Летопись жизни и творчества}} (1940), p. 260. Most of the other Viennese reviews of the [[Violin Concerto]] were highly critical, describing it variously as being "of very doubtful quality" (''Fremdenblatt''), "markedly stuffed with Russian or Slavic motifs" (''Neues Wiener Tageblatt''), "barbarically repulsive" (''Wiener Sonn- und Montagszeitung''), and "the most savage Russian nihilism" (''Wiener Signale''). All these reviews are quoted in {{bib|1940/107|Дни и годы П. И. Чайковского. Летопись жизни и творчества}} (1940), p. 259–262. However, the one that hurt Tchaikovsky the most was Eduard Hanslick's dismissal of his concerto as "stinking music", and this was something he would never forget (see Chapter IV of [[TH 316]]).</ref>
<ref name="note3">Letter from [[Lucien Guitry]] to Tchaikovsky, 4/16 October 1890. See {{bib|1970/6|Чайковский и зарубежные музыканты}} (1970), p. 212 (original French text), p. 111–112 (Russian translation).</ref>  
<ref name="note4">Quoted in Adelina Lukanina's reminiscences of Turgenev in Fridliand, V. G. and Petrov, S. M. Petrov (eds.). {{und|И. С. Тургенев в воспоминаниях современников, том 2}} (Moscow, 1983), p. 204. It was the French poet Prosper Merimée who had given Turgenev this definition of Russian literature (based on his knowledge of [[Pushkin]]), and Turgenev told Lukanina that he would never forget this insightful remark.</ref>
<ref name="note4">Letter from [[Lucien Guitry]] to Tchaikovsky, 5/17 September 1890 — [[Klin]] House-Museum Archive. This letter has been published in {{bib|1970/6|Чайковский и зарубежные музыканты}} (1970), p. 211, p. 111 (Russian translation).</ref>  
<ref name="note5">See also, for example, [[Letter 2356]] to [[Nadezhda von Meck]], 28 September/12 October–30 September/14 October 1883, in which he compares her hostility to the operatic genre to that of [[Tolstoy]] (citing a famous scene from ''War and Peace'') and insists that the dramatic motifs and individual characters of an opera could inspire composers such as [[Mozart]] to produce music that was profoundly truthful in its way. He had hoped to do the same in ''[[Yevgeny Onegin]]'', he points out in this letter. See also his diary entry for 23 July/4 August 1888, quoted in the entry on [[Dargomyzhsky]].</ref>
<ref name="note5">[[Letter 4300]] to [[Modest Tchaikovsky]], 11/23 January 1891.</ref>  
<ref name="note6">[[Letter 4289]] to [[Vladimir Pogozhev]], 6/18 January 1891. Quoted in {{bib|1961/18|П. И. Чайковский о России и русской культуре. Избранные отрывки из писем и статей}} (1961), p. 170.</ref>
<ref name="note6">[[Letter 4312]] to [[Anatoly Tchaikovsky]], 22 January/3 February 1891.</ref>  
<ref name="note7">Diary entry for 12/24 July 1886 in {{bib|1993/231|Дневники П. И. Чайковского, 1873–1891}} (1993), p. 211. See also the entry on [[Tolstoy]] for the many other diary entries around that date in which he is mentioned.</ref>
<ref name="note7">[[Letter 4329]] to [[Anatoly Tchaikovsky]], 12/24 February 1891.</ref>  
<ref name="note8">{{bib|1980/87|Воспоминания о П. И. Чайковском}} (1980), p. 354.</ref>
<ref name="note8">[[Letter 5020]] to [[Michał Hertz]], 23 August/4 September 1893.</ref>
<ref name="note9">This account by [[Nikolay Kashkin]] is quoted in {{bib|1900/35|Жизнь Петра Ильича Чайковского ; том 1]]}} (1997), p. 341–342.</ref>
<ref name="note10">Letter from Turgenev to Mariya Milyutina, 15/27 April 1871, sent from [[London]] in: {{und|I. S. Turgenev. Полное собрание сочинений и писем}} (Leningrad, 1961–68), {{und|Письма ; том 9}}, p. 77. Mariya Ageyevna Milyutina (née Abaza; 1834–1903) was the sister of the civil servant Aleksandr Ageyevich Abaza (1821–1895) and thus the sister-in-law of the amateur singer [[Yuliya Abaza|Yuliya Fyodorovna Abaza]] (née Stubbe; 1830–1915), with whom Tchaikovsky had taken some lessons in piano accompaniment in the 1860s and at whose house in [[Saint Petersburg]] a private performance of ''[[Yevgeny Onegin]]'' (sung from the vocal-piano reduction) took place on 6/18 March 1879 (with [[Aleksandra Panayeva]] singing Tatyana). Turgenev frequently visited Madame [[Abaza]]'s musical soirées during his stays in [[Saint Petersburg]], and in 1880 had hoped to attend a private performance there of ''[[The Maid of Orleans]]'', but was ultimately unable to make it.</ref>
<ref name="note11">The copies of [[Pauline Viardot]]'s song-albums were, however, forwarded to Tchaikovsky by Turgenev's friend and literary adviser Pavel Annenkov (1814–1887), who was then living in [[Saint Petersburg]]. We know this from a letter which Turgenev sent from [[London]] on 19 April/1 May 1871 to Annenkov. See {{und|И. С. Тургненв. Полное собрание сочинений и писем}} (Leningrad, 1961–68), {{und|Письма ; том 9}}, p. 81.</ref>
<ref name="note12">Letter from Turgenev to [[Yakov Polonsky]], 2/14 March 1872, sent from [[Paris]], in {{und|И. С. Тургненв. Полное собрание сочинений и писем}} (Leningrad, 1961–68), {{und|Письма ; том 9}}, p. 237.</ref>
<ref name="note13">See Turgenev's letter to [[Pauline Viardot]], 21 May/2 June–22 May/3 June 1874, sent from [[Saint Petersburg]], in Zviguilsky, A. (ed.), {{und|Ivan Tourguéniev. Nouvelle correspondance inédite ; vol. 1}} (Paris, 1971), p. 211–212. More details of this private concert are given in: [http://www.antonchekhov.net/ 'Turgenev and Musorgsky'].</ref>
<ref name="note14">[[Yakov Polonsky]]'s reminiscences of Turgenev are included in Fridliand, V. G. and Petrov, S. M. Petrov (eds.). {{und|И. С. Тургенев в воспоминаниях современников, том 2}} (Moscow, 1983), p. 429.</ref>
<ref name="note15">See Turgenev's letter to Aleksandr Toporov, 26 August/7 September 1874, sent from Bougival; and Turgenev's letter to Toporov, 28 September/10 October 1874, also sent from Bougival in {{und|И. С. Тургненв. Полное собрание сочинений и писем}} (Leningrad, 1961–68), {{und|Письма ; том 10}}, p. 286 and 307 respectively.</ref>
<ref name="note16">Letter from [[Sergey Taneyev]] to [[Varvara Taneyeva]], 17/29 December 1876, in {{bib|1951/48|П. И. Чайковский. С. И. Танеев. Письма}} (1951), p. 381–382.</ref>
<ref name="note17">See also [[Letter 539]] to [[Sergey Taneyev]], 29 January/10 February 1877, in which Tchaikovsky briefly reports that he had been unable to raise the necessary funds. The letter from [[Taneyev]] to which Tchaikovsky was replying has been lost, which is unfortunate because it is likely that in it [[Taneyev]] would have said something about Turgenev and Madame [[Viardot]]'s response to Tchaikovsky's suggestion.</ref>
<ref name="note18">Letter from Turgenev to Aleksandr Toporov, 2/14 November 1878, sent from [[Paris]] in {{und|И. С. Тургненв. Полное собрание сочинений и писем}} (Leningrad, 1961–68), {{und|Письма ; том 12/1}}, p. 377.</ref>
<ref name="note19">Letter from [[Lev Tolstoy]] to Turgenev, 27 October/8 November 1878. This letter is quoted in Paliukh, Z. G. & Prokhorov, A. V. (eds.), {{und|Лев Толстой и музыка}} (Moscow, 1977), p. 117.</ref>
<ref name="note20">Letter from Turgenev to [[Lev Tolstoy]], 15/27 November 1878, sent from [[Paris]], in {{und|И. С. Тургненв. Полное собрание сочинений и писем}} (Leningrad, 1961–68), {{und|Письма ; том 12/1}}, p. 383–384.</ref>
<ref name="note21">See Waddington, P. {{und|Turgenev and England}} (New York, 1981), p. 239 and p. 304.</ref>
<ref name="note22">See {{bib|1960/43}} (1960). Richard Taruskin has also made a similar point: "What Tchaikovsky had created in ''[[Yevgeny Onegin]]'' was the one Russian opera that behaves like Turgenev's own famous and very innovative play ''A Month in the Country'' — 'lyrical scenes', so to speak, in which nothing seems to happen except inside the characters. It is a thoroughly novelized drama, even as ''[[Yevgeny Onegin]]'' is novelized opera. Just as in Turgenev's novels, the mechanism of ''A Month in the Country'', seemingly derived directly from [[Pushkin]]'s ''Yevgeny Onegin'', concerns the entry into the settled society of a gentry estate of an outsider whose disturbance of its routine illuminates its nature". Quoted from ''Tchaikovsky and the Literary Folk. A Study in Misplaced Derision' (1996), reprinted in Taruskin's collection of essays {{und|On Russian Music}} (Berkeley/Los Angeles, 2009), p. 113.</ref>
<ref name="note23">Letter from Turgenev to Claudie Viardot, 18 February/2 March 1879, sent from [[Moscow]], in Zviguilsky, A. (ed.), {{und|Ivan Tourguéniev. Nouvelle correspondance inédite ; vol. 1}} (Paris, 1971), p. 292–293.</ref>
<ref name="note24">Letter from [[Pyotr Jurgenson]] to Tchaikovsky, 2/14 March 1879. This letter is quoted in: Aleksandra Sholp, «И. С. Тургенев и «Евгений Онегин» Чайковского]]», in {{bib|1960/43|И. С. Тургенев (1818–1883–1958): Статьи и материалы}} (1960).</ref>
<ref name="note25">Letter from [[Pyotr Jurgenson]] to Tchaikovsky, 2/14 March 1879.</ref>
<ref name="note26">{{bib|1997/95|Жизнь Петра Ильича Чайковского ; том 2}} (1997), p. 231–232.</ref>
<ref name="note27">See Aleksandra Sholp, «И. С. Тургенев и «Евгений Онегин» Чайковского]]», in {{bib|1960/43|И. С. Тургенев (1818–1883–1958): Статьи и материалы]]}} (1960). She suggests that [[Modest]] may have mixed up the actual premiere of ''[[Yevgeny Onegin]]'' with its first performance in [[Saint Petersburg]] in 1884, by which time Turgenev's letter to [[Tolstoy]] would indeed have been published — this did not, however, prevent the production of ''[[Onegin]]'' at the Mariinsky Theatre on 19/31 October 1884 from being a resounding success.</ref>
<ref name="note28">Letter from Turgenev to [[Pauline Viardot]], 20 March/1 April 1880, sent from [[Saint Petersburg]], in Zviguilsky, A. (ed.), {{und|Ivan Tourguéniev. Nouvelle correspondance inédite ; vol. 1}} (Paris, 1971), p. 236–237.</ref>
<ref name="note29">See {{bib|1997/95|Жизнь Петра Ильича Чайковского ; том 2}} (1997), p. 326. Also present at this concert was Grand Duchess [[Mariya Fyodorovna]], who liked Tchaikovsky's music very much.</ref>
<ref name="note30">Letter from Turgenev to [[Pauline Viardot]], 1/13 April 1880, sent from [[Saint Petersburg]], in Zviguilsky, A. (ed.), {{und|Ivan Tourguéniev. Nouvelle correspondance inédite ; vol. 1}} (Paris, 1971), p. 239. In this letter Turgenev also repeats his admiration for ''Amid the Din of the Ball'' (Средь шумного бала).</ref>
<ref name="note31">See also {{bib|1940/107|Дни и годы П. И. Чайковского. Летопись жизни и творчества}} (1940), p. 231.</ref>
<ref name="note32">[[Alina Bryullova]]'s reminiscences of Tchaikovsky are included in  {{bib|1980/24|Воспоминания о П. И. Чайковском}} (1980), p. 109. This passage is also included in  {{bib|1993/33|Tchaikovsky Remembered}} (1983), p. 101–102.</ref>
<ref name="note33">This entry from [[Modest Tchaikovsky]]'s diary is quoted in {{bib|1940/107|Дни и годы П. И. Чайковского. Летопись жизни и творчества}} (1940), p. 333.</ref>
<ref name="note34">Diary entry for 15/27 May 1886 in {{bib|1993/231|Дневники П. И. Чайковского, 1873–1891}} (1993), p. 59.</ref>
<ref name="note35">Turgenev's novel ''Smoke'' (Дым) had recently been published in the March 1867 issue of the journal ''Russian Herald'' (Русский вестник).</ref>
<ref name="note36">This letter is reprinted in {{bib|1951/48|П. И. Чайковский. С. И. Танеев. Письма}} (1951), p. 15.</ref>
<ref name="note37">Tchaikovsky is thinking of such figures in Turgenev's works as Rudin (in the eponymous novel of 1856) or Sanin in the short novel ''Spring Waters'' (1872), who are full of the most noble ambitions but ultimately fail to achieve much because of their weakness of will.</ref>
<ref name="note38">Although Tchaikovsky did not read ''Wilhelm Meisters Lehrjahre'' until 1884, as the above letter indicates, one of his most famous romances: ''None But the Lonely Heart'' (No. 6 of the [[Six Romances, Op. 6]]), composed in 1869, was a setting of one of Mignon's songs (translated into Russian) from [[Goethe]]'s novel.</ref>
<ref name="note39">Turgenev started writing ''The Song of Triumphant Love'' in November 1879, while in Bougival, but he completed it during his last stay in Russia, on his family estate at Spasskoye, in the summer of 1881, so it is possible that he sought [[Pauline Viardot]]'s advice during the initial stages of his work on this short story, which was eventually published in November 1881. Tchaikovsky would read (or re-read) this story in February 1887, as indicated by a diary entry quoted further down, and he had a strange dream about Madame [[Viardot]]. All this seems to have induced him to make some sketches for an unrealised vocal work ''[[Song of Triumphant Love]]'' ([[TH 227]]), based on Turgenev's mysterious story.</ref>
<ref name="note40">On 5/17 May 1886 Tchaikovsky had set sail from [[Constantinople]] and spent six days at sea before reaching [[Marseilles]] on 11/23 May. While aboard the ship he read Paul Bourget's novel ''Un crime d'amour'' (1886) and wrote about it in his diary on 8/20 May 1886: "The ending of '' Bourget's'' novel made me cry". See {{bib|1993/231|Дневники П. И. Чайковского, 1873–1891}} (1993), p. 57. Paul Bourget (1852–1935), French writer and critic.</ref>
<ref name="note41">Tchaikovsky is referring to ''The Russian Language'' (Русский язык), one of the ''Poems in Prose'' (Стихотворения в прозе), a collection of short pieces (none of which is strictly in verse) containing reminiscences and reflections on various events in his life which Turgenev published in 1882. "The Russian Language" is one of the most famous of these and reads: "In days of doubt, in days of painful thoughts about the fortunes of my native land, you alone are my support and stay, o great, mighty, truthful, and free Russian language! If it weren't for you, how could I not help falling into despair in view of everything that is taking place at home? But it is impossible not to believe that such a language was given to a great people!".</ref>
<ref name="note42">See {{bib|1993/231|Дневники П. И. Чайковского, 1873–1891}} (1993), p. 83–84. Eugène-Melchior, vicomte de Vogüé (1848–1910), French diplomat and author; he wrote a valuable monograph on Russian literature ''Le roman russe'' (Paris, 1886). One of Paul Bourget's ''Essais de psychologie contemporaine'' (Paris, 1883) dealt with Turgenev.</ref>
<ref name="note43">Diary entry for 1/13 February 1887 in {{bib|1993/231|Дневники П. И. Чайковского, 1873–1891}} (1993), p. 125. Soon afterwards, it seems, Tchaikovsky made some sketches for an unrealised vocal work based on Turgenev's story: ''[[Song of Triumphant Love]]'' (TH 227]]).</ref>
<ref name="note44">Diary entry for 3/15 February 1887 in {{bib|1993/231|Дневники П. И. Чайковского, 1873–1891}} (1993), p. 125.</ref>
<ref name="note45">Diary entry for 4/16 February 1887 in {{bib|1993/231|Дневники П. И. Чайковского, 1873–1891}} (1993), p. 126.</ref>
</references>
</references>
[[Category:People|Turgenev, Ivan]]
[[Category:Incidental Music]]
[[Category:Writers|Turgenev, Ivan]]

Latest revision as of 21:40, 13 February 2023

Tchaikovsky's incidental music to Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet (Гамлет), Op. 67b (TH 23 ; ČW 16), was written in January 1891 for a French production of the play in Saint Petersburg. It makes use of music from earlier works, including the overture-fantasia Hamlet that Tchaikovsky had written three years earlier.

Instrumentation

Tchaikovsky's music is scored for soprano and baritone soloists, and a theatre orchestra of 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets (in B-flat), 2 bassoons + 2 horns (in F), 2 trumpets (in B-flat), bass trombone + 3 timpani, tambourine, tam tam, bell (in C) + violins I, violins II, violas, cellos, and double basses.

There are two singing roles:

  • Ophélie (Ophelia) — soprano
  • Fossojeur (Gravedigger) — baritone.

Movements and Duration

Tchaikovsky's original score contains an overture and 17 individual numbers, of which one (No. 5a) has not been published. The titles of numbers are translated into English, with French headings and vocal incipits (in italics) taken from the published score. Where the English and French titles are the same, only the former are shown.

Overture (Ouverture)
Lento lugubre — Allegro vivacissimo (256 bars)
Act I No. 1 Melodrama (Mélodrame)
Moderato assai (23 bars)
No. 2 Fanfare
Allegro vivo (9 bars)
No. 3 Melodrama (Mélodrame)
Moderato assai (10 bars)
No. 4 Melodrama (Mélodrame)
Allegro giusto ed agitato (112 bars)
Act II No. 5 Entr'acte
Allegro semplice (138 bars)
No. 5a Fanfare (4 bars)
No. 6 Fanfare
Allegro (8 bars)
Act III No. 7 Entr'acte
Andante quasi Allegretto (28 bars)
No. 8 Melodrama (Mélodrame)
Allegro giusto ed agitato (73 bars)
Act IV No. 9 Entr'acte
Andante non troppo (103 bars)
No. 10 Ophelia's Scene (Scène d'Ophélie)
Andantino (44 bars) 		Votre amoureux, á quels gages?
No. 11 (a) Ophelia's Second Scene (Deuxième scène d'Ophélie)
Moderato (15 bars) 		On l'a porté convert de fleurs
(b) End of Ophelia's Second Scene (Fin de la deuxième scène d'Ophélie)
Allegro vivo (73 bars) 		Non, non! Ne me dis pas!
Act V No. 12 Entr'acte
Marcia. Moderato assai (72 bars)
No. 13 Gravedigger's Song (Chant du Fossoyeur)
Andantino (14 bars) 		Fou d'amour, dans mon ivresse
No. 14 Funeral March (Marche funèbre)
Marcia. Moderato assai (72 bars)
No. 15 Fanfare
Allegro giusto (8 bars)
No. 16 Final March (Marche finale)
Allegro risoluto ma non troppo (19 bars)

In the published score, No. 1 is marked to be played twice (on each appearance of the ghost). No. 8 is a shortened version of No. 4, and No. 14 is an exact repeat of No. 12.

A complete concert performance of Tchaikovsky's music to Hamlet lasts around 50 minutes.

Composition

In late January/early February 1888, Tchaikovsky received a letter from his friend the actor Lucien Guitry informing him that Grand Duchess Mariya Pavlovna (1854–1920), a sister-in-law of Tsar Alexander III, wanted to organize a gala charity production in the Mariinsky Theatre in late March/early April. Among other things, she wanted Act III from Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet to be staged, with Guitry in the title role, and with an overture by Tchaikovsky. Guitry, however, realised that the composer might not have enough time to write a whole overture by that deadline, and he asked him instead for an entr'acte to fill the interval between the Players' Scene and the scene in the Queen's closet where Hamlet kills Polonius [1].

Three years previously, in April 1885, Tchaikovsky had been so impressed by Guitry's performance as Edmund Kean in Alexandre Dumas' play inspired by the great English actor's life: Kean, or Disorder and Genius (in which there is a scene where Kean plays Hamlet), that he wrote to Guitry urging him to perform a Shakespearian role, promising that "in the event that you should play Hamlet or Romeo, I shall write an overture and entr'actes specially tailored to the resources of the orchestra at the Mikhaylovsky Theatre. It will be a great pleasure for me, and I shall be proud to participate a little in your triumph" [2].

Now reminded of his earlier promise, Tchaikovsky agreed to write the music for Hamlet. Although Guitry subsequently wrote to Tchaikovsky to tell him that the production had been cancelled, the composer was so captivated by the idea of setting Hamlet to music — something he had already considered twelve years earlier — that in the course of the summer he proceeded to write his overture-fantasia on the subject.

Two years later, however, Tchaikovsky fulfilled his earlier promise to write proper stage music for Hamlet for the farewell performance which Guitry was due to give at the Mikhaylovsky Theatre on 9/21 February 1891, and for which the actor had chosen Shakespeare's tragedy in a French translation by Alexandre Dumas père and Paul Meurice. Together with a copy of the play, in which he had marked all the points at which he wished the music to set in, Guitry sent Tchaikovsky a letter with more detailed instructions, adding jestingly at the end that the last thing he wanted was to appear "like a second Détroyat" in the composer's eyes, and so he asked him not to trouble himself too much over this music [3].

In 1890, Lucien Guitry approached Tchaikovsky once more with a request for music to Hamlet, for a benefit performance that would be Guitry's last appearance on the Russian stage [4]. The composer agreed, and began work around 7/19 January 1891 at Frolovskoye, but with little enthusiasm, as he confessed to Modest Tchaikovsky in a letter of 11/23 January: "Hamlet is coming along. But it is such unpleasant work!" [5]. On 22 January/3 February, he told Anatoly Tchaikovsky that he had finished the music to Hamlet and sent it to Guitry [6].

It appears that the Fanfare (Act II, No. 5a) was written during rehearsals for the stage production. The manuscript score is dated 8/20 February 1891.

Arrangements

The three vocal numbers (Nos. 10, 11 and 13) were also arranged by the composer for voices with piano in January 1891. All the remaining numbers were arranged for solo piano by Eduard Langer.

Subject

The play The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark was written between 1599 and 1601 by the English dramatist William Shakespeare (1564–1616). The French translation of the play made by Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870) and Paul Meurice (1818-1905) was first performed in Paris in 1847.

Performances

The performance of Hamlet with Guitry in the title-role took place as scheduled at the Mikhailovsky Theatre in Saint Petersburg on 9/21 February 1891 with Tchaikovsky's incidental music. The parts of Ophelia and the Gravedigger were performed by A. Laine and H. Lorther respectively.

Writing to his brother Anatoly, the composer reported: "My music to Hamlet, put on for Guitry's benefit, went down very well with everyone. Guitry was superb" [7]. The first performance in Moscow took place on 21 November/3 December 1891 at the Maly Theatre.

In 1893, the conductor Michał Hertz in Warsaw sought Tchaikovsky's permission to perform his music to Hamlet in a production by the Warsaw dramatic theatre, but the composer declined after consulting his brother Modest, who in his view did not consider it to be a serious artistic work. "I wrote it very quickly for the benefit of one of my friends, only so that he could amuse himself in seeing my name on the concert bill. It is scored for a very small orchestra, and would not be suitable for a Grand Imperial Theatre". Instead, Tchaikovsky suggested that Hertz might wish to consider using the "wonderful music to Hamlet by George Henschel" [8].

Guitry, however, was delighted with the music Tchaikovsky had provided. After he had returned to France for good he sent Tchaikovsky, as a token of his gratitude, a bronze cockerel by the French sculptor Auguste Cain (1822–1894). This present can still be seen today in the composer's living-room at the Klin House-Museum.

Publication

In June 1892 Pyotr Jurgenson published the full score and orchestral parts. The vocal-piano reduction — with the vocal numbers (Nos. 10, 11 and 13) arranged by the composer, and the remaining numbers by Eduard Langer — was issued together with a re-issue of the full score in February 1896.

The full score of Tchaikovsky's incidental music was published in volume 14 of Tchaikovsky's Complete Collected Works, edited by Irina Iordan (1962). The vocal-piano reduction was not published as part of the collected works.

Autographs

Tchaikovsky's autograph score has been lost, but his manuscript of the additional fanfare (Act II, No. 5a) is now preserved in the National Library of Russia in Saint Petersburg (ф. 384, No. 54) [view].

Recordings

See: Discography

Related Works

The Overture is an abridged and re-scored version of the overture-fantasia Hamlet, and themes from the latter are used in two of the Melodramas (Act I, Nos. 1 and 3), and the concluding march (Act V, No. 16).

Tchaikovsky also re-used music from three other earlier works:

  • The Entr'acte (Act II, No. 5) is an abridged version of the Alla tedesca movement from his Third Symphony (1875)
  • The Entr'acte (Act III, No. 7) is based on the Melodrama (Act II, No. 10) from the incidental music to The Snow Maiden (1873)
  • The Entr'acte (Act IV, No. 9) is a reworking of the Elegy for string orchestra (1884).

External Links

Notes and References

  1. ↑ Letter from Lucien Guitry to Tchaikovsky, 25 January/6 February 1888 — Klin House-Museum Archive. This letter has been published in Чайковский и зарубежные музыканты (1970), p. 209–210, p. 108–110 (Russian translation).
  2. ↑ Letter 2677a to Lucien Guitry, 1/13 April 1885.
  3. ↑ Letter from Lucien Guitry to Tchaikovsky, 4/16 October 1890. See Чайковский и зарубежные музыканты (1970), p. 212 (original French text), p. 111–112 (Russian translation).
  4. ↑ Letter from Lucien Guitry to Tchaikovsky, 5/17 September 1890 — Klin House-Museum Archive. This letter has been published in Чайковский и зарубежные музыканты (1970), p. 211, p. 111 (Russian translation).
  5. ↑ Letter 4300 to Modest Tchaikovsky, 11/23 January 1891.
  6. ↑ Letter 4312 to Anatoly Tchaikovsky, 22 January/3 February 1891.
  7. ↑ Letter 4329 to Anatoly Tchaikovsky, 12/24 February 1891.
  8. ↑ Letter 5020 to Michał Hertz, 23 August/4 September 1893.
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