Letter 3423

Tchaikovsky Research
Date 30 November/12 December 1887
Addressed to Leopold Auer
Where written Moscow
Language French
Autograph Location Moscow (Russia): Russian State Archive of Literature and Art (ф. 701)
Publication Вопросы музыкально-исполнительского искусства (1958), p. 259 (Russian translation)
Леолольд Семенович Ауэр. Очерк жизни и деятельности (1962), p. 102–103 (Russian translation)
П. И. Чайковский. Полное собрание сочинений, том XIV (1974), p. 278

Text and Translation

French text
(original)
English translation
By Brett Langston
Moscou 30 Nov[ember] 1887

Mon cher ami!

Tu es vraiment trop bon pour moi; je suis énormément réjoui et flatté de ce que tu veux jouer toi-même le Solo de Violon dans "Mozartiana". Merci de tout mon cœur!

J'arriverai le 9 et viendrai le lendemain à 9 heures à la répétition. Deux répétitions suffisent parfaitement, la chose n'étant pas difficile.

Au revoir donc, mon cher ami! Le 10, jeudi, sans faute, je serai а la répétition.

Mille choses à Madame Auer.

Ton dévoué ami,

P. Tschaïkovsky

P.S. Préviens je t'en prie l'artiste jouant la 1-re clarinette, qu'il у а dans les variations une cadenza, qui doit être absolument par une Clarinette en Do! Autrement cela n'ira pas.

Moscow 30 November 1887

My dear friend!

You really are too kind to me; I was enormously delighted and flattered by your wanting to play the violin solo in "Mozartiana" yourself [1]. Thank you with all my heart!

I will be arriving on the 9th and will come to the rehearsal the next day at 9 o'clock. Two rehearsals will be perfectly adequate, it is not a difficult thing.

So until we meet, my dear friend! The 10th, Thursday, without fail, I will be at the rehearsal [2].

A thousand greetings to Madame Auer.

Your devoted friend,

P. Tchaikovsky

P.S. I beg you to warn the artist playing the 1st clarinet that there is a cadenza in the variations, for which a clarinet in C is essential. Nothing else will do.

Notes and References

  1. Tchaikovsky was replying to a letter from Auer dated 28 November/10 December 1887.
  2. Rehearsals for the concert on 12/24 December 1887, in which Tchaikovsky would conduct the premiere of his Suite No. 4, Mozartiana. The violin and clarinet solos come towards the end of the fourth movement of the suite, entitled Thème et variations.