Letter 3465a
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German text (original)
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English translation
Copyright © 2010 by Luis Sundkvist
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| Hamburg,
22. Jan[uar] 1888 |
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Hamburg,
22 January 1888 |
| Hochgeehrter Herr Sittard! |
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Much esteemed Mr Sittard! |
| Verzeihen Sie mir, um Gottes willen, daß ich Sie betrogen
habe. Ich konnte wahrhaftig nicht ins Theater gehen, obwohl ich möchte
es recht gern thun. Ich mußte den ganzen Tag mit allerlei Sachen beschäftigt
sein die mich gehindert haben meine Packette zu machen [meine Koffer zu
packen] und ich muß durchaus heute fahren. |
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Forgive me, for God's sake, for having deceived you.
I really could not come to the theatre, even though I would very much
have liked to do so. I had to occupy myself all day long with all kinds
of things which have prevented me from packing my bags, and I must absolutely
set off today [1].
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| Herzlichsten Dank für Ihre Freundlichkeit gegen mich!
Ich werde nie vergessen wie Sie für mich gut und liebenswürdig waren.
Wollen wir hoffen, daß wir uns noch sehen werden. Grüßen Si[e] Frau Sittard
und vergessen mich nich[t]. |
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I thank you most sincerely for your kindness towards
me! I shall never forget how good and kind you were to me. Let us hope
that we may yet see one another [2]. Give my regards to Mrs Sittard and do not forget
me. |
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Leipzig schicke ich Ihnen mein Bild, aber à charge de revanche!!! |
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I shall send you my photograph from Leipzig, but on condition that
you repay me in like!!! |
Meine Adresse ist
Berlin, 37, Leipziger
straße, Bote u. Bock |
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Ihr ergebener
P. Tschaikowsky
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My address is
Berlin, 37, Leipziger-
straße, Bote & Bock |
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Yours devotedly,
P. Tchaikovsky
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Notes:
- Tchaikovsky met Josef Sittard, the music critic
of the Hamburgischer Correspondent, during the rehearsals for his
concert in Hamburg on 8/20 January
1888, at which he conducted the Serenade for String Orchestra,
the Piano Concerto No.
1 (soloist Vasily Sapel’nikov),
and the Theme and Variations from the Suite No. 3. Although Sittard had written a rather
unfavourable (and prejudiced) review of this concert, in which, despite
praising the "thematic, contrapuntal, and harmonic artistry" of the Variations,
he had observed how a Russian could never attain the "free spiritual heights"
of German music, he did treat Tchaikovsky with great warmth and hospitality.
It seems that they had agreed to meet at the city's opera-house to attend
a performance of Wagner's Lohengrin. Tchaikovsky, however, had then decided to leave Hamburg that evening and travel
to Berlin, the next stop of his European
concert tour. See Peter Feddersen,
Tschaikowsky in Hamburg. Eine Dokumentation (2006), p. 57–58, 68 [back]
- Sittard
would in fact call on Tchaikovsky in his hotel room that very same evening
in order to say goodbye. See the diary entry for 10/22 January 1888: "A
still more unexpected visit of
Sittard (I bluffed him—did not go to the theatre)". Translated by Wladimir
Lakond in
The Diaries of Tchaikovsky (1973), p. 225 [back]
This page was last updated
on 07 February 2013
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