Vladimir Shilovsky

Vladimir Shilovsky (1852-1893)

Russian artist, singer, poet and amateur composer (b. 11/23 January 1852; d. 25 June/6 July 1893 at Usovo), born Vladimir Stepanovich Shilovsky (Владимир Степанович Шиловский); also known after 1879 as Count Vasilyev-Shilovsky (Граф Васильев-Шиловский).

Tchaikovsky and Vladimir Shilovsky

The son of Major Stepan Stepanovich Shilovsky (1823–1862) and his wife Mariya (1827–1879), Vladimir showed an early aptitude for music, and he enrolled at the Moscow Conservatory aged fifteen. Here his abilities were recognised and encouraged by his professor of composition — Tchaikovsky. After Vladimir's graduation from the conservatory, a number of his pieces were performed in theatres and concert halls, and he is said to have contributed an entr'acte to Tchaikovsky's opera The Oprichnik (1870–72)..

Vladimir's mother and older brother Konstantin (1849–1893) were also friends of the composer, and during the 1870s Tchaikovsky frequently stayed at the family estate at Usovo, near Tambov, where he completed his fantasia The Tempest (1873), the opera Vakula the Smith (1874), and the Symphony No. 3 (1875).

In 1877, Shilovsky married Anna Alekseyevna Vasilyeva (1841-1910), daughter of Count Aleksey Vladimirovich Vasilyev (1808–1895), and in 1879 was granted the title of Count Vasilyev-Shilovsky. He died on 25 June/6 July 1893, following a long illness.

Dedications

In 1872, Tchaikovsky dedicated his Two Pieces, for piano, Op. 10, "à mon ami Vladimir Schilovsky".

The autograph score of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 3 in D major, Op. 29 (1875) is inscribed to Vladimir Shilovsky, although the printed editions contain no dedication.

Correspondence with Tchaikovsky

15 letters from Tchaikovsky to Vladimir Shilovsky have survived, dating from 1873 to 1893, all of which have been translated into English on this website:

• Letter 315 – 18/30 June 1873, from Kamenka
• Letter 578 – 6/18 July 1877, from Moscow
• Letter 1177 – 10/22 May 1879, from Brailov
• Letter 2166 – 28 November/10 December 1882, from Moscow
• Letter 2196 – 13/25 January 1883, from Paris
• Letter 2417 – 24 January/5 February 1884, from Moscow
• Letter 2799 – 24 October/5 November 1885, from Moscow
• Letter 3151 – 20 January/1 February 1887, from Moscow
• Letter 3157 – 22 January/3 February 1887, from Moscow
• Letter 3160 – 25 January/6 February 1887, from Moscow
• Letter 3402 – 15/27 November 1887, from Moscow (addressee uncertain)
• Letter 3631 – 1/13 August 1888, from Frolovskoye
• Letter 4880 – 2/14 March 1893, from Klin
• Letter 4889 – 9/21 March 1893, from Moscow
• Letter 4898 – 19/31 March 1893, from Klin

7 letters from Vladimir Shilovsky to the composer, dating from 1867 to 1893, are preserved in the Tchaikovsky State Memorial Musical Museum-Reserve at Klin (a⁴, Nos. 390–396).

Bibliography

• Комический случай с П. И. Чайковским (1910)
• Письма П. И. Чайковского к В. С. Шиловскому (1940)
• Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky (1946)
• Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky (1979)
• Alexandra Sokolova (1999)
• Пётр Ильич Чайковский Тамбовский адрес (2009)

External Links

• Wikipedia (Russian)