Letter 3204
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French text (original)
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English translation
Copyright ©
2011 by Luis Sundkvist
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| Maïdanowo 23 Mars/4 Avril 1887 |
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Maydanovo 23 March/4 April 1887 |
| Mon cher ami ! |
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My dear friend! |
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Voici comment j'ai projeté la repartition [= répartition] de mon printemps et de mon été. D'abord il faut absolument que je termine l'instrumentation de mon opera [= opéra] qui est deja [= déjà] à l'etude [= l'étude] au Thé[â]tre Impérial de
Petersbourg [= Pétersbourg]. Tant que je n'aurai pas mené à bout cette tâche, – je n'aurai pas l'esprit et le cœur libres de soucis et cependant c'est ce qu'il faut pour que mon voyage à l'étranger fasse du bien à mon etat [= état] nerveux. Surtout il faut être complètement calme d'esprit et depourvu de soucis pour la cure de
Vichy qui est devenue tout à fait necessaire [= nécessaire] pour mon estomac, qui commence à m'inquiéter sérieusement. Donc voila [= voilà] ce que j'ai décidé. Je resterai ici une quinzaine de jours et terminerai le deuxième acte de mon opera [= opéra]. Puis je m'en vais comme l'année passée à
Tiflis (Caucase) ou [= où] je pourrai tranquillement achever mon travail. Puis, toujours comme l'année passée, j'irai par mer en France, à
Paris et de là à Vichy. Il est plus que probable que je n'aurai pas le plaisir de Vous serrer la main avant l'époque du
Grand Prix et même plutôt ce sera après. Je sais bien que ce n'est pas la bonne saison pour que ma présence à
Paris ait son côté utile, mais n'oubliez pas[,] mon cher ami, que je passerai à
Paris la majeure partie de l'hivers. A notre entrevue prochaine nous causerons de toute espèce de plans que j'ai pour la saison prochaine. Maintenant que je suis devenu chef d'orchestre, il faut absolument que nous arrangions un concert dans le quel je conduirai mes œuvres moi même. A propos. Le concert de
Petersbourg [= Pétersbourg] a été peut-être le plus beau jour de ma vie d'artiste. C'etait [= C'était] un vrai triomphe. On prétend que je suis un très bon chef d'orchestre.
Mr César Cui (qui me déteste cordialement) n'a pu s'empêcher d'ecrire [= d'écrire] dans son compte rendu à propos de ce concert que j'ai conduit l'orchestre d'une manière parfaite et que j'ai pour cela un grand talent. Je ne puis V[ou]s dire combien je suis heureux d'avoir pu vaincre ma timidité maladive. A revoir[,] mon cher et excellent ami
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Here is how I have mapped out my schedule for the spring and summer. First of all, it is essential that I complete the orchestration of my opera
[The Enchantress], which is already being put into rehearsal at the Imperial Theatre in
Petersburg. Until I have concluded this task my mind and heart will not be free of worries, and yet it is precisely this which
is necessary for my travelling abroad to be beneficial to my nervous state. Above all, I must be completely calm inwardly and free of worries before I can undergo a cure at
Vichy—something that has become utterly essential for my stomach, which is beginning to trouble me seriously. So this is what I have decided. I shall stay here for a fortnight and finish the second act of my opera. Then I shall go, as I did last year, to
Tiflis (the Caucasus), where I will be able to complete my work in peace and quiet. After that, again like last year, I shall travel to France by sea, heading first for
Paris and from there to Vichy [1]. It is very likely that I shall not have the pleasure of shaking your hand before the
Grand Prix
[2], and indeed it will probably be after
that [3]. I
do realize that this is not the best time of the year for my presence in
Paris to be of practical use, but do not forget, my dear friend, that I shall be spending most of the winter in
Paris [4]. At our next meeting we shall discuss the various plans I have for the coming new season. Now that I have become a conductor, it is essential that we organize a concert at which I
myself conduct my own works. By the way: the concert in Petersburg was perhaps the finest day of my artistic
career [5]. It was a genuine triumph. People
are saying that I am a very good conductor. Mr César Cui (who detests me cordially) could not help writing, in his review of the concert, that I had conducted the orchestra perfectly, and that this was something I had great talent for. I cannot tell you how happy I am to have succeeded in overcoming my morbid shyness. Good-bye, my dear and excellent friend
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| P. Tschaïkovsky |
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P. Tchaikovsky |
| Mille choses aimables à M-me Mackar. Je désirerai avoir de Vos nouvelles avant mon depart [= départ] pour le Caucase. Ecrivez moi |
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A thousand kind regards for Mme Mackar [6]. I should like to have some news from you before my departure for the Caucasus. Do write to me. |
Notes:
- As in 1886, Tchaikovsky did visit Tiflis
again that spring and stayed with his brother Anatoly
and his family, but at the end of his stay in the Caucasus he did not
take a ship to France as he had done the previous year. Instead, on 7/19
June 1887 he set sail from Batum
to Odessa, and from there
travelled by train to Aachen in
order to visit, and give moral support to, his ailing friend Nikolay
Kondratyev who was undergoing medical treatment there. He arrived in
Aachen on 15/27 July and would
stay there until 25 August/6 September (with only a brief visit to Paris
from 2/14 to 4/16 August), after which he made his way back to Russia [back]
- The Grand Prix de Paris, the most
prestigious horse-race in France at the time. It was held in July [back]
- On 4/16 August 1887, the last day of his brief
stay in Paris that summer,
Tchaikovsky managed to pay his respects to Mackar
(who had been away when he called the previous day), as he noted in his
diary: "At Mackar's.
Found him in. His joy and kisses. Conversation". Quoted from
Wladimir Lakond (transl.),
The Diaries of Tchaikovsky (1973), p. 198 [back]
- Tchaikovsky abandoned this plan, partly because
he soon started making arrangements for his first European conducting
tour which would get underway in mid/late December 1887 and lasted until
March 1888 [back]
- On 5/17 March 1887 Tchaikovsky conducted a
concert of his own works under the auspices of the Saint
Petersburg Philharmonic Society. It featured the first performance in the imperial capital of the Suite
No. 1, Kuma's arioso from Act I of The
Enchantress (sung by Aleksandra
Panayeva-Kartsova), the Dance of the Tumblers from that opera, the
Andante and Valse from the Serenade
for String Orchestra, the fantasia Francesca
da Rimini, various solo piano pieces (played by Dmitry Klimov),
three romances (sung by Panayeva-Kartsova),
and the festival overture The
Year 1812
[back]
- Mackar's wife, Valérie. In 1888,
Tchaikovsky would dedicate to her one of the prints made by the Hamburg photographer E. Bieber on
6/18 January 1888. He wrote on it the following inscription:
"Madame Valérie Mackar souvenir affectueux" and sketched
three bars from the Andante cantabile of his String
Quartet No. 1. See Revue de musicologie, tome 64 (1968), no. 1, p.
94. The portrait in question appears as no. 60 in the Catalogue of Photographs
in: Alexander Poznansky and Brett Langston,
The Tchaikovsky Handbook (2002), vol.1, p. 497 [back]
This page was last updated on
16 February 2013 |