Boris Asafyev and Léo Delibes: Difference between pages

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{{picture|file=Boris Asafyev 1928.jpg|caption='''Boris Asafyev''' (1884-1949) in 1928}}
{{picture|file=Léo Delibes.jpg|caption='''Léo Delibes''' (1836-1891)}}
Russian musicologist and composer (b. 17/29 July 1884 in [[Saint Petersburg]]; d. 27 January 1949 in [[Moscow]]), born ''''' Boris Vladimirovich Asafyev''''' (Борис Владимирович Асафьев), also known by his literary pseudonym '''''Igor Glebov''''' (Игорь Глебов).
French composer (b. 21 February 1836 in Saint-Germain-du-Val; d. 16 January 1891 in [[Paris]]), born '''''Clément Philibert Léo Delibes'''''.


==Early Years==
==Tchaikovsky and Delibes==
The son of a humble official, Boris had a rather dreary childhood, marred by poverty. His mother, a peasant's daughter, had to take on sewing jobs in order to make ends meet. However, when Boris's love of music manifested itself very early on (aged 5 or 6, he was already improvising on the family's piano), his father began taking him to concerts in [[Saint Petersburg]]. As a child he often spent the summer months near [[Pavlovsk]], where his grandfather was a night-watchman at the palace, and Boris would regularly walk the four kilometres from their hut to the [[Pavlovsk]] railway station to attend the free concerts there. Thanks to these he had the chance to hear a wide repertoire of music, but his first love was Tchaikovsky, as he later recalled: "In early childhood the first music that caressed me was Tchaikovsky's: my mother would hum to me'' Lullaby in a Storm'' [No. 10 of the [[Sixteen Songs for Children]]]. The evenings at the [[Pavlovsk]] station near [[Petersburg]], unforgettable for so many Russian musicians of former generations, trained my ear, especially with regard to Tchaikovsky's music" <ref name="note1"/>. Boris also remembered how in the autumn of 1893 the long cortège at Tchaikovsky's funeral had processed past their house on Nevsky Prospekt.
In his memoirs of Tchaikovsky, [[Nikolay Kashkin]] gives an interesting account of how his late friend, in 1875, had taken up the suggestion from [[Vladimir Begichev]], the director of the Imperial Theatres in [[Moscow]], that he should write a ballet set in medieval times: ''[[Swan Lake]]''. Tchaikovsky had set about this task by first studying thoroughly various ballet scores, in particular that of Adolphe Adam's ''Giselle'', which at the time was his ideal of what a ballet should be like: in ''Giselle'' he was fascinated both by "the poetic spirit of Théophile Gautier's libretto and the mastery of Adam's music" <ref name="note1"/>. After discussing the moderate success obtained by ''[[Swan Lake]]'' in its first stage production (with choreography by Julius Reisinger), which was premiered at the Bolshoi Theatre in [[Moscow]] on 20 February/4 March 1877, [[Kashkin]] adds that a few months later:


In the autumn of 1894, Boris began attending a gymnasium in [[Saint Petersburg]], but soon the family's economic situation meant that he could not carry on there, and two years later, thanks to a relative, he was sent as a state-aided pupil to a gymnasium in the seaport town of Kronstadt. As a boarder at the school he was very homesick at first, but on Sundays he was often invited to the houses of school friends whose families lived in Kronstadt, and as a result his cultural horizons were widened considerably. Recognizing Boris's musical abilities, the school bought a piano so that he could practise in the evenings. During his time in Kronstadt he was in high demand as an accompanist in various houses and also learnt to play the flute. After taking his school-leaving exams in the spring of 1903, he returned to [[Saint Petersburg]], eventually enrolling, in September, at the Faculty of History and Philology at the city's university, even though his dream was to become a composer.
{{quote|In [[Vienna]] Tchaikovsky heard Delibes's ballet ''Sylvia'', went into raptures over it, and in a letter to me expressed himself in very sharp terms about his own ''[[Swan Lake]]'', whereby he was clearly being unjustly hard on the music of his ballet. Subsequently his views about suitable ballet subjects changed, and he no longer liked ''Sylvia''; on the other hand, he became all the more enthusiastic about another ballet by the same composer — ''Coppélia'' — and even about a boring Viennese ballet — ''Die Puppenfee'' <ref name="note2"/>, which is reflected to some extent in ''[[The Nutcracker]]''. The latter shows how Pyotr Ilyich had moved on from the magic fairy-tale genre, as in ''[[The Sleeping Beauty]]'', to that of the puppet-theatre story <ref name="note3"/>.}}


In March 1904, he finally mustered the courage to call on [[Rimsky-Korsakov]]. The great composer, whose lyrical opera ''May Night'' was a lifelong favourite of Asafyev's, tested the young man's knowledge of Russian music and listened to the piano pieces and songs that he had brought with him. At the end of this meeting, [[Rimsky-Korsakov]] encouraged him to apply to the [[Saint Petersburg]] Conservatory.
Tchaikovsky's letter of 23 November/5 December 1877 to [[Nadezhda von Meck]] from [[Vienna]], quoted below, certainly confirms what [[Kashkin]] says about the strong impression which the music of Delibes's ballet ''Sylvia'', ou ''La nymphe de Diane'' ([[Paris]] Opéra, 1876) made on Tchaikovsky, even causing him to reject his own ''[[Swan Lake]]'' as "not fit to hold a candle to ''Sylvia''". Although the staging of this ballet in [[Vienna]] for the 1877/78 season was Tchaikovsky's first chance to hear Delibes's music in all the splendour of its orchestral sound (''Sylvia'' was not shown in Russia until 1901), he had in fact already been studying the piano score of ''Sylvia'' in the summer of 1876. We know this from a footnote which Tchaikovsky added to the letter he sent to his brother [[Modest]] on 8/20 August 1876, a few days after he had rushed off from [[Bayreuth]], having fulfilled his obligation to sit through the first complete performance of ''The Ring'' in order to report on it for a newspaper in [[Moscow]]. In this letter Tchaikovsky describes the ordeal he had endured, which was hardly compensated by the many 'symphonic' beauties of [[Wagner]]'s music, and adds in a revealing note: "How many thousand times dearer to me is the ballet ''Sylvia''!" [[Modest Tchaikovsky]], commenting on this letter in his biography of the composer, explains that it was during this trip abroad in the summer of 1876 that his brother had first become acquainted with Delibes's music thanks to a copy of the piano score of ''Sylvia'', and that back in Russia he had played it through enthusiastically three or four times <ref name="note4"/>.


A few months later, in August, another important encounter took place when he met [[Vladimir Stasov]]. The veteran champion of the "Mighty Handful" invited Asafyev to visit his dacha every Sunday, where they would go through [[Glinka]]'s ''Ruslan and Lyudmila'' and other works on the piano, and he gave Asafyev the opportunity to work under his supervision at the Imperial Public Library. At [[Stasov]]'s dacha he also met [[Glazunov]], the painter Ilya Repin, Maksim Gorky, and the great bass Fyodor Chaliapin. [[Stasov]]'s enthusiasm and vitality had an invigorating effect on Asafyev, who would later describe these years as his "artistic university". In particular, he gained first-hand experience of the traditions of the "Mighty Handful", because [[Stasov]] introduced him to the house of Aleksandra Molas (née Purgold, 1845–1929), the sister of [[Rimsky-Korsakov]]'s wife [[Nadezhda Rimskaya-Korsakova|Nadezhda]]. [[Musorgsky]] and [[Borodin]] had composed many of their songs for Aleksandra, and the young Asafyev had the chance to accompany her on the piano as she performed these and other vocal works of the "Mighty Handful" at her soirées. [[Stasov]] also entrusted him with the task of copying the score of [[Musorgsky]]'s comic opera ''The Marriage.''
The above comparison between [[Wagner]]'s monumental ''Ring'' cycle and Delibes's tuneful ballet, with the latter attracting all of Tchaikovsky's spontaneous sympathy (although of course he recognized [[Wagner]]'s genius — for "symphonic" music!), is one that would eventually be extended by the Russian composer into a comparison between German and French music. In several letters to [[Nadezhda von Meck]], some of which are quoted in the list below, Tchaikovsky makes it clear that he regarded music in Germany as having entered a phase of steep decline (exemplified by the two polar extremes of [[Wagner]] and [[Brahms]], whom elsewhere he described as a "caricature of [[Beethoven]]"), whereas in France a regeneration of music had been launched by such composers as the late [[Bizet]], in particular, but also by Delibes and a few others. This "new phalanx" of French composers was distinguished by the way in which it "does not pursue depth, but carefully avoids routine, looking for new forms and paying more attention to musical beauty than to the observance of established traditions, in contrast to the Germans" <ref name="note5"/>.


In September 1904, Asafyev, while still continuing his studies at the History Faculty, passed the entrance exams at the [[Saint Petersburg]] Conservatory and was awarded a full scholarship. It was also during these exams that he met the 12-year-old Sergey Prokofiev, who became his fellow student and friend. At the Conservatory, Asafyev studied in the theory and harmony class of [[Anatoly Lyadov]] and in the instrumentation class of [[Rimsky-Korsakov]]. Another fellow student of Asafyev's was the composer Nikolay Myaskovsky, with whom he played through many 4-handed piano arrangements. Throughout 1906, Asafyev worked on his children's opera ''Cinderella'', the idea for which had been suggested to him by [[Stasov]]. The latter's death in October that year was a bitter blow for him, but in the winter of 1906/07 he did succeed in staging ''Cinderella'' with a cast drawn from the children of acquaintances, as well as with the assistance of Vaslav Nijinsky, then in the final year of his studies at the Imperial Ballet School, who choreographed the dance numbers in the opera. Although a revised version of ''Cinderella'' would later be performed in music schools and clubs, this opera, like all of Asafyev's subsequent works in that genre (11 operas in total), never made it onto the repertoire of a professional theatre, much to his disappointment. In 1907, he composed another children's opera, ''The Snow Queen'', based on Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale, and this was premiered at a [[Saint Petersburg]] music school in January 1908, again with Nijinsky responsible for the dances. Shortly afterwards, though, [[Nadezhda Rimskaya-Korsakova]] told Asafyev that her husband was angry with him for daring to compose operas and have them performed in public without his teacher's permission!
Tchaikovsky's enthusiastic remarks about ''Sylvia'' prompted [[Nadezhda von Meck]] to ask him if he was also familiar with Delibes's comic opera ''Le roi l'a dit'' (1873) and his earlier ballet ''Coppélia'' ([[Paris]] Opéra, 1870) <ref name="note6"/>. Tchaikovsky replied saying that he thought this opera "delightful" but that he was unfortunately not yet acquainted with ''Coppélia'': he intended, however, to get hold of a copy of the score very soon. Unfortunately, it is not clear when exactly Tchaikovsky managed to study the score, or actually see a performance, of ''Coppélia'' (which was first shown in Russia in 1884, in a staging by [[Marius Petipa]]). But judging from [[Kashkin]]'s memoirs as quoted above, Tchaikovsky came to appreciate the vivid and rich music of ''Coppélia'' even more than that of ''Sylvia'', and it was the earlier ballet, loosely based on a story by [[E. T. A. Hoffmann]], which would serve as a model for ''[[The Nutcracker]]'' in the scenario that [[Ivan Vsevolozhsky]] and [[Petipa]] drew up for Tchaikovsky in 1890–91. The encounter between human emotions and the world of automata, which in contrast to [[Hoffmann]]'s original story was rendered quite harmless in the French ballet (since Dr Coppélius's doll always remains a lifeless dummy), takes on more sinister overtones in Act I of ''[[The Nutcracker]]'' <ref name="note7"/>.


Asafyev obtained top grades in his graduation exams at the History Faculty in the spring of 1908, but this success was clouded by the death of [[Rimsky-Korsakov]] in June. For, despite his disapproval of Asafyev's unauthorised composing, some months earlier he had hinted that he would soon allow him to join his free composition class. After [[Rimsky-Korsakov]]'s death, Asafyev decided to leave the Conservatory without completing his course, although [[Glazunov]] persuaded [[Lyadov]] to allow Asafyev to come to his house for private lessons. [[Glazunov]] also helped Asafyev to find occasional work as an accompanist at the Conservatory. It was just enough to live on, and in April 1909 he was able to marry Irina Stepanovna Khozyasheva (1885–1969), whom he had first met as a gymnasium student in Kronstadt.
On 17 April 1883 {{NS}}, during his long stay in [[Paris]] that year, Tchaikovsky was able to attend, together with his brother [[Modest]], one of the first performances of Delibes's most popular opera, ''Lakmé'', at the ''Opéra-Comique ''<ref name="note8"/>. Tchaikovsky does not seem to have left any comments on this masterpiece, but from a diary entry we know that at [[Maydanovo]] in the summer of 1886 he played through the vocal-piano reduction of ''Le roi l'a dit'', and that in the following summer he was also studying (unspecified) works by Delibes <ref name="note9"/>.


Also in 1909, Nijinsky introduced Asafyev to Serge Diaghilev, who had come over to [[Saint Petersburg]] from [[Paris]] with the intention of copying the manuscript score of [[Musorgsky]]'s ''Khovanshchina'' (after the great success of ''Boris Godunov'' in [[Paris]] the previous year). He was also looking for a Russian fairy-tale ballet that would appeal to Parisian audiences and he asked Asafyev to recommend a young composer. Asafyev suggested Igor Stravinsky, and soon afterwards the latter was commissioned by Diaghilev to compose ''The Firebird''. Later that year, the ballet-master Nikolay Legat asked Asafyev to write a classical dance for Nijinsky and Anna Pavlova, and this short work, entitled ''Butterflies'', was performed as part of a divertissement at the Mariinsky Theatre in December 1909. It was his first composition to be played by an orchestra.
Tchaikovsky had a couple of chances to meet Delibes during his stay in [[Paris]] in 1886 (from late May to late June {{NS}}, but although in the course of these four weeks he managed to make the acquaintance of many prominent figures in the musical life of the French capital, including [[Ambroise Thomas]], [[Pauline Viardot]], [[Édouard Lalo]], and [[Gabriel Fauré]], fate seemed to conspire to prevent him that year from actually speaking to the French composer he admired most (after [[Bizet]] and possibly [[Gounod]]). This was not for want of opportunities, though, for in his diary he wrote down on 8/20 June 1886: "Back at the hotel I found ''Léo Delibes'''s visiting card, with an inscription" <ref name="note10"/>. The following day Tchaikovsky set off for Delibes's house, but the composer wasn't at home. The fact that Delibes had been the first to seek him out and had even left his card at the hotel was evidently flattering to Tchaikovsky's self-esteem in a city which he felt had until then shown but little interest in his music. Thus, a few days later he wrote to his brother [[Modest]]: "Léo Delibes called on me first — that really moved me! Indeed, it turns out that I'm not at all so unknown in [[Paris]] as I had thought!" <ref name="note11"/>. That he did not actually meet Delibes on this occasion, is clear from an exchange of letters with [[Nadezhda von Meck]] once he was back in Russia. Very soon after reaching [[Saint Petersburg]] (on 15/27 June) he had written to his benefactress with a brief report on his impressions of [[Paris]]: "Of the most outstanding figures [in the city's musical life] I was particularly touched by the attention I received from [[Ambroise Thomas]] and Léo Delibes" <ref name="note12"/>. [[Nadezhda von Meck]] had understood this to mean that Tchaikovsky had actually met both these eminent composers, and in her reply (sent to [[Maydanovo]], where Tchaikovsky intended to spend the rest of the summer), she asked him if Delibes was as nice in real life as he seemed to be from the "very kind and ingenuous expression" of his face on photographs <ref name="note13"/>. In his next letter to her Tchaikovsky cleared up the misunderstanding:


Nijinsky and Legat were able to pull some strings on Asafyev's behalf, and in the autumn of 1910 he was appointed a répétiteur pianist with the Mariinsky Ballet. Asafyev worked under the Italian conductor Riccardo Drigo (1846–1930), who had conducted the premieres of '' [[The Sleeping Beauty]]'' and ''[[The Nutcracker]]'' twenty years earlier. Drigo generously helped Asafyev in his work by playing through with him four-handed arrangements of the difficult ballet scores of Tchaikovsky and [[Glazunov]]. Asafyev also had the opportunity to observe [[Eduard Nápravník]] on the conductor's rostrum during opera performances. The long summer breaks at the Mariinsky meant that from 1911 to 1916 Asafyev could travel to Germany, Italy, and France for a few months each year in order to visit museums, libraries, and art galleries. During a stay in [[Kiev]] and the area near [[Kamenka]] in the summer of 1916, Asafyev met another 'veteran' of Russian music, the critic [[Nikolay Kashkin]], whose character he greatly admired. [[Kashkin]] lived to see Asafyev's first publications on Tchaikovsky and approved of them.
{{quote|I did not get to see Léo Delibes and so I cannot answer your question. He went to my hotel one day, but I wasn't in, so he left his card with a most flattering inscription. The next day I went to call on him, but he wasn't at home either. Then we were supposed to see each other at the Conservatoire, where I had been invited by [[Ambroise Thomas|A. Thomas]] to attend a piano examination, but some meeting at the Academy [of Fine Arts] meant he couldn't come. Thus, Delibes bowled me over with his kindness (which I value especially, since after [[Bizet]] I consider him to be the most talented French composer), without ever having set eyes on me <ref name="note14"/>.}}


==Post-Revolution==
Within less than two years, though, Tchaikovsky did finally get to meet Delibes in [[Paris]]. In February–March 1888, he was in the French capital as part of his first concert tour to Western Europe as the conductor of his own works, and it seems that at the second of the three concerts he conducted there (at the Théâtre du Châtelet on 4 March 1888 {{NS}} Delibes was present in the audience. The two composers may also have met at the many receptions which [[Édouard Colonne]] organized in his house in honour of the illustrious visitor from Russia. At any rate, a few days after that concert Tchaikovsky wrote to his brother [[Modest]]: "The celebrations I am receiving in my honour are quite sincere. At the concert [ Gounod]] expressed his enthusiasm in a very demonstrative fashion; all the young musicians are also very kind to me. I have become acquainted with everyone. Delibes is the nicest of them all" <ref name="note15"/>.
In May 1917, Asafyev was promoted to the post of musical consultant to the Mariinsky Ballet. His duties now involved composing extra numbers to be inserted in classical ballets, as well as re-orchestrating Ludwig Minkus's ''The Bayadere''. Before Mikhail Fokine left Russia for good in 1918, Asafyev was able to work with him on some of his innovative choreographic productions, making orchestral arrangements of [[Balakirev]]'s ''Islamey'', [[Glinka]]'s ''Jota aragonesa'', and [[Gluck]]'s ''Orfeo''.


During his first years at the Mariinsky, Asafyev had still cherished the hope of making his mark as a composer, but he was soon disheartened by the critics' indifference to his music and by the theatres' reluctance to take on his stage works. In 1914, therefore, encouraged by Myaskovsky, he decided to devote most of his energies to music criticism, and the editor of the first journal for which he worked chose the pseudonym "Igor Glebov" for him. Asafyev had opted to write under a pseudonym because he was not confident of success in his new role. Although these misgivings proved unfounded and within a few years everyone was aware of who Igor Glebov was, Asafyev continued to use his ''nom-de-plume'' in most of his later publications. With his brilliant, if at times high-flown style, Asafyev enthusiastically championed such bold new works as Stravinsky's ''The Rite of Spring'' (1913) and Prokofiev's ''Scythian Suite'' (1915). At the same time he defended the music of [[Taneyev]] against those who accused it of 'dry academicism' and, in particular, that of Tchaikovsky, which some modernist critics were now dismissing as sentimental and outdated. As Asafyev later recalled: "For me, Tchaikovsky's music was always the truthful art of real life, and I could not look on calmly at the way that his music was being pronounced to be fit only for clerks and women cooks" <ref name="note2"/>.
Two days after Tchaikovsky's death an interview with his loyal publisher and friend [[Pyotr Jurgenson]] was published in the ''Petersburg Gazette''. One of the questions [[Jurgenson]] was asked was which composers Tchaikovsky had liked the most. He replied as follows: "Pyotr Ilyich worshipped [[Mozart]] […] He was also a great admirer of [[Bizet]] and Delibes […] In [[Moscow]] I once had the opportunity to go and see some ballet by Delibes with him. Tchaikovsky was so delighted by it that he cried out: 'Now that is real ballet! […] There's no way the monsters I've produced can compare with it!'" <ref name="note16"/>.


After the October Revolution in 1917, Asafyev began teaching at the State Institute for the History of the Arts in [[Petrograd]], eventually becoming a professor and, in 1920, head of its music history faculty. From the very start, it seems, he had welcomed the Bolshevik seizure of power, and in 1918 he wrote the first Soviet ballet, ''Carmagnole'', for workers' clubs. (This was to be a precursor of his later ballet ''The Flames of Paris.)'' From 1918 to 1921, he worked for the music section of the People's Commissariat for Education (Narkompros), helping to re-organize musical life in [[Petrograd]]. This included the writing of programme notes and leaflets for popular concerts. Asafyev was also able to pursue his own research interests, which ranged from music history to the more mundane aspects of musical bibliography and archival work. In the latter field he already had considerable experience because from 1916 onwards, at the request of [[Kashkin]] and the editors of various music journals, he had been working in [[Moscow]] on the archives of Tchaikovsky, [[Taneyev]], and [[Stepan Smolensky]]; and in [[Petrograd]] on the archive of [[Nápravník]], which he helped to copy and catalogue. Soon after the October Revolution, Asafyev had started collecting material on Tchaikovsky's life, and in June 1918 he wrote to [[Kashkin]]:
That he could say this about ''[[Swan Lake]]'', ''[[The Sleeping Beauty]]'', and ''[[The Nutcracker]]'' is characteristic of Tchaikovsky's modesty and also confirms something he himself had pointed out in an article of 1875 — namely, that authors were liable to be too critical of their own works! (see [[TH 304]]).


{{quote|I confess to you frankly that I have had the following bold and daring thought: would it not be possible to obtain, through Tchaikovsky's relatives and his friends, permission ''for me'' to work on his archive — that is, both on what is now available and on all that may come to light. Moreover, I myself would do everything I could to track down any such documents. My conscience tells me that my idea is not sacrilegious, since of all the young writers on music no one worships Tchaikovsky and cherishes his memory more than I do: I am entitled to say this with a calm and clear conscience <ref name="note3"/>.}}
==General Reflections on Delibes==
===In Tchaikovsky's Letters===
* [[Letter 491]] to [[Modest Tchaikovsky]], 8/20 August 1876, from [[Vienna]], in which Tchaikovsky summarizes his impressions of the first performance of ''The Ring'' at the inaugural [[Bayreuth]] Festival:
{{quote|So this is what [[Wagner]]'s opera reform is striving after? Composers in the past sought to delight people with their music; now what they do instead is to torment and exhaust them. Of course, there are wondrous details, but everything taken together is frightfully boring!!! [Footnote by Tchaikovsky:] How many thousand times dearer to me is the ballet ''Sylvia''.}}


Although Asafyev did not in fact visit [[Klin]] at the time, he did support Nikolay Zhegin, the curator of Tchaikovsky's house (which in 1921 became a museum), in his efforts to gather together all of the composer's letters, as well as memoirs about him. The fruit of this early research was the publication, in 1920, of a volume co-edited by Asafyev and [[Vasily Yakovlev]], and entitled ''Прошлое русской музыки. Материалы и исследования'' (The Past of Russian Music: Documents and Investigations). This volume — originally scheduled to appear in 1918, the 25th anniversary of Tchaikovsky's death, but delayed by the civil war — contains some of Tchaikovsky's letters to [[Nikolay Hubert|Nikolay]] and [[Aleksandra Hubert]], as well as [[Kashkin]]'s memoir of what Tchaikovsky had allegedly told him about his marriage to [[Antonina Milyukova]]. (This memoir includes [[Kashkin]]'s report of his late friend's confession that in September 1877 he had tried to catch his death of cold by wading into the freezing waters of the Moskva River — a report whose veracity has subsequently been questioned).
* [[Letter 659]] to [[Nadezhda von Meck]], 23 November/5 December 1877, from [[Vienna]]:
{{quote|After the opera [Cherubini's ''Der Wasserträger''] we saw a staging of the ballet ''Sylvia'', whose music is being talked about very much now. It really is a ''chef-d'oeuvre'' of its kind. The author of this music is a Frenchman: Léo Delibes. I really wish that you were able to get a copy of the score of this ballet. Never before in ballet music has there been such gracefulness, such a richness of melodies and rhythms, such a splendid instrumentation. Without any false modesty whatsoever, I can assure you that ''[[The Lake of Swans]]'' is not fit even to hold a candle to ''Sylvia''. I was utterly enchanted! <ref name="note17"/>."/>


In 1919, Asafyev was appointed to the post of director of the Central Music Library of the State Academic Theatres in [[Petrograd]]. During the ten years of his directorship he oversaw the cataloguing of this library's invaluable collections of music scores, and also ordered from abroad the scores of operas by Stravinsky and Prokofiev. During the 1920s, Asafyev continually lobbied for Stravinsky's music to be performed in the Soviet Union — a token of his admiration for that composer which would culminate in his ''Book About Stravinsky'' (1929). Despite his love of the music of the past, Asafyev genuinely felt the need to support the work of contemporary composers like Stravinsky, Myaskovsky, and Prokofiev, and he was well placed to do this not just as a music critic, but also because in 1921 he had helped to found the State Philharmonic Orchestra of [[Petrograd]]. Asafyev was its artistic director until 1930 and he wrote many brochures for its concerts.
* [[Letter 661]] to [[Nadezhda von Meck]], 26 November/8 December 1877, from [[Vienna]]:
{{quote|On the whole it does seem to me that in terms of music Germany is in decline. I think it's now the Frenchmen who are coming on centre-stage. They now have a lot of new and strong talents. Recently I heard Delibes's music for the ballet ''Sylvia'' — a music which in its own way really is touched by genius. Thanks to a piano transcription I had familiarized myself with this wonderful music before, but in the splendid performance I heard from the Viennese orchestra it has quite simply enchanted me, especially in the first part. ''[[The Lake of Swans]]'' is mere rubbish in comparison with ''Sylvia''. Indeed, over the last few years I cannot think of anything apart from [Bizet]]'s] ''Carmen'' and Delibes's ballet that has so seriously enchanted me. Perhaps Russia, too, will contribute a new word, like the rest of Europe in fact. In Germany, though, we're seeing a steep decline. [[Wagner]] is the great representative of this period of decadence.}}


In fact, Asafyev's most famous book, ''Симфонические этюды'' (1922) — recently translated into English by David Haas as ''Symphonic Etudes: Portraits of Russian Operas and Ballets'' (2008) — arose on the basis of such programme notes, though not for symphonic concerts, but for opera performances in [[Petrograd]]. This book consists of 19 ''etudes'', or essays, on the operas of [[Glinka]], [[Dargomyzhsky]], [[Serov]], [[Borodin]], Tchaikovsky, and [[Rimsky-Korsakov]], as well as the ballets of Tchaikovsky and [[Glazunov]], and the first ballets of Stravinsky. Among the most compelling essays in the book, which is addressed to the general reader and contains just one musical quotation, are the two devoted to Asafyev's favourite composer: 'The Operas of Tchaikovsky' and '[[The Queen of Spades]]'. In the former, Asafyev singled out for praise ''[[The Enchantress]]'', which he considered to be an unjustly neglected work and which he (unsuccessfully) tried to have staged in 1926. The latter essay explores the underlying tragic nature of Tchaikovsky's music and discusses '' [[The Queen of Spades]]'' as the composer's attempt to come to terms with the problem of evil in a series of "dialogues with Death".
* [[Letter 662]] to [[Modest Tchaikovsky]], 27 November/9 December 1877, from [[Vienna]]:
{{quote|We <ref name="note18"/> are often going to the theatre in the evenings. We've heard: ''Der Wasserträger'' by Cherubini, ''Sylvia'' (a ballet) by Delibes, ''Die Walküre'' by [[Wagner]], and ''Aida''. The last of these was staged very poorly. Out of all this I have been most enchantingly impressed by ''Der Wasserträger'' and ''Sylvia'', which are staged as a double-bill in one evening.}}


Another striking essay in ''Symphonic Etudes'' is that on [[Musorgsky]], in which Asafyev departed from [[Stasov]]'s view of the composer of'' Boris Godunov ''as a realistic chronicler of the Russian people's sufferings and portrayed [[Musorgsky]] as an "incorrigible dreamer and visionary" <ref name="note4"/>. Asafyev also pointed out how [[Stasov]] had failed to appreciate [[Musorgsky]]'s final works, with their introspection and pessimism. On the whole, Asafyev's book showed a highly emotional and intuitive approach to music which in some respects was influenced by his reading of the idealist philosophers Henri Bergson and Nikolay Lossky. Given that the book appeared in 1922, that is, when the Bolsheviks had firmly consolidated their grip on Soviet Russia, it does seem remarkable, as David Haas has noted, that Asafyev was "bold enough to praise Stravinsky openly, to wax poetic over the artistic treasures of the 19th century, yet avoid all mention of Marx, Lenin, the masses, and the October Revolution" <ref name="note5"/>. It was also in ''Symphonic Etudes'' that Asafyev introduced the term ''intonatsiya'', by which he referred to the characteristic contour of a musical work — in '' [[Yevgeny Onegin]]'', for example, this is the interval of a minor sixth, which in Russia is sometimes called the "Lensky sixth" as this interval is a prominent feature of Lensky's aria, as well as of much of Tatyana's music in the opera. Asafyev would develop the concept of ''intonatsiya'' in his subsequent publications.
* [[Letter 681]] to [[Sergey Taneyev]], 7/19 December 1877, from [[Venice]], in which Tchaikovsky mentions how he had attended a performance of [[Wagner]]'s ''Die Walküre'' in [[Vienna]], and how this had confirmed his negative impressions from the [[Bayreuth]] Festival:
{{quote|On the other hand, I also ''heard'' in [[Vienna]] the ballet ''Sylvia'' by Leo Delibes — yes, I mean '''heard''' because this is the first ballet in which the music constitutes not just the principal, but also the sole interest. What charm, what gracefulness, what melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic richness! I was ashamed of myself. If I had known this music before, I wouldn't have written ''[[The Lake of Swans]]''.}}


''Symphonic Etudes'' had a stimulating effect on many Soviet readers in the 1920s, especially on young music students such as the 19-year-old Dmitry Shostakovich, who, in a letter of 1925, remarked how glad he was to be at the [[Leningrad]] Conservatory now that Asafyev was teaching there: "I have always appreciated Asafyev very much as a musician and for his visceral love of music" <ref name="note6"/>. This is certainly borne out by the conclusion of Asafyev's essay on '' [[The Queen of Spades]]'', in which he reflected on how, though it was true that a critic had to have a solid basis of aesthetic criteria in the evaluation of musical works:
* [[Letter 707]] to [[Nadezhda von Meck]], 24 December 1877/5 January 1878, in which Tchaikovsky first discusses at length his views on the state of music in Russia, with some critical remarks about the "Mighty Handful", and in Germany:
{{quote|As for the French, they are now moving forward in a very pronounced manner. Of course it is only now that they've started to play [[Berlioz]], that is ten years after his death, but still a lot of new talents and energetic fighters against routine have emerged there [...] Of the contemporary French composers my favourites are [[Bizet]] and Delibes.}}


{{quote|Only the passion of worship and love helps one to see what is hidden and hear the unheard amidst the vanities of life and the grip of a classroom tablature. Having heard things of value in something dear, I learned to hear it, too, in what was ''not''. Therefore I cannot help bowing to the memory of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, whose music compelled me to ponder over ''music'' <ref name="note7"/>.}}
* [[Letter 724]] to [[Nadezhda von Meck]], 11/23 January 1878:
{{quote|I don't know ''Coppélia'', but at the next convenient opportunity I definitely intend to acquaint myself with it. ''Le roi l'a dit'' is a delightful opera by virtue of both its music and plot, but Delibes's ''chef-d'oeuvre'' still remains ''Sylvia''.}}


Eventually Asafyev's book would be denounced by the Soviet establishment for its "idealistic" and "subjective" tendencies, and, in particular, the image of Tchaikovsky presented in it would be dismissed as false because of Asafyev's emphasis on the "fatalism" and "pessimism" of such works as '' [[The Queen of Spades]]'' <ref name="note8"/>.
* [[Letter 799]] to [[Sergey Taneyev]], 27 March/8 April 1878, who had criticized some passages of Tchaikovsky's [[Fourth Symphony]] as resembling 'ballet music':
{{quote|I really do not understand what you mean by ballet music and why you are so against it. Do you call ballet music every cheerful tune with a dance rhythm? Well, in that case you must also be against most of [[Beethoven]]'s symphonies, in which one continually comes across such melodies […] Indeed, I just cannot understand why there should be something reprehensible in the phrase 'ballet music'! After all, ballet music is not always bad; it can sometimes be very good (for example, Léo Delibes's ''Sylvia''). And when it is good, what difference does it make if Sobeshchanskaya <ref name="note19"/> is dancing to it or not?}}


Two other important, but shorter, books by Asafyev which also appeared in 1922 were ''Tchaikovksy's Instrumental Music'' (Инструментальное творчество Чайковского), in which he again defended Tchaikovsky's legacy against attempts by modernist critics to disparage its significance; and ''P. I. Tchaikovsky: His Life and Works'' (П. И. Чайковский: Его жизнь и творчество), which was the first Soviet monograph on the composer. In the latter book, Asafyev explained the tragic nature of Tchaikovsky's music as a consequence of the extreme sensitivity that was a distinguishing trait in his character ever since childhood and also observed that a fear of death had haunted him all his life, culminating in '' [[The Queen of Spades]]''. This was one of Asafyev's favourite books, and in later years he wanted to revise it and bring out a new edition.
* [[Letter 1436]] to [[Nadezhda von Meck]], 29 February/12 March 1880, from [[Paris]]:
{{quote|Tonight I'm going to hear the opera ''Jean de Nivelle'' by Leo Delibes — a composer whose talent I find very appealing. This opera has been enormously successful, and I had quite a bit of trouble getting hold of a ticket for tonight's performance.}}


In 1924, a further volume containing letters by Tchaikovsky and memoirs about him came out under Asafyev's editorship: ''Tchaikovsky: Reminiscences and Letters'' (Чайковский: Воспоминания и письма). Asafyev had himself prepared for publication the memoirs of [[Vladimir Pogozhev]], manager of the Imperial Theatres' office during the last decade of Tchaikovsky's life. [[Glazunov]]'s reminiscences of Tchaikovsky, which he had written down at Asafyev's request, were another valuable contribution to this volume.
* [[Letter 1479]] to [[Nadezhda von Meck]], 18/30 April 1880, from [[Kamenka]]:
{{quote|Over the last few days I've been studying two new operas at the same time: [[Anton Rubinstein|Rubinstein]]'s ''The Merchant Kalashnikov'' and Leo Delibes's ''Jean de Nivelle''. The former is an extremely poor work. Indeed, [[Anton Rubinstein|Rubinstein]] is behaving just like a singer who has already lost her voice but still imagines that she can captivate her audience. His is a talent that has played out long ago and lost all its charm. He ought to stop and be content with what he has achieved in the past. I pray to God that I don't eventually fall into the same mistake! As for Delibes's opera, that produces an altogether different impression. It's a fresh, elegant, and highly talented work. Perhaps, dear friend, you might like to look through this opera yourself?}}


Although he remained on the staff of the State Academic Theatre for Opera and Ballet (Russian abbreviation: GATOB), as the Mariinsky was renamed in 1917, Asafyev did not do much composing or arranging for the ballet company during the 1920s. Scholarly and teaching work now took up most of his time. In 1925, he was appointed professor of music history at the [[Leningrad]] Conservatory, where he soon became one of the leading figures. He backed a number of reforms in the curriculum, including the introduction of a free composition class, and also helped to set up a musicology department, which he would head for several years. [[Glazunov]] and a few other professors, however, were opposed to his initiatives.
* [[Letter 2113]] to [[Pyotr Jurgenson]], 20 September/2 October 1882, in which Tchaikovsky discusses his intention of creating a suite ([[TH 219]]) from his first ballet (this intention was not realised):
{{quote|You know that the French composer ''Delibes'' has written ballets. Since ballet is a thing without firm foundations, he made a concert suite from it. The other day I thought about my own ''[[Swan Lake]]'', and I wanted very much to save this music from oblivion, since it contains some fine things. And so I decided to make a suite from it, like ''Delibes''.}}


{{picture|file=Dmitry Shostakovich 1933.jpg|caption='''Dmitry Shostakovich''' (1906–1975) in 1933}}
* [[Letter 2215]] to [[Nadezhda von Meck]], 31 January/12 February–9/21 February 1883, from [[Paris]], in which Tchaikovsky first gives his general impressions of contemporary French music:
From 1925, Asafyev was also on the board of directors of the [[Leningrad]] Association of Contemporary Music and lobbied for the programming of works by Berg, Hindemith, and Stravinsky at concerts in the city. Shostakovich, however, felt deeply offended when Asafyev failed to attend the premiere of his Symphony No. 1 the following year, and in a letter to a friend he insinuated that it was because Asafyev, whom he described as a "little intriguer", resented the fact that the symphony was due to be performed under the auspices of a rival organization <ref name="note9"/>. It should be stressed, though, that Shostakovich's sarcastic remarks about Asafyev in private letters and conversations down the years were not quite fair. Later in 1926, for example, Asafyev helped Shostakovich to obtain a teaching post, and in 1929 he would defend his opera ''The Nose ''when it came under attack from the Russian Association of Proletarian Musicians (RAPM) <ref name="note10"/>. More generally, unlike other lesser Soviet composers, Asafyev was not envious of the younger man's genius and growing world fame (after the First Symphony was performed in [[Berlin]] in 1927), and he never tried to put a spoke in his wheel <ref name="note11"/>.
{{quote|If we compare the new French school with what is currently being composed in Germany, then it is impossible not to recognize that German music is in a terrible state of decline, and that they are not doing anything else other than constantly rehashing the elements introduced by [[Mendelssohn]] and [[Schumann]], on the one hand, and by [[Liszt]] and [[Wagner]], on the other. In France, on the contrary, one can hear something which is new and at times very interesting, fresh, and striking. [[Bizet]], of course, is head and shoulders above them all, but still [[Massenet]], Delibes, Guiraud, [[Lalo]], Godard, [[Saint-Saëns]], etc are people with talent and, most importantly, people who are at any rate a long way from the dry routine manner of contemporary Germans}}


In 1927, Asafyev initiated a project for the staging and publication of ''Boris Godunov'' in [[Musorgsky]]'s original version of 1867. (The opera had so far been performed only in the composer's own revised version of 1872 and in [[Rimsky-Korsakov]]'s edited version). Despite protests from [[Glazunov]], who believed that [[Rimsky-Korsakov]]'s editing had improved the opera, Asafyev persevered in his cause <ref name="note12"/>. He was assisted by his friend, the musicologist Pavel Lamm, who had copied all the autographs of ''Boris'' and ''Khovanshchina''. The original version of ''Boris Godunov'' was published in 1928 by Muzsektor (a branch of the State Publishing House ''Gosizdat'') and by Oxford University Press, and its world premiere took place at GATOB, [[Leningrad]], on 16 February 1928.
* Letter 4298 to [[Félix Mackar]], 11/23 January 1891, from [[Frolovskoye]]:
{{quote|My dear friend. What a misfortune the death of ''Delibes'' is!!! He was my great favourite among French composers.}}


Another important production in which Asafyev was involved was that of Alban Berg's ''Woyzeck'' in [[Leningrad]] in June 1927, just eighteen months after its world premiere in [[Berlin]]. Berg himself came to [[Leningrad]] for this performance and thanked Asafyev warmly for his support, because the latter had defended ''Woyzeck'' against attacks by RAPM hack critics who argued that the opera was alien to the mentality of the proletariat! Asafyev understood that, after the horrors of World War I, it was no longer so easy to write melodious music, and in a letter to Berg in 1929 he said that he considered ''Woyzeck'' to be the most important contemporary opera by virtue of its protest against cruelty and violence <ref name="note13"/>. Asafyev was also responsible for inviting such distinguished foreign conductors as Otto Klemperer and Ernest Ansermet to the Soviet Union.
===In Interviews with Tchaikovsky===
 
* ''[[A Conversation with P. I. Tchaikovsky]]'' (TH 324), interview for the periodical ''Petersburg Life'', 12 November 1892 {{OS}}, in which Tchaikovsky is asked, amongst other things, about his views on the state of music in Western Europe:
Asafyev himself was invited by the directors of the Salzburg Festival to organize and lead a visit by the [[Leningrad]] Conservatory's opera studio to Salzburg in the summer of 1928. This was the first visit abroad by a Soviet music theatre ensemble, and the Conservatory students gave performances of [[Mozart]]'s '' Bastien und Bastienne'', [[Dargomyzhsky]]'s ''Stone Guest'', and [[Rimsky-Korsakov]]'s ''Kashchei the Immortal''. The visit was a great success, even though some hostile critics spoke ironically of [[Musorgsky]], [[Dargomyzhsky]], [[Rimsky-Korsakov]], and Asafyev (whose books were becoming known abroad) as the "[[Leningrad]] Bolsheviks"! In Salzburg, Asafyev briefly met the writer Stefan Zweig, and, moving on to [[Vienna]], he met the eminent Austrian musicologist Guido Adler. After that he travelled to [[Paris]] to visit Prokofiev and Chaliapin.
{{quote|One sees a lot of activity and forward movement in France, too, which can rightly pride itself on such artists as [[Bizet]], [[Saint-Saëns]], Delibes, [[Massenet]]…}}
 
==The "Reactionary"==
Towards the end of the 1920s, Asafyev came under attack from RAPM for the content and style of his books, which were said to be pervaded by "counterrevolutionary, anti-Marxist idealism", "reactionary formalism" and "religious mysticism". (This was not surprising, since the RAPM ideologues had, for example, declared Tchaikovsky's music to be decadent and alien to the Soviet people <ref name="note14"/>.) Asafyev's lectures at the Conservatory and elsewhere were disrupted by hecklers, and defamations of his work and character appeared in the press. He appealed to Anatoly Lunacharsky, the head of Narkomproz, for support, but by 1930, under relentless pressure from RAPM he had no choice but to resign from his teaching posts at the Conservatory and the History of Arts Institute <ref name="note15"/>.
 
Asafyev decided to interrupt his musicological work for a while and began composing more intensely again. The situation improved in April 1932, when a Central Committee resolution disbanded RAPM and other Proletarian Associations in the arts, replacing them with unions of composers, writers, and artists. Asafyev successfully applied to be admitted into the [[Leningrad]] Composers' Union as a composer rather than as a musicologist (which was also permitted), but he was frowned upon by some of his fellow members, as he later recalled: "The composers declared that I should not be voting together with the composers, but with the musicologists. The latter for their part pointed out that I was not a scholar" <ref name="note16"/>. Indeed, in the 1930s, music students who cited his books in exams would often have their marks lowered by their professors, who considered that Asafyev's writing lacked "discipline" and "methodology".
 
The few articles that Asafyev published in this decade show that to some extent he did adopt the jargon of Marxist-Leninism, and, after 1934, of Socialist realism. For instance, he began to emphasize how Tchaikovsky's music was 'realistic' and 'popular' (''narodnyi''). As David Haas has observed: "The few occasional pieces on 19th-century Russian opera composers penned by Asafyev in the 1930s were devoid of scholarly depth or critical insight but rife with ideologically acceptable platitudes, each of them pointedly reversing a position from the ''Etudes''" <ref name="note17"/>. Nevertheless, if the 1930s marked a low point in Asafyev's work as a publicist, it was in these years that he had the greatest impact on the Soviet stage as a ballet composer.
 
Following on from his work on the original version of ''Boris Godunov'', Asafyev undertook the instrumentation of [[Musorgsky]]'s ''Khovanshchina'' in 1930–31. It was also around this time that, according to some accounts, he suggested Leskov's grim story ''Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk'' to Shostakovich as the subject for an opera. Shostakovich completed'' Lady Macbeth'' in December 1932, and the work was in fact originally dedicated to Asafyev. After its premiere in January 1934 Asafyev wrote two very positive articles on Shostakovich, in which he compared him to [[Mozart]] in terms of the richness of his talent.
 
Asafyev devoted his own creative efforts mainly to ballet, the musical genre in which he had the most experience, and his contribution to Soviet ballet between the 1920s and 40s was significant. For a start, in his capacity as musical consultant at GATOB (from 1935 the Kirov Theatre), he helped to preserve the legacy of Tchaikovsky's ballets, vetoing misguided attempts to improve [[Lev Ivanov]]'s choreography for the 'white acts' in '' [[Swan Lake]]''. He also persuaded the choreographer Vasily Vainonen to end his new production of '' [[The Nutcracker]]'' not with the fairy-tale apotheosis, but with the awakening of Masha (as Clara is called in Russian productions of the ballet) from her dream, thus emphasizing the theme of the continuity of life <ref name="note18"/>.
 
{{picture|file=Fountain 1947.jpg|caption=Galina Ulanova (Maria) and Pyotr Gusev (Girei) in a 1947 production of Asafyev's ballet ''The Fountain of Bakhchisarai'' at the Kirov Theatre}}
Working in the new style of "dramatic ballet" (''drambalet''), Asafyev wrote his two most famous ballets in quick succession: ''The Flames of Paris'' (1932) and ''The Fountain of Bakhchisarai'' (1934). For the first of these ballets, which deals with the storming of the Tuileries palace by the people of [[Paris]] in 1792, Asafyev drew on musical material from the works of Lully and Rameau, as well as on French revolutionary songs, including the ''Marseillaise'', and fused these into a rousing score. ''The Flames of Paris'' was produced at GATOB on 7 November 1932, with choreography by Vainonen, and was soon transferred to the country's principal stage, the Bolshoi Theatre in [[Moscow]]. To this day the Basque Dance in the final act, with its powerful rhythm, rarely fails to make an impression on audiences.
 
''The Fountain of Bakhchisarai'' is a more nuanced work. Inspired by [[Pushkin]]'s poem about the Polish girl Maria who is abducted by Girei, the Khan of Crimea, but whose delicate beauty awakens his genuine love, driving Zarema, once the favourite in Girei's harem, to stab her in a fit of jealousy, Asafyev wrote his ballet in just two weeks. The score contains highly lyrical moments, as well as striking Tartar dances. ''The Fountain of Bakhchisarai'', with choreography by Rostislav Zakharov, had its premiere at GATOB on 28 September 1934, in a production conducted by the young Yevgeny Mravinsky and featuring Galina Ulanova as Maria. It was a huge triumph and was also transferred to the stage of the Bolshoi in [[Moscow]] shortly afterwards.
 
Other collaborations with Zakharov followed, including'' Illusions perdues'' (1936), based on Balzac's novel, and ''Captive of the Caucasus'' (1938), based on another poem by [[Pushkin]]. In 1938, Asafyev was made a People's Artist of the RSFSR. In the course of his career Asafyev composed 28 ballets, 11 operas, 5 symphonies, cantatas, songs, piano and chamber works (more than 150 compositions in total). Although he admired Stravinsky, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich, he was not a musical pioneer himself, preferring to stay within the bounds of the nineteenth-century tradition. Still, even if Asafyev did not reach the heights of his famous contemporaries, his ballet music has considerable merits <ref name="note19"/>.
 
When the notorious ''Pravda'' editorial "Muddle Instead of Music" (often attributed to Stalin), attacking Shostakovich's ''Lady Macbeth'', appeared in January 1936, the [[Leningrad]] Composers' Union swiftly convoked meetings to discuss the issue. Asafyev's conduct at this point would cost him irrevocably the respect of Shostakovich, who crossed out his original dedication to Asafyev in ''Lady Macbeth''. However, if one looks at the article which Asafyev published in the journal ''Soviet Music'' in response to the ''Pravda'' editorial, it does seem that he was trying to find extenuating circumstances in Shostakovich's defence <ref name="note20"/>. He even repeated his earlier comparison between Shostakovich and [[Mozart]], arguing that the former showed an equally "naïve" approach to reality. Echoing the ''Pravda'' editorial, Asafyev did observe that Shostakovich's musical idiom contained vestiges of musical "modernism" and "decadence", but he stressed that this was a general problem faced by many other Soviet composers, too. Other sections of the article make for more painful reading, especially those in which Asafyev acknowledged that he had been "mistaken" in his earlier enthusiasm for "Western European bourgeois musical culture", and that Alban Berg's ''Woyzeck'' reflected the latter's crisis.
 
Shostakovich would never forgive what he perceived to be Asafyev's treachery, though it should be noted that even his close friend, the critic Ivan Sollertinsky, was forced to recognize that ''Lady Macbeth'' had some flaws <ref name="note21"/>. During the latter half of the 1930s, the Stalinist purges reached their highest intensity, and many artists and intellectuals had reason to fear for themselves and their families. By agreeing with the official line on ''Lady Macbeth'' as a work redolent of "cynical sensuality", Asafyev was certainly not seeking to harm Shostakovich, but it is understandable why the latter was so alarmed and why he felt that Asafyev was currying favour with the Party's cultural ideologues. Still, Asafyev himself was also a target for attack in these years, and intrigues at the Kirov Theatre (as GABOT, the former Mariinsky, was renamed in 1935) led to his dismissal from the post of musical consultant in 1937.
 
==The Tchaikovsky Archive==
In 1940, Margarita Rittikh, head of the manuscript section at the Tchaikovsky House-Museum in [[Klin]], enlisted Asafyev's collaboration for various projects linked to the 100th anniversary of the composer's birth. Asafyev replied that he was too busy that year because he was in fact already working on a new study on Tchaikovsky's music. However, he accepted Rittikh's invitation to come to [[Klin]] in July 1941, adding that he had "long since dreamed of breathing the air of Tchaikovsky's house" and that he wanted to do some work on the autograph of '' [[The Nutcracker]]'' <ref name="note22"/>. Nothing came of these plans, however, because of the German invasion on 22 June 1941.
 
Significantly, during World War II, publishing strictures lessened in the Soviet Union, and one consequence of this was that Asafyev embarked on a series of major studies, all issued under his pseudonym Igor Glebov, in which he regained much of the élan of his publications of the 1920s. Asafyev remained in [[Leningrad]] during the siege of the city by the German forces. The first winter of 1941/42 was particularly harsh, and Asafyev had to burn part of his archive to keep himself and his family warm (he and Irina had no children, but Irina's sister was living with them). Still, he managed to work on his monograph ''[[Yevgeny Onegin]]: Lyrical Scenes by P. I. Tchaikovsky: An Attempt at Intonational Analysis of the Style and Musical Dramaturgy'' («Евгений Онегин» лирические сцены П. И. Чайковского. Опыт интонационного анализа стиля и музыкальной драматургии), completing it in March 1942. This study would soon become a classic after it was published in 1944. Asafyev also began writing some interesting memoirs, in which he described his encounters with [[Stasov]], [[Rimsky-Korsakov]], [[Kashkin]], [[Lyadov]], and other notable figures in the world of Russian music <ref name="note23"/>. In the summer of 1942, he was offered the chance to be evacuated from [[Leningrad]] with his family, but he refused. That summer he also completed his monograph on [[Edvard Grieg]], which he had undertaken partly as a gesture of solidarity with German-occupied Norway, and which was published in 1948. It was also in the winter of 1941/42 that he commenced his famous tripartite study of [[Glinka]] and his times.
 
In February 1943, Asafyev, on whose weak health the hardships of life in besieged [[Leningrad]] had taken their toll, was evacuated with his family across the frozen Ladoga Lake and taken to [[Moscow]]. Before leaving [[Leningrad]], he had to burn much of what remained of his archive (books, scores, letters) because they could only take the most essential things with them. Shortly after his arrival in [[Moscow]], Asafyev was elected a member of the USSR Academy of Sciences — the first time that this honour was awarded to a musician. In April 1943, Margarita Rittikh came to [[Moscow]] to see Asafyev and to offer him the post of director of the Tchaikovsky House-Museum (which had recently been moved back to [[Klin]] after the evacuation of its collections to [[Votkinsk]]), but he declined on the grounds that the administrative duties of this role would not leave him enough time for other work, in particular the various articles and studies on Tchaikovsky that he planned to write that year, the 50th anniversary of the composer's death. Of the ten or so publications related to Tchaikovsky that Asafyev completed in 1943, the most important was the monograph ''[[The Enchantress]], opera by P. I. Tchaikovsky. An Attempt to Uncover its Intonational Content'' [«Чародейка», опера П. И. Чайковского. Опыт раскрытия интонационного содержания), which was published in 1947. Asafyev's original intention of writing intonational analyses of ''[[Iolanta]]'' and ''[[The Nutcracker]]'' as well was not realised, but his thoughts on these two works fed into a cycle of essays which he wrote during 1943–44: ''The Music of My Motherland'' (Музыка моей родины) <ref name="note24"/>.
 
The musicologist Yelena Orlova later recalled how, after a conference in [[Moscow]] in November 1943 on Tchaikovsky's music for the stage, Asafyev had spoken to her about his plans connected with Tchaikovsky: "He dreamed of writing a study on the composer's life. He said that he was in possession of some interesting new facts, that he had all kinds of conjectures which had been almost fully confirmed. There were new documents. Letters. In particular, he had found out from [[Kashkin]] that Tchaikovsky was acquainted with [[Antonina Tchaikovskaya|Antonina Ivanovna]] while he was still at the School of Jurisprudence, that she was the sweetheart of his youth, that they knew each other well, and that the version [of their marriage] now circulating had been invented by [[Nikolay Rubinstein|N. G. Rubinstein]]" <ref name="note25"/>. Clearly, Asafyev did not (and could not) have a complete picture of Tchaikovsky's life, but Valery Sokolov, in his 1994 biography of [[Antonina Tchaikovskaya]], established that Tchaikovsky had indeed briefly met his future wife some years before their ill-fated marriage — in May 1872 at the house of [[Anna Khvostova]]'s sister <ref name="note26"/>. For some reason Asafyev did not realise his intention of writing a new book on Tchaikovsky's life or revising his 1922 book.
 
In January 1944, a musicology section was set up at the [[Moscow]] Conservatory on Asafyev's initiative, and his friend [[Vasily Yakovlev]] would subsequently work there. That year, Asafyev also helped to found the USSR Academy of Sciences' Institute for the History of the Arts. In the autumn of 1944, Margarita Rittikh again contacted Asafyev to ask him to reconstruct and complete two sketches for songs by Tchaikovsky which had been discovered by chance when the [[Klin]] museum's collections were evacuated to Votkinsk. Tchaikovsky had made these sketches (TH 225) in his copy of a book of poetry by the [[Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich]]. Asafyev duly completed the [[Six Romances, Op. 63|two songs]] — the first of several instances in which he developed Tchaikovsky's sketches. Asafyev also oversaw the initial stages of preparation for the Academy of Sciences' editions of the 'complete' works of Tchaikovsky and [[Rimsky-Korsakov]].
 
{{picture|file=Boris Asafyev 1947.jpg|caption='''Boris Asafyev''' in 1947}}
It was in August 1945 that Asafyev visited [[Klin]] for the first time and had the opportunity to work on Tchaikovsky's archives. While studying the sketches for ''[[The Nutcracker]]'' he came across an ''English Dance'' which Tchaikovsky had decided not to use in the Act II divertissement. Asafyev's attention was soon riveted, however, by the sketches for the abortive [[Symphony in E-flat major]]. According to Yelena Orlova, Asafyev, after studying these sketches over several days, suggested that Tchaikovsky's decision to abandon this symphony with its "striving towards brightness" and to embark instead on the sombre [[Sixth Symphony]] was due to his visit to [[Montbéliard]] in January 1893 {{NS}} and his meeting with [[Fanny Dürbach]], which had caused him to relive all the years that had passed since his childhood <ref name="note27"/>. For a while Asafyev considered reconstructing the [[Symphony in E-flat major]] from the extant sketches, but in the end he abandoned this idea.
 
Inspired by his stay in [[Klin]] in the autumn of 1945, and by the surrounding landscape which he had liked very much, Asafyev spent the following year composing a ballet on themes by Tchaikovsky, entitled ''Spring Fairy Tale'' (Весенняя сказка). For this ballet he made use of the sketch "At sea" from the abandoned [[Symphony in E-flat major]]; a sketch entitled "O, how life is short (and how much suffering it contains!)" and the published songs ''Lullaby in a Storm'' (No. 10 of the '' [[Sixteen Songs for Children]]'', Op. 54) and ''Does the Day Reign?'' (No. 6 of the [[Seven Romances, Op. 47). ''Spring Fairy Tale'', with choreography by Fyodor Lopukhov, was premiered at the Kirov Theatre on 8 January 1947.
 
Throughout these last years of his life, despite increasing ill-health, Asafyev actively supported the work of the Tchaikovsky House-Museum at [[Klin]] in the formal capacity of scientific consultant. He helped to organize conferences there and also initiated work on a Tchaikovsky encyclopaedia which was to take up two volumes: the first was to cover the composer's musical and literary legacy; the second was to deal with Tchaikovsky's ties to various institutions, organizations, and individuals, as well as providing information on Tchaikovsky's autographs, a bibliography, and a chronicle of when and where his main works had been performed <ref name="note28"/>. Although a draft version of the encyclopaedia was ready by 1949, Asafyev's death meant that this ambitious plan had to be shelved. However, the material collected on the history of Tchaikovsky's works was eventually used in the important reference-book ''Tchaikovsky's Musical Legacy'' (Музыкальное наследие Чайковского), published in 1958. Another of Asafyev's unrealised plans was to bring out a new edition of [[Modest Tchaikovsky]]'s ''Life'' of the composer, adding a fourth volume with details on the performance of his works after his death, as well as some new facts about Tchaikovsky's life based on letters which had come to light after [[Modest]]'s death.
 
In 1947, Asafyev was awarded a Stalin Prize for his recently published book on [[Glinka]]. The following year again saw him in a controversial role vis-à-vis Shostakovich when the Central Committee issued its notorious decree of 10 February 1948 regarding "formalism" and "decadent western influences" in music. This was the start of a virulent campaign against Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Khachaturian, and Shebalin, which culminated in the first congress of the Composers' Union in [[Moscow]] in April 1948. Asafyev, pleading illness, did not attend the congress, but since he had recently been elected president of the Composers' Union, a speech was read out in his name (though he had not actually written it himself) which re-iterated the official condemnation of those composers <ref name="note29"/>.
 
For a conference due to be held at the [[Klin]] Museum later in April to commemorate the 125th anniversary of [[Aleksandr Ostrovsky]]'s birth, Asafyev had agreed to give a lecture on Tchaikovsky's early years and the composition of ''[[The Snow Maiden]]''. His poor health, however, prevented him from travelling to [[Klin]], and the lecture was delivered on his behalf by Yelena Orlova <ref name="note30"/>. After Asafyev's death she would also play a major role in rehabilitating his critical legacy, since for a long time much of what he had written during the 1920s was treated as ideologically suspect by the Soviet authorities.
 
==Bibliography==
: ''For works written or edited by Boris Asafyev, see [[Bibliography Index (A)]]''.
 
* Orlova, Yelena. {{und|Б. В. Асафьев: Путь исследователя и публициста}} (Leningrad, 1964)
* Kryukov, Andrey (ed.). {{und|Воспоминания о Б. В. Асафьеве}} (Leningrad, 1974), p. 474.
* {{bib|1990/200}} (1990)


==External Links==
==External Links==
* [[wikipedia:Boris_Asafyev|Wikipedia]]
* [[wikipedia:Léo Delibes|Wikipedia]]
* {{IMSLP|Delibes,_Léo}}


==Notes and References==
==Notes and References==
<references>
<references>
<ref name="note1">Quoted in {{und|Б. В. Асафьев: Путь исследователя и публициста}} (1964), p. 12–15.</ref>
<ref name="note1">{{bib|1954/50|Воспоминания о П. И. Чайковском}} (1954), p. 117.</ref>  
<ref name="note2">{{und|Воспоминания о Б. В. Асафьеве}} (1974), p. 474.</ref>
<ref name="note2">''Die Puppenfee'' (The Fairy Doll) is a one-act pantomimic divertissement with music by Josef Bayer (1852–1913) and choreography by Joseph Hassreiter (1845–1940), first staged at the Hofoper in [[Vienna]] on 4 October 1888.</ref>  
<ref name="note3">Letter from Boris Asafyev to [[Nikolay Kashkin]], 14 June 1918. Quoted in {{und|Б. В. Асафьев: Путь исследователя и публициста}} (1964), p. 12–15.</ref>
<ref name="note3">{{bib|1954/50|Воспоминания о П. И. Чайковском}} (1954), p. 119–120.</ref>  
<ref name="note4">Quoted from Boris Asafyev, translated by David Haas in {{bib|2008/1|Symphonic Etudes. Portraits of Russian Operas and Ballets}} (2008), p. 247.</ref>
<ref name="note4">See {{bib|1997/94|Жизнь Петра Ильича Чайковского ; том 1}} (1997), p. 467.</ref>  
<ref name="note5">See David Haas's introduction in {{bib|2008/1|Symphonic Etudes. Portraits of Russian Operas and Ballets}} (2008), xv.</ref>
<ref name="note5">From [[Letter 777]] to [[Nadezhda von Meck]], 3/15 March 1878, in which Tchaikovsky praises warmly [[Édouard Lalo]]'s ''Symphonie Espagnole''.</ref>  
<ref name="note6">Letter from Dmitry Shostakovich to Boleslav Yavorsky, 16 December 1925. See Irina Bobykina (ed.), {{und|Дмитрий Шостакович в письмах и документах}} (2000), p. 49.</ref>
<ref name="note6">Letter from [[Nadezhda von Meck]] to Tchaikovsky, 4/16 January 1878.</ref>  
<ref name="note7">Quoted from Boris Asafiev, translated by David Haas in {{bib|2008/1|Symphonic Etudes. Portraits of Russian Operas and Ballets}} (2008), p. 224–225.</ref>
<ref name="note7">See also the contribution by Rüdiger Herpich to the archived Tchaikovsky Forum discussion "Drosselmeyer's musical symbolism" [http://www.tchaikovsky-research.net/en/forum/forum0064.html] </ref>
<ref name="note8">A second edition of the book did not appear until almost fifty years later: {{und|Симфонические этюды}} (1970). In the five-volume edition of Asafyev's ''Selected Works'' published by the Academy of Sciences a few years after his death: ''Избранные труды'' (1952–57), only an abridged version of the study on 'The Operas of Tchaikovsky' was included. Moreover, the prefaces to these five volumes stressed Asafyev's "ideological errors" in the 1920s.</ref>
<ref name="note8">See also ''{{bib|1940/107|Дни и годы П. И. Чайковского. Летопись жизни и творчества}}' (1940), p. 290, which refers to an entry from [[Modest Tchaikovsky]]'s diary recording this visit to the opera.</ref>  
<ref name="note9">Letter from Dmitry Shostakovich to Sergey Protopopov, 13 May 1926. See Irina Bobykina (ed.), {{und|Дмитрий Шостакович в письмах и документах}} (2000), p. 135.</ref>  
<ref name="note9">Diary entries for 7/19 and 8/20 August 1886, as well as 23 March/4 April 1887, in {{bib|1993/231|Дневники П. И. Чайковского, 1873–1891}} (1993), p. 86 and p. 134 respectively.</ref>  
<ref name="note10">See Elizabeth Wilson, {{und|Shostakovich: A Life Remembered}} (2006), p. 84.</ref>
<ref name="note10">'' {{bib|1993/231|Дневники П. И. Чайковского, 1873–1891}}'' (1993), p.69.</ref>  
<ref name="note11">Shostakovich himself wrote to Asafyev on 11 November 1929 to thank him for having passed on an invitation to come to [[Berlin]] to attend a concert of his works due to be conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler. See Irina Bobykina (ed.), {{und|Дмитрий Шостакович в письмах и документах}}
<ref name="note11">[[Letter 2971]] to [[Modest Tchaikovsky]], 11/23 June 1886.</ref>  
(2000).</ref>
<ref name="note12">[[Letter 2975]] to [[Nadezhda von Meck]], 17/29–18/30 June 1886.</ref>  
<ref name="note12">Shostakovich, who embarked on his own edited version of ''Boris Godunov'' in 1940, agreed with [[Glazunov]]'s view that [[Musorgsky]] had simply lacked the technical mastery to orchestrate many parts in his opera effectively. If we may trust Solomon Volkov's ''Testimony'' (1979), translated by Antonina W. Bouis (London]], 1987), p.176, this is what Shostakovich had to say about Asafyev's advocacy of [[Musorgsky]]'s original orchestration: "Of course, there was one notable character, Boris Asafiev, who proposed that there was a theoretical basis for [[Mussorgsky]]'s incompetence. This Boris was known for his ability to invent a theoretical basis for almost anything. He spun like a top. Anyway, Asafiev maintained that all the scenes I just mentioned [the coronation scene and the polonaise in the Polish act] were orchestrated wonderfully by [[Mussorgsky]], that it was part of his plan. He intended the coronation scene to be lacklustre to show that the people were against Boris's coronation. This was the people's form of protest — clumsy orchestration. And in the Polish act, Asafiev would have you believe [[Mussorgsky]] was exposing the decadent gentry, and therefore let the Poles dance to poor instrumentation. That was his way of punishing them. Only it's all nonsense. [[Glazunov]] told me that [[Mussorgsky]] himself played all these scenes for him on the piano — the bells and the coronation. And [[Glazunov]] said that they were brilliant and powerful — that was the way [[Mussorgsky]] wanted them to be, for he was a dramatist of great genius from whom I learn and learn. I'm not speaking of orchestration now. I'm talking about something else". It is worth noting that [[Glazunov]] (b. 1865) is not known to have personally met [[Musorgsky]] (d. 1881), so this account may not be entirely accurate.</ref>  
<ref name="note13">Letter from [[Nadezhda von Meck]] to Tchaikovsky, 22 June/4 July 1886.</ref>  
<ref name="note13">See Asafyev's letter of 8 July 1929 to Alban Berg in {{und|Материалы к биографии Б. Асафьева}} (1982).</ref>
<ref name="note14">[[Letter 2988]] to [[Nadezhda von Meck]], 28 June/10 July 1886.</ref>  
<ref name="note14">See {{bib|2009/17|Пётр Чайковский. Биография, vol. 2}} (2009), p. 583.</ref>  
<ref name="note15">[[Letter 3507]] to [[Modest Tchaikovsky]], 25 February/8 March 1888.</ref>  
<ref name="note15">See David Haas's introduction in {{bib|2008/1|Symphonic Etudes. Portraits of Russian Operas and Ballets}} (2008), xvii.</ref>
<ref name="note16">This interview with [[Pyotr Jurgenson]] from the ''Petersburg Gazette'' (Петербургская газета), 27 October 1893 {{OS}} is included (in German) in: ''{{bib|1994/85|Tschaikowsky aus der Nähe: Kritische Würdigungen und Erinnerungen von Zeitgenossen}}'' (1994), p. 273–275.</ref>  
<ref name="note16">See {{und|Воспоминания о Б. В. Асафьеве}} (1974), p. 475.</ref>
<ref name="note17">Tchaikovsky is referring to his first ballet by its original designation: ''The Lake of Swans'' (Озеро лебедей), rather than the title which eventually prevailed: ''[[Swan Lake]]'' (Лебединое озеро). When the ballet was premiered at the [[Moscow]] Bolshoi Theatre on 20 February/4 March 1877 (with choreography by Julius Reisinger) it was received fairly well and it remained in the repertoire until the 1882/83 season.</ref>
<ref name="note17">See {{bib|2008/1|Symphonic Etudes. Portraits of Russian Operas and Ballets}} (2008), xvii.</ref>  
<ref name="note18">Tchaikovsky was in [[Vienna]] with his brother [[Anatoly]] and the violinist [[Iosif Kotek]].</ref>
<ref name="note18">See the reminiscences of the ballet critic Yury Slonimsky in {{und|Воспоминания о Б. В. Асафьеве}} (1974), p. 158. Asafyev's idea was taken up by Yury Grigorovich in his outstanding 1966 version of ''[[The Nutcracker]]'' at the Bolshoi Theatre.</ref>
<ref name="note19">Anna Sobeshchanskaya (1842–1918), Russian ballerina; she danced Odette in the first production of ''[[Swan Lake]]'' (1877), although it was Pelageya Karpakova (1845–1920) who created the role at the premiere of the ballet.</ref>
<ref name="note19">A 1953 Soviet film ''The Stars of the Russian Ballet'' (Мастера русского балета), available on both video and DVD, includes abbreviated versions of ''The Flames of Paris'' and''The Fountain of Bakhchisarai'' (with Ulanova as Maria and Maia Plisetskaya as Zarema).</ref>
<ref name="note20">For example, Asafyev wrote in his article: "Even now, when I have been reading through the score of ''Lady Macbeth'' again and again, I still sense in it, in comparison to the monstrous, nay, grotesque, masquerade in ''The Nose'', an undeniable striving on the composer's part to overcome the nightmares of the past by creating a female character [Katerina] which is new in his oeuvre. By means of this character, by revealing the depths of suffering of the female psyche, Shostakovich was manifestly seeking a way to fill his music emotionally. This drama of everyday life provided him with the impulse, but at the same time the particularly harsh milieu of the Russian petty bourgeoisie [in Leskov's story] tempted him to present a coarsely naturalistic demonstration of mutual cruelty between people". Quoted from Yelena Orlova, {{und|Б. В. Асафьев: Путь исследователя и публициста}} ([[Leningrad]], 1964), p. 262–263.</ref>
<ref name="note21">According to Edison Denisov, who was a friend of Shostakovich's from the 1950s until his death, whenever he mentioned Asafyev's name, Shostakovich bristled. "He would repeat: 'I have met many good people and many bad people in my life, but never anybody more rotten than Asafiev.'" See Elizabeth Wilson, {{und|Shostakovich: A Life Remembered}} (2006), p. 344.</ref>
<ref name="note22">See {{und|Воспоминания о Б. В. Асафьеве}} ( 1974), p. 257.</ref>
<ref name="note23">They have been partially published (in Russian) as 'О себе' [About Myself] in {{und|Воспоминания о Б. В. Асафьеве}} (1974), p. 317–508.</ref>
<ref name="note24">This cycle is included in Volume 4 of {{und|Избранные труды}} (1952–57). In 'On Foreign Lands and Peoples' («О чужих странах и людях»), one of the essays in the cycle, when discussing ''[[Iolanta]]'', Asafyev cites excerpts from Tchaikovsky's letters to a certain Dr Ivan Yakovlev, who, according to Asafyev, was a fellow student of Tchaikovsky at the [[Saint Petersburg]] Conservatory before switching to medicine. In a note Asafyev explains that Dr Yakovlev, whom he knew personally, allowed him to make copies of ten letters which he had received from Tchaikovsky. The excerpts cited by Asafyev, if they are indeed authentic, contain some interesting reflections by Tchaikovsky on [[Shakespeare]]'s ''Romeo and Juliet'', as well as suggesting that the figure of the oriental doctor Ibn-Hakkia in ''[[Iolanta]]'' may have been partly based on Dr Yakovlev. The actual letters (or the copies made by Asafyev) have not come to light as yet.</ref>
<ref name="note25">See {{und|Воспоминания о Б. В. Асафьеве}} (1974), p. 262.</ref>
<ref name="note26">See {{bib|1994/148|Антонина Чайковская. История забытой жизни}} (1994), p.15–16.</ref>
<ref name="note27">See {{und|Воспоминания о Б. В. Асафьеве}} (1974), p. 277}.</ref>
<ref name="note28">See {{und|Воспоминания о Б. В. Асафьеве}} (1974), p. 271–272.</ref>
<ref name="note29">Asafyev did not subsequently distance himself from these attacks, and given that elsewhere in this speech read out 'on his behalf' he had also 'recanted' his earlier enthusiasm for Stravinsky, this inevitably invited accusations of moral cowardice and opportunism. Yury Levitin, a former student of Shostakovich's, later observed: "It was the academician Boris Asafiev who played a perfidious role in preparing the initial measures for the Central Committee's Decree that followed. Although he himself did not take an active part in the ensuing persecutions, he lent his protection to his willing and trusty assistants". See Elizabeth Wilson, {{und|Shostakovich: A Life Remembered}} (2006), p. 241. Shostakovich himself gave a speech at the congress, in which he promised that henceforth he would write melodious music for the Soviet people.</ref>
<ref name="note30">Asafyev's lecture was later published as {{bib|1972/1|Юные годы Чайковского и музыка к Снегурочке}} (1972).</ref>
</references>
</references>
[[Category:People|Asafyev, Boris]]
[[Category:People|Delibes, Leo]]
[[Category:Composers|Asafyev, Boris]]
[[Category:Composers|Delibes, Leo]]
[[Category:Writers|Asafyev, Boris]]

Revision as of 11:29, 12 November 2022

Léo Delibes (1836-1891)

French composer (b. 21 February 1836 in Saint-Germain-du-Val; d. 16 January 1891 in Paris), born Clément Philibert Léo Delibes.

Tchaikovsky and Delibes

In his memoirs of Tchaikovsky, Nikolay Kashkin gives an interesting account of how his late friend, in 1875, had taken up the suggestion from Vladimir Begichev, the director of the Imperial Theatres in Moscow, that he should write a ballet set in medieval times: Swan Lake. Tchaikovsky had set about this task by first studying thoroughly various ballet scores, in particular that of Adolphe Adam's Giselle, which at the time was his ideal of what a ballet should be like: in Giselle he was fascinated both by "the poetic spirit of Théophile Gautier's libretto and the mastery of Adam's music" [1]. After discussing the moderate success obtained by Swan Lake in its first stage production (with choreography by Julius Reisinger), which was premiered at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow on 20 February/4 March 1877, Kashkin adds that a few months later:

In Vienna Tchaikovsky heard Delibes's ballet Sylvia, went into raptures over it, and in a letter to me expressed himself in very sharp terms about his own Swan Lake, whereby he was clearly being unjustly hard on the music of his ballet. Subsequently his views about suitable ballet subjects changed, and he no longer liked Sylvia; on the other hand, he became all the more enthusiastic about another ballet by the same composer — Coppélia — and even about a boring Viennese ballet — Die Puppenfee [2], which is reflected to some extent in The Nutcracker. The latter shows how Pyotr Ilyich had moved on from the magic fairy-tale genre, as in The Sleeping Beauty, to that of the puppet-theatre story [3].

Tchaikovsky's letter of 23 November/5 December 1877 to Nadezhda von Meck from Vienna, quoted below, certainly confirms what Kashkin says about the strong impression which the music of Delibes's ballet Sylvia, ou La nymphe de Diane (Paris Opéra, 1876) made on Tchaikovsky, even causing him to reject his own Swan Lake as "not fit to hold a candle to Sylvia". Although the staging of this ballet in Vienna for the 1877/78 season was Tchaikovsky's first chance to hear Delibes's music in all the splendour of its orchestral sound (Sylvia was not shown in Russia until 1901), he had in fact already been studying the piano score of Sylvia in the summer of 1876. We know this from a footnote which Tchaikovsky added to the letter he sent to his brother Modest on 8/20 August 1876, a few days after he had rushed off from Bayreuth, having fulfilled his obligation to sit through the first complete performance of The Ring in order to report on it for a newspaper in Moscow. In this letter Tchaikovsky describes the ordeal he had endured, which was hardly compensated by the many 'symphonic' beauties of Wagner's music, and adds in a revealing note: "How many thousand times dearer to me is the ballet Sylvia!" Modest Tchaikovsky, commenting on this letter in his biography of the composer, explains that it was during this trip abroad in the summer of 1876 that his brother had first become acquainted with Delibes's music thanks to a copy of the piano score of Sylvia, and that back in Russia he had played it through enthusiastically three or four times [4].

The above comparison between Wagner's monumental Ring cycle and Delibes's tuneful ballet, with the latter attracting all of Tchaikovsky's spontaneous sympathy (although of course he recognized Wagner's genius — for "symphonic" music!), is one that would eventually be extended by the Russian composer into a comparison between German and French music. In several letters to Nadezhda von Meck, some of which are quoted in the list below, Tchaikovsky makes it clear that he regarded music in Germany as having entered a phase of steep decline (exemplified by the two polar extremes of Wagner and Brahms, whom elsewhere he described as a "caricature of Beethoven"), whereas in France a regeneration of music had been launched by such composers as the late Bizet, in particular, but also by Delibes and a few others. This "new phalanx" of French composers was distinguished by the way in which it "does not pursue depth, but carefully avoids routine, looking for new forms and paying more attention to musical beauty than to the observance of established traditions, in contrast to the Germans" [5].

Tchaikovsky's enthusiastic remarks about Sylvia prompted Nadezhda von Meck to ask him if he was also familiar with Delibes's comic opera Le roi l'a dit (1873) and his earlier ballet Coppélia (Paris Opéra, 1870) [6]. Tchaikovsky replied saying that he thought this opera "delightful" but that he was unfortunately not yet acquainted with Coppélia: he intended, however, to get hold of a copy of the score very soon. Unfortunately, it is not clear when exactly Tchaikovsky managed to study the score, or actually see a performance, of Coppélia (which was first shown in Russia in 1884, in a staging by Marius Petipa). But judging from Kashkin's memoirs as quoted above, Tchaikovsky came to appreciate the vivid and rich music of Coppélia even more than that of Sylvia, and it was the earlier ballet, loosely based on a story by E. T. A. Hoffmann, which would serve as a model for The Nutcracker in the scenario that Ivan Vsevolozhsky and Petipa drew up for Tchaikovsky in 1890–91. The encounter between human emotions and the world of automata, which in contrast to Hoffmann's original story was rendered quite harmless in the French ballet (since Dr Coppélius's doll always remains a lifeless dummy), takes on more sinister overtones in Act I of The Nutcracker [7].

On 17 April 1883 [N.S.], during his long stay in Paris that year, Tchaikovsky was able to attend, together with his brother Modest, one of the first performances of Delibes's most popular opera, Lakmé, at the Opéra-Comique [8]. Tchaikovsky does not seem to have left any comments on this masterpiece, but from a diary entry we know that at Maydanovo in the summer of 1886 he played through the vocal-piano reduction of Le roi l'a dit, and that in the following summer he was also studying (unspecified) works by Delibes [9].

Tchaikovsky had a couple of chances to meet Delibes during his stay in Paris in 1886 (from late May to late June [N.S.], but although in the course of these four weeks he managed to make the acquaintance of many prominent figures in the musical life of the French capital, including Ambroise Thomas, Pauline Viardot, Édouard Lalo, and Gabriel Fauré, fate seemed to conspire to prevent him that year from actually speaking to the French composer he admired most (after Bizet and possibly Gounod). This was not for want of opportunities, though, for in his diary he wrote down on 8/20 June 1886: "Back at the hotel I found Léo Delibes's visiting card, with an inscription" [10]. The following day Tchaikovsky set off for Delibes's house, but the composer wasn't at home. The fact that Delibes had been the first to seek him out and had even left his card at the hotel was evidently flattering to Tchaikovsky's self-esteem in a city which he felt had until then shown but little interest in his music. Thus, a few days later he wrote to his brother Modest: "Léo Delibes called on me first — that really moved me! Indeed, it turns out that I'm not at all so unknown in Paris as I had thought!" [11]. That he did not actually meet Delibes on this occasion, is clear from an exchange of letters with Nadezhda von Meck once he was back in Russia. Very soon after reaching Saint Petersburg (on 15/27 June) he had written to his benefactress with a brief report on his impressions of Paris: "Of the most outstanding figures [in the city's musical life] I was particularly touched by the attention I received from Ambroise Thomas and Léo Delibes" [12]. Nadezhda von Meck had understood this to mean that Tchaikovsky had actually met both these eminent composers, and in her reply (sent to Maydanovo, where Tchaikovsky intended to spend the rest of the summer), she asked him if Delibes was as nice in real life as he seemed to be from the "very kind and ingenuous expression" of his face on photographs [13]. In his next letter to her Tchaikovsky cleared up the misunderstanding:

I did not get to see Léo Delibes and so I cannot answer your question. He went to my hotel one day, but I wasn't in, so he left his card with a most flattering inscription. The next day I went to call on him, but he wasn't at home either. Then we were supposed to see each other at the Conservatoire, where I had been invited by A. Thomas to attend a piano examination, but some meeting at the Academy [of Fine Arts] meant he couldn't come. Thus, Delibes bowled me over with his kindness (which I value especially, since after Bizet I consider him to be the most talented French composer), without ever having set eyes on me [14].

Within less than two years, though, Tchaikovsky did finally get to meet Delibes in Paris. In February–March 1888, he was in the French capital as part of his first concert tour to Western Europe as the conductor of his own works, and it seems that at the second of the three concerts he conducted there (at the Théâtre du Châtelet on 4 March 1888 [N.S.] Delibes was present in the audience. The two composers may also have met at the many receptions which Édouard Colonne organized in his house in honour of the illustrious visitor from Russia. At any rate, a few days after that concert Tchaikovsky wrote to his brother Modest: "The celebrations I am receiving in my honour are quite sincere. At the concert [ Gounod]] expressed his enthusiasm in a very demonstrative fashion; all the young musicians are also very kind to me. I have become acquainted with everyone. Delibes is the nicest of them all" [15].

Two days after Tchaikovsky's death an interview with his loyal publisher and friend Pyotr Jurgenson was published in the Petersburg Gazette. One of the questions Jurgenson was asked was which composers Tchaikovsky had liked the most. He replied as follows: "Pyotr Ilyich worshipped Mozart […] He was also a great admirer of Bizet and Delibes […] In Moscow I once had the opportunity to go and see some ballet by Delibes with him. Tchaikovsky was so delighted by it that he cried out: 'Now that is real ballet! […] There's no way the monsters I've produced can compare with it!'" [16].

That he could say this about Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty, and The Nutcracker is characteristic of Tchaikovsky's modesty and also confirms something he himself had pointed out in an article of 1875 — namely, that authors were liable to be too critical of their own works! (see TH 304).

General Reflections on Delibes

In Tchaikovsky's Letters

So this is what Wagner's opera reform is striving after? Composers in the past sought to delight people with their music; now what they do instead is to torment and exhaust them. Of course, there are wondrous details, but everything taken together is frightfully boring!!! [Footnote by Tchaikovsky:] How many thousand times dearer to me is the ballet Sylvia.

{{quote|After the opera [Cherubini's Der Wasserträger] we saw a staging of the ballet Sylvia, whose music is being talked about very much now. It really is a chef-d'oeuvre of its kind. The author of this music is a Frenchman: Léo Delibes. I really wish that you were able to get a copy of the score of this ballet. Never before in ballet music has there been such gracefulness, such a richness of melodies and rhythms, such a splendid instrumentation. Without any false modesty whatsoever, I can assure you that The Lake of Swans is not fit even to hold a candle to Sylvia. I was utterly enchanted! [17]."/>

On the whole it does seem to me that in terms of music Germany is in decline. I think it's now the Frenchmen who are coming on centre-stage. They now have a lot of new and strong talents. Recently I heard Delibes's music for the ballet Sylvia — a music which in its own way really is touched by genius. Thanks to a piano transcription I had familiarized myself with this wonderful music before, but in the splendid performance I heard from the Viennese orchestra it has quite simply enchanted me, especially in the first part. The Lake of Swans is mere rubbish in comparison with Sylvia. Indeed, over the last few years I cannot think of anything apart from [Bizet]]'s] Carmen and Delibes's ballet that has so seriously enchanted me. Perhaps Russia, too, will contribute a new word, like the rest of Europe in fact. In Germany, though, we're seeing a steep decline. Wagner is the great representative of this period of decadence.

We [18] are often going to the theatre in the evenings. We've heard: Der Wasserträger by Cherubini, Sylvia (a ballet) by Delibes, Die Walküre by Wagner, and Aida. The last of these was staged very poorly. Out of all this I have been most enchantingly impressed by Der Wasserträger and Sylvia, which are staged as a double-bill in one evening.

On the other hand, I also heard in Vienna the ballet Sylvia by Leo Delibes — yes, I mean heard because this is the first ballet in which the music constitutes not just the principal, but also the sole interest. What charm, what gracefulness, what melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic richness! I was ashamed of myself. If I had known this music before, I wouldn't have written The Lake of Swans.

  • Letter 707 to Nadezhda von Meck, 24 December 1877/5 January 1878, in which Tchaikovsky first discusses at length his views on the state of music in Russia, with some critical remarks about the "Mighty Handful", and in Germany:

As for the French, they are now moving forward in a very pronounced manner. Of course it is only now that they've started to play Berlioz, that is ten years after his death, but still a lot of new talents and energetic fighters against routine have emerged there [...] Of the contemporary French composers my favourites are Bizet and Delibes.

I don't know Coppélia, but at the next convenient opportunity I definitely intend to acquaint myself with it. Le roi l'a dit is a delightful opera by virtue of both its music and plot, but Delibes's chef-d'oeuvre still remains Sylvia.

I really do not understand what you mean by ballet music and why you are so against it. Do you call ballet music every cheerful tune with a dance rhythm? Well, in that case you must also be against most of Beethoven's symphonies, in which one continually comes across such melodies […] Indeed, I just cannot understand why there should be something reprehensible in the phrase 'ballet music'! After all, ballet music is not always bad; it can sometimes be very good (for example, Léo Delibes's Sylvia). And when it is good, what difference does it make if Sobeshchanskaya [19] is dancing to it or not?

Tonight I'm going to hear the opera Jean de Nivelle by Leo Delibes — a composer whose talent I find very appealing. This opera has been enormously successful, and I had quite a bit of trouble getting hold of a ticket for tonight's performance.

Over the last few days I've been studying two new operas at the same time: Rubinstein's The Merchant Kalashnikov and Leo Delibes's Jean de Nivelle. The former is an extremely poor work. Indeed, Rubinstein is behaving just like a singer who has already lost her voice but still imagines that she can captivate her audience. His is a talent that has played out long ago and lost all its charm. He ought to stop and be content with what he has achieved in the past. I pray to God that I don't eventually fall into the same mistake! As for Delibes's opera, that produces an altogether different impression. It's a fresh, elegant, and highly talented work. Perhaps, dear friend, you might like to look through this opera yourself?

  • Letter 2113 to Pyotr Jurgenson, 20 September/2 October 1882, in which Tchaikovsky discusses his intention of creating a suite (TH 219) from his first ballet (this intention was not realised):

You know that the French composer Delibes has written ballets. Since ballet is a thing without firm foundations, he made a concert suite from it. The other day I thought about my own Swan Lake, and I wanted very much to save this music from oblivion, since it contains some fine things. And so I decided to make a suite from it, like Delibes.

  • Letter 2215 to Nadezhda von Meck, 31 January/12 February–9/21 February 1883, from Paris, in which Tchaikovsky first gives his general impressions of contemporary French music:

If we compare the new French school with what is currently being composed in Germany, then it is impossible not to recognize that German music is in a terrible state of decline, and that they are not doing anything else other than constantly rehashing the elements introduced by Mendelssohn and Schumann, on the one hand, and by Liszt and Wagner, on the other. In France, on the contrary, one can hear something which is new and at times very interesting, fresh, and striking. Bizet, of course, is head and shoulders above them all, but still Massenet, Delibes, Guiraud, Lalo, Godard, Saint-Saëns, etc are people with talent and, most importantly, people who are at any rate a long way from the dry routine manner of contemporary Germans

My dear friend. What a misfortune the death of Delibes is!!! He was my great favourite among French composers.

In Interviews with Tchaikovsky

  • A Conversation with P. I. Tchaikovsky (TH 324), interview for the periodical Petersburg Life, 12 November 1892 [O.S.], in which Tchaikovsky is asked, amongst other things, about his views on the state of music in Western Europe:

One sees a lot of activity and forward movement in France, too, which can rightly pride itself on such artists as Bizet, Saint-Saëns, Delibes, Massenet…

External Links

Notes and References

  1. ↑ Воспоминания о П. И. Чайковском (1954), p. 117.
  2. ↑ Die Puppenfee (The Fairy Doll) is a one-act pantomimic divertissement with music by Josef Bayer (1852–1913) and choreography by Joseph Hassreiter (1845–1940), first staged at the Hofoper in Vienna on 4 October 1888.
  3. ↑ Воспоминания о П. И. Чайковском (1954), p. 119–120.
  4. ↑ See Жизнь Петра Ильича Чайковского, том 1 (1997), p. 467.
  5. ↑ From Letter 777 to Nadezhda von Meck, 3/15 March 1878, in which Tchaikovsky praises warmly Édouard Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole.
  6. ↑ Letter from Nadezhda von Meck to Tchaikovsky, 4/16 January 1878.
  7. ↑ See also the contribution by Rüdiger Herpich to the archived Tchaikovsky Forum discussion "Drosselmeyer's musical symbolism" [1]
  8. ↑ See also Дни и годы П. И. Чайковского. Летопись жизни и творчества' (1940), p. 290, which refers to an entry from Modest Tchaikovsky's diary recording this visit to the opera.
  9. ↑ Diary entries for 7/19 and 8/20 August 1886, as well as 23 March/4 April 1887, in Дневники П. И. Чайковского (1873-1891) (1993), p. 86 and p. 134 respectively.
  10. ↑ Дневники П. И. Чайковского (1873-1891) (1993), p.69.
  11. ↑ Letter 2971 to Modest Tchaikovsky, 11/23 June 1886.
  12. ↑ Letter 2975 to Nadezhda von Meck, 17/29–18/30 June 1886.
  13. ↑ Letter from Nadezhda von Meck to Tchaikovsky, 22 June/4 July 1886.
  14. ↑ Letter 2988 to Nadezhda von Meck, 28 June/10 July 1886.
  15. ↑ Letter 3507 to Modest Tchaikovsky, 25 February/8 March 1888.
  16. ↑ This interview with Pyotr Jurgenson from the Petersburg Gazette (Петербургская газета), 27 October 1893 [O.S.] is included (in German) in: Tschaikowsky aus der Nähe. Kritische Würdigungen und Erinnerungen von Zeitgenossen (1994), p. 273–275.
  17. ↑ Tchaikovsky is referring to his first ballet by its original designation: The Lake of Swans (Озеро лебедей), rather than the title which eventually prevailed: Swan Lake (Лебединое озеро). When the ballet was premiered at the Moscow Bolshoi Theatre on 20 February/4 March 1877 (with choreography by Julius Reisinger) it was received fairly well and it remained in the repertoire until the 1882/83 season.
  18. ↑ Tchaikovsky was in Vienna with his brother Anatoly and the violinist Iosif Kotek.
  19. ↑ Anna Sobeshchanskaya (1842–1918), Russian ballerina; she danced Odette in the first production of Swan Lake (1877), although it was Pelageya Karpakova (1845–1920) who created the role at the premiere of the ballet.
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