Tchaikovsky
www.tchaikovsky-research.net

Flute Concerto

Концерт для флеты

Sketches (1893).

History

On 20 June/2 July 1888, Tchaikovsky wrote to Léonce Détroyat about his future plans: "I have made promises to write concertos for piano, violin, cello, flute, etc. to many famous artists (including two in Paris—Dièmer and Taffanel)" [1]. However, none of these projects was realised within the next five years.

On 7/19 October 1893, Tchaikovsky told the cellist Iuliian Poplavskii that "during October he expected to write a concerto for flute which he had already conceived (he intended it for [Claude-Paul] Taffanel, the well-known Parisian virtuoso)" [2].

After the composer’s death on 25 October/6 November 1893, some very short sketches relating to a work for flute and orchestra were found among his manuscripts [3].

From: The Tchaikovsky Handbook, vol. 1 (2002), p. 422
Copyright © 2002 Alexander Poznansky and Brett Langston

Notes:

1. Letter 3598a to Léonce Détroyat, 20 June/2 July 1888 [back]
2. Quoted in Alexander Poznansky, Tchaikovsky's last days. A documentary study (1995), p. 39 [back]
3. The sketches were published in facsimile in Polina Vaidman, Творческий архив П. И. Чайковского (1989), p. 131 [back]