Letter 5065g

Tchaikovsky Research
Date unknown [after 1882] [1]
Addressed to Herman Laroche
Where written Moscow
Language Russian
Autograph Location Italy: private collection [2]
Publication Not previously published
Notes Photocopy in Klin (Russia): Tchaikovsky State Memorial Musical Museum-Reserve [3]

Text and Translation

Russian text
(original)
English translation
By Luis Sundkvist
Милый Маня! Я совсем позабыл, что обещал заехать в 12 час[ов] за Парашей и вместе ехать к отцу её. Теперь 10 ч[асов]; мне не хочется Вас будить раньше времени и я оставляю Вам эту записочку. Прошу вас, вставши, тотчас одеться и ехать к 12 часам к Параше; оттуда все трое пойдём вместе. А я, имею ещё много времени, иду сейчас в церковь и пройду оттуда к Пане.
Петя

Dear Manya! I completely forgot that I'd promised to call on Parasha at 12 o'clock so that we could drive together to her father's [4]. It's now 10 o'clock: I don't want to wake you before it's necessary and so I'm leaving this note for you. Once you're up I kindly ask you to get dressed immediately and to be at Parasha's by 12 o'clock. From there all three of us [5] will set off together. As I still have a lot of time, I'm going to church now and will make my way to Panya's from there.
Petya

Notes and References

  1. The terminus post quem for this undated letter is 1882, the year that the composer's younger brother Anatoly married Praskovya Konshina (1864–1956), whom Tchaikovsky refers to several times in the letter (by her pet names "Parasha" and "Panya"). Because her father is also mentioned (see note 4 below), it can be stated beyond any doubt that this letter was written in Moscow. Dr Polina Vaidman, senior curator at the Tchaikovsky House-Museum in Klin pointed out that it was most likely written in the first half of 1885, before Anatoly and Praskovya moved to Tiflis, where Anatoly was to take up the post of state prosecutor. Since we know that Herman Laroche was living permanently in Moscow from 1884 to 1888, the year 1885 seems quite likely. However, this must still be considered a tentative dating. Unfortunately, as Dr Vaidman established, none of the letters from Laroche to Tchaikovsky that have survived in the archive at Klin refer to any of the events described in the letter above, and so there is not enough circumstantial evidence to corroborate that dating.
  2. The description of the letter in an Italian Christie's catalogue from 2004 can be seen in the Invaluable auction database (last viewed on 3 February 2012). Dr Thomas Venning of the Christie's Books & Manuscripts Department in London has confirmed that the letter (advertised as lot 394) was not sold at the time.
  3. Dr Vaidman established that a photocopy of this letter was sent to the Tchaikovsky House-Museum in 1971 by Louisa von Westernhagen, the founder (in 1952) of the former Tschaikowsky-Studio in Hamburg. The composer's grand niece Kseniya Davydova, who was then working as a curator at the museum, tentatively dated the letter to 1887, but did not include it in any of the volumes of the Soviet collected edition of Tchaikovsky's correspondence that subsequently appeared.
  4. Praskovya's father, Vladimir Dmitriyevich Konshin (1835 [or 1829]–1915), was a merchant of the first guild in Moscow. He was a business associate of the Tretyakov brothers Pavel and Sergey and was also married to their sister, Yelizaveta Mikhaylovna Tretyakova (1835–1870).
  5. Laroche, a good friend of Tchaikovsky's from their years at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory, was also acquainted with Anatoly and Praskovya. In the summer of 1884 he had been their guest at Skabeyevo at the same time as the composer was staying there.