Letter 5038

Tchaikovsky Research
Date 21 September/3 October 1893
Addressed to Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich
Where written Moscow
Language Russian
Autograph Location Saint Petersburg (Russia): Institute of Russian Literature of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Pushkin House), Manuscript Department (ф. 137, No. 78/30)
Publication Жизнь Петра Ильича Чайковского, том 3 (1902), p. 634–636
П. И. Чайковский. Полное собрание сочинений, том XVII (1981), p. 186–187
К.Р. Избранная переписка (1999), p. 83–84

Text and Translation

Russian text
(original)
English translation
By Luis Sundkvist
Москва
21 сент[ября] [18]93 г[ода]

Ваше Императорское Высочество!

Чрезвычайно был я обрадован милым письмом Вашим. Как Вы добры, что среди Ваших многосложных и многообразных обязанностей и занятий не забываете меня! Собственно говоря, я не заслуживаю Вашего драгоценного внимания, ибо непростительно забывчив в тех случаях, когда можно своевременно доказать своё памятование о всём касающемся лица, к коему питаешь такое тёплое и живое чувство любви и преданности, как то, коим я преисполнен по отношению к Вам. Каждый раз перед 21 маем и 10-м августом я даю себе слово не забыть Вас поздравить и почти каждый раз вследствие различных обстоятельств вспоминаю о данном слове, когда уже поздно. Долго потом эта невольная вина перед Вами терзает меня, — но относительно рассеянности и забывчивости подобного рода я, кажется, неисправим.

Я нахожусь в Москве проездом, под рукою стихотворений покойного А. Н. Апухтина не имею и потому покорнейше прошу позволить мне отвечать насчёт «Реквиема» через несколько дней, когда я, возвратившись, у себя в Клину внимательно прочту «Реквием», немного мною позабытый, и обдумаю хорошенько вопрос: способен ли я должным образом исполнить предлагаемую Вами задачу. Меня немножко смущает то обстоятельство, что последняя моя симфония, только что написанная и предназначенная к исполнению 16 октября (мне ужасно бы хотелось, чтобы Ваше Высочество услышали её), проникнута настроением, очень близким к тому, которым преисполнен и «Реквием». Мне кажется, что симфония эта удалась мне, и я боюсь, как бы не повторить самого себя, принявшись сейчас же за сочинение, родственное по духу и характеру к предшественнику. Впрочем, повторяю — решительным образом я отвечу Вашему Высочеству насчёт музыки к «Реквиему» в ближайшем будущем, когда удалюсь в своё клинское убежище и на свободе обстоятельно обдумаю этот вопрос.

В последние весенние и летние месяцы мне пришлось очень много путешествовать, и поэтому написал я не особенно много: серию фортепианных пиэс, небольшую серию романсов (на текст молодого талантливого поэта Даниила Ратгауза) и симфонию. В симфонию эту я вложил, без преувеличения, всю свою душу, и надеюсь, что Ваше Высочество одобрит её. Не знаю, оригинальна ли она по музыкальному материалу, но по форме она представляет ту оригинальность, что финал симфонии написан в темпе adagio, а не allegro, как это обыкновенно бывает.

Много мы говорили о Вашем Высочестве в Воробьёвке. Мария Петровна унаследовала от покойного мужа особенно пламенную приверженность к Вам. Что за очаровательный уголок эта Воробьёвка! Настоящее жилище для поэта.

Ненадолго отправляюсь я завтра к себе на отдых. Около 10-го октября буду уже в Петербурге, а 16-го состоится концерт музыкального общества, в коем я буду дирижировать своей новой симфонией. Я явлюсь к Вашему Высочеству перед концертом, чтобы убедительно просить Вас и Великую княгиню посетить этот концерт.

Имею честь быть Вашего Императорского Высочества всепокорнейший слуга.

П. Чайковский

Moscow
21 September 1893

Your Imperial Highness!

I was extremely gladdened by your nice letter [1]. How kind you are not to forget about me amidst all your complex and varied duties and activities![2] Properly speaking, I do not deserve your precious attention, because I am unforgivably forgetful in those cases when one can opportunely prove that one remembers everything concerning a person for whom one feels such warm and keen love and devotion as that with which I am filled with regard to you. Every time before 21 May and 10 August [3] I make an inward vow that I shall not forget to congratulate you, and yet almost every time, as a result of various circumstances, I remember my vow when it is too late. My involuntary guilt with respect to you will then torment me afterwards for a long time, but it seems that I am incorrigible regarding absentmindedness and forgetfulness of this kind.

I am now in Moscow merely on a stop-over [4] and I don't have the late A. N. Apukhtin's poems to hand, so I most humbly ask you to allow me to send my reply regarding "Requiem" in a few days' time, when, having got back home to Klin, I shall carefully read through "Requiem" — which I have forgotten slightly — and think over the question as to whether I am capable of fulfilling properly the task you propose [5]. I am somewhat worried by the fact that my latest symphony, which I have recently completed and which is due to be performed on 16 October (I should awfully like Your Highness to hear it), is suffused by a mood very close to that which pervades "Requiem". I think that I have made a good job of this symphony, and I am afraid of repeating myself if I were right now to embark on a composition which has an affinity with its predecessor in terms of spirit and character. However, I repeat: I shall give Your Highness a definite answer regarding the music for "Requiem" very soon, once I have withdrawn into my Klin refuge and am at leisure to consider this question thoroughly [6].

During these past spring and summer months I have had to do a lot of travelling, and that is why I haven't written that much: a series of piano pieces, a small series of romances (on texts by a talented young poet, Danyl Ratgauz), and a symphony [7]. Without exaggeration, I have put my whole soul into this symphony, and I hope that Your Highness will approve of it. I don't know whether the symphony is original in terms of its musical material, but as far as its form is concerned, it does display an original feature in that its finale is written in adagio tempo, rather than allegro, as is normally the case.

At Vorobyevka [8] we talked a lot about Your Highness. Mariya Petrovna has inherited from her late husband a particularly ardent affection for you. What an enchanting spot this Vorobyevka is! A true abode for a poet.

Tomorrow I am heading home briefly to get some rest. Around the 10th of October I shall be in Petersburg, and on the 16th, the Musical Society concert will take place at which I shall conduct my new symphony. I shall call on Your Highness before the concert in order to urge you and the Grand Duchess [9] to attend this concert [10].

I have the honour to remain Your Imperial Highness's most humble servant.

P. Tchaikovsky

Notes and References

  1. Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich's letter to Tchaikovsky, written on 20 September/2 October 1893 in the Romanovs' palace at Strelna, near Saint Petersburg, has been published in К.Р. Избранная переписка (1999), p. 82.
  2. In addition to his service in the Izmailovsky Regiment of the Imperial Guard and in the suite of Tsar Alexander III, Konstantin had been appointed, on 12/24 February 1889, an honorary trustee of the pedagogical courses offered at high schools for girls in Saint Petersburg, and, on 3/15 May 1889, President of the Imperial Academy of Sciences — note by L. K. Khitrovo in К.Р. Избранная переписка (1999), p. 69.
  3. 10 August [O.S.] was the Grand Duke's birthday, and 21 May [O.S.] his name-day — note by L. K. Khitrovo in К.Р. Избранная переписка (1999), p. 84.
  4. On 17/29 September 1893 Tchaikovsky arrived in Moscow from the village of Mikhaylovskoye in Nizhny Novgorod province where he had been staying with his brother Anatoly. He travelled on to Klin eight days later.
  5. In his letter to Tchaikovsky of 20 September/2 October 1893, the Grand Duke had written: "Dear Pyotr Ilyich, I haven't written to you in such a long time that I am afraid lest I should frighten you with these lines. When I learnt of Apukhtin's death [on 17/29 July 1893] I could not help thinking about you; the idea occurred to me that you might set his Requiem to music. Do you remember how I said to you on more than one occasion that you should test your powers in writing an oratorio: well, here you have a suitable occasion and text". Apukhtin had written his poem Requiem at the end of the 1860s.
  6. See Letter 5046 to Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich, 26 September/8 October 1893.
  7. Namely, the Eighteen Pieces, Op. 72, the Six Romances, Op. 73, and the [[Symphony No. 6].
  8. In mid/late July 1893, while staying at Ukolovo with his brother Nikolay, Tchaikovsky paid a visit to Mariya Petrovna Shenshina (née Botkina; 1828-1894), the widow of the recently deceased poet Afanasy Fet, at the nearby estate of Vorobyevka.
  9. Grand Duchess Yelizaveta Mavrikiyevna (née Princess Elisabeth of Saxe-Altenburg; 1865-1927), Konstantin's wife.
  10. Konstantin attended the Russian Musical Society's first concert of the season in Saint Petersburg on 16/28 October 1893, at which Tchaikovsky, in the first half of the concert, conducted the premiere of his Symphony No. 6. This was to be Tchaikovsky's last concert, since nine days later he died of cholera. On the day of that concert Konstantin wrote in his diary: "I liked it [the symphony] very much. The introductory Adagio is very sombre and mysterious, and it sounds charming. It transforms into an Allegro which has beautiful passages. The second movement Allegro con grazia is written in 5/8 or 5/4 and it is very lucid and good. The third movement, a kind of Scherzo, has a loud march at the end. And the Finale in the tempo Adagio; it has passages reminiscent of a funeral service. I saw Tchaikovsky in the interval" (quoted here from Пётр Чайковский. Биография, том II (2009), p. 495).