Tchaikovsky
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Pieces for Violin

Пьесы для скрипки

Projected works (1893).

History

On 7/19 October 1893, Tchaikovsky told the cellist Iulian Poplavskii that "during October he expected to write a concerto for flute which he had already conceived... then several small pieces for violin" [1]. The composer’s death on 25 October/6 November 1893 prevented him from realising this project, and there are no references to these pieces in his correspondence, or any surviving musical sketches.

However, it is possible that he had already conceived some of these pieces, since the journalist V. P. Sokol´nikov maintained that during Tchaikovsky’s visit to Odessa in January 1893, he had played through part of a piece to the violinist Konstantin Gavrilov [2]. There are no reports to substantiate Sokol´nikov’s account.

From: The Tchaikovsky Handbook, vol. 1 (2002), p. 423
Copyright © 2002 Alexander Poznansky and Brett Langston

Notes:

1. Quoted in Alexander Poznansky, Tchaikovsky's last days. A documentary study (1995), p. 39 [back]
2. See Музыкальное наследие Чайковского (1958), p. 425 [back]