Tchaikovsky
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TH 247

Flute Concerto

Концерт для флеты

Sketches, C major (1893).

• An unrealised project, probably dating from October 1893.

History

On 20 June 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 October 1893, Tchaikovsky told the cellist Iulian 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 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 A. Poznansky, Tchaikovsky's Last Days (1995), p. 39 [back].
3. The sketches were published in facsimile in P. E. Vaidman, Творческий архив П. И. Чайковского (1989), p. 131 [back].