Letter 1857a
| Date | 17/29 September 1881 |
|---|---|
| Addressed to | Signale für die Musikalische Welt (editor of) |
| Where written | Moscow |
| Language | German |
| Autograph Location | unknown |
| Publication | Signale für die musikalische Welt, vol. 57 (1881), p. 898 Tschaikowsky-Gesellschaft Mitteilungen, Heft 2 (1998), p. 55-58 Cajkovskijs Homosexualität und sein Tod. Legenden und Wirklichkeit (1998), p. 536. |
| Notes | Also numbered ČW 583 |
Text and Translation
| German text (original) |
English translation By Luis Sundkvist |
Moskau den 17. Sept. 1881 Herr Redacteur!
Ich erlaube mir, Sie ergebenst zu bitten, folgende Zeilen in Ihr Blatt aufzunehmen: In der 'Musik-Welt' vom 18. Juni d[ieses] J[ahr] in einem Artikel, benannt 'Mozartiana. Tschaikowsky's neuer Clavierauszug des Don Juan', wird mir von Herrn R. Musiol die russische Übersetzung sowie das Arrangement des Clavierauszuges von Mozart's 'Don Juan' zugeschrieben. Herr Musiol bemüht sich, auf mehreren Seiten zu beweisen, daß die Arbeit ohne Sorgfalt, ohne Pietät gemacht wäre. Wie sehr erstaunt ich über diesen Artikel bin, wird begreiflich, wenn ich hiermit erkläre: daß ich weder der Uebersetzer des Textes, noch der Arrangeur des Clavierauszuges der russischen Ausgabe der berühmten Oper, wohl aber ein begeisterter Verehrer dieses Werkes bin. Hochachtungsvoll, Peter Tschaikowsky |
Moscow 17 Sept[ember] 1881 Mr Editor!
I permit myself to ask you humbly to include the following lines in your journal: in the 'Musik-Welt', issue of 18th June this year, in an article entitled 'Mozartiana. Tchaikovsky's New Piano Reduction of Don Giovanni', Herr R. Musiol ascribes to me the Russian translation and the arrangement of the piano reduction of Mozart's Don Giovanni. Herr Musiol takes great pains to demonstrate, over a number of pages, that this work was done without care and due reverence. It will become clear how astonished I was by this article when I herewith declare: that I was neither the translator of the libretto, nor the person responsible for the piano arrangement in the Russian edition of that famous opera, though I am certainly an enthusiastic admirer of this work [1]. Your most respectful, Peter Tchaikovsky |
Notes and References
- ↑ The following is based on the commentary by Lucinde Lauer in: 'Mozart's Don Giovanni', which included a parallel Italian / Russian libretto (the publisher was Pyotr Jurgenson in Moscow). Musiol believed that Tchaikovsky was responsible for both the translation of the libretto and for the piano arrangement, and he criticized him sharply for not having worked from the original score (available from several German publishers), but evidently from earlier German arrangements, and, moreover, inferior ones. After the publication of Tchaikovsky's letter in Signale für die musikalische Welt explaining that he had had nothing to do with this Russian edition of Don Giovanni, Robert Musiol acknowledged his mistake in a subsequent article for Musik-Welt (15 October 1881). He noted that Jurgenson had written to him, explaining that the libretto had been translated by a certain Ramadze, and that the piano arrangement had simply been copied from the Litolff edition of the opera. Musiol then explained how the misunderstanding had come about, citing a letter which he had received from Wilhelm Fitzenhagen the previous year, in which the famous cellist and professor of the Moscow Conservatory said that the piano arrangement of Don Giovanni with accompanying Italian / Russian text had been made by Tchaikovsky. This was clearly inaccurate, and the mistake was probably due to Fitzenhagen assuming that Tchaikovsky, as the translator of the libretto of Le Nozze di Figaro (a translation completed in 1875, but not published until 1884), would also have been responsible for this vocal-piano reduction of Don Giovanni, his favourite opera, brought out by Jurgenson. Musiol added that he was delighted that Tchaikovsky, a composer "whom I highly appreciate", had turned out to be not guilty of this 'crime' against Mozart! Lucinde Lauer notes that this misunderstanding led Jurgenson to take great care when preparing a piano arrangement of Le Nozze di Figaro for publication in 1884, especially since the accompanying Russian translation of the libretto this time was indeed by Tchaikovsky. In these years Tchaikovsky also toyed with the idea of translating the libretto of Don Giovanni in time for the anniversary of that opera's premiere in 1887. Tchaikovsky did not realize this plan, but when, in the summer of 1887, he completed his Suite No. 4, an arrangement of four pieces by Mozart, Jurgenson persuaded him to call it Mozartiana, perhaps thinking back to Musiols article six years earlier! (It was Tchaikovsky who seems to have come up with the title Mozartiana for his suite, but he was hesitant to adopt it before Jurgenson persuaded him to).
