Letter 2824

Tchaikovsky Research
Date 4/16 December 1885
Addressed to Mily Balakirev
Where written Maydanovo
Language Russian
Autograph Location Saint Petersburg (Russia): National Library of Russia (ф. 834, ед. хр. 12, л. 31–33)
Publication Переписка М. А. Балакирева и П. И. Чайковского (1868-1891) [1912], p. 93
Милий Алексеевич Балакирев. Воспоминания и письма (1962), p. 180
П. И. Чайковский. Полное собрание сочинений, том XIII (1971), p. 208

Text and Translation

Russian text
(original)
English translation
By Luis Sundkvist
4 декабря 1885 г[ород]
с[ело] Майданово

Дорогой Милий Алексеевич!

Посылаю Вам сегодня заказной бандеролью рукопись 1-й части «Манфреда».

Спасибо Вам за похвалы «Буре». Дай Бог, чтобы и «Манфред» Вам понравился.

Ваш П. Чайковский

4 December 1885
Maydanovo village

I am sending you today as a registered postal packet the manuscript of the first movement of Manfred [1].

Thank you for your praise of The Tempest [2]. May God grant that Manfred should please you too.

Yours, P. Tchaikovsky

Notes and References

  1. Balakirev had agreed to go through the piano duet arrangement which Tchaikovsky had himself made of the Manfred symphony and to point out any mistakes or inadequacies. To help him in this task Tchaikovsky had agreed to send him the score of Manfred (which was being prepared for publication by Jurgenson) little by little, as soon as each movement had been proof-read.
  2. In his letter to Tchaikovsky of 28 November/10 December 1885, Balakirev had written about the Russian Musical Society concert which had taken place in Saint Petersburg on 23 November/5 December, under the baton of Georgy Dyutsh (1857-1891), and which, alongside Borodin's Second Symphony, Glazunov's symphonic poem Stenka Razin, Rimsky-Korsakov's Piano Concerto, and various smaller vocal and piano pieces, had featured The Tempest. Balakirev confessed: "I am still under the spell of your enchanting Tempest. How talented everything in it is, how radiant and heartfelt!". See Balakirev's letter in Милий Алексеевич Балакирев. Воспоминания и письма (1962), p. 179-180.