Tchaikovsky
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Nikolai Kondrat'ev (1832–1887) |
Nikolai Kondrat'ev
Lawyer and friend of Tchaikovsky (b. 1832; d. 3 October 1887 at Aachen), born Nikolai Dmitrievich Kondrat'ev (Николай Дмитриевич Кондратьев, Nikolaj Dmitrievič Kondrat'ev, Nikolay Dmitriyevich Kondrat'yev).
He was first introduced to Tchaikovsky in 1864 at the estate of Prince Aleksei Golitsyn in Trostinets, but became friendly with the composer in 1870, when Kondrat'ev brought his wife Mariia and daughter Nadezhda (b.1865) to Moscow for the winter. Tchaikovsky was also a frequent visitor to the family's estate at Nizy, near Kharkov, where he worked on his operas The Oprichnik (1870–72) and Vakula the Smith (1874), his Symphony No. 3 (1875), as well as his Guide to the Practical Study of Harmony (1871).
Modest Tchaikovsky, in his biography of the composer, noted how the latter's great friendship with Kondrat'ev might at first glance have seemed quite improbable, since Kondrat'ev was very much a man-about-town who moved in high society circles like a fish in water, whereas Tchaikovsky had distanced himself from that world ever since deciding to devote his life to music. However, Kondrat'ev's irrepressible cheerfulness and joie de vivre appealed to the composer enormously. Tchaikovsky's own optimism would gain fresh strength whenever he visited his friend, who was always happy and satisfied. Even in difficult moments he would invariably expect something to turn up, and in this respect the composer's brother Modest felicitously compared Kondrat'ev to Stiva Oblonskii in Tolstoi's Anna Karenina! [1]
Kondrat'ev was in the habit of spending his money without thinking twice and in the winter of 1881–82 he went with his wife and daughter to Italy, in order to accompany Tchaikovsky, Modest, and the latter's pupil Nikolai ("Kolia") Konradi on their sight-seeing tours of Rome, Naples, Sorrento, Pompeii, and Florence. Although in the 1880s the Kondrat'evs no longer spent their summers at Nizy, since they had moved to Saint Petersburg for the sake of Nadezhda's education, Tchaikovsky would still visit them frequently whenever he stopped by at the imperial capital. In the summer of 1886, though, Kondrat'ev and his family rented a dacha at Maidanovo, near Tchaikovsky's house, greatly to the latter's delight. From Kondrat'ev's library he was able to borrow several volumes of Tolstoi's works that summer, leading to some fascinating diary entries about his favourite writer (see the entry on Lev Tolstoi for more details).
Tchaikovsky had always been very fond of Kondrat'ev's daughter Nadezhda (whom he had first met as a little girl and called "Dinochka" ever since), and in 1893 he would dedicate one of his last piano pieces to her: Valse-bluette (No. 11 of the Eighteen Pieces, Op.72). Nadezhda wrote some remarkably vivid memoirs about the composer, describing his stays at their estate in Nizy during the 1870s. She also said the following about her father:
"My father, N. D. Kondrat'ev, famous for his friendship with Petr Il'ich Tchaikovsky, was a very clever and all-round educated person. He passionately loved music, literature, and painting; he read all the journals, spoke many languages, travelled a great deal, and read all the works written by Russian and foreign authors. He was bound by the very closest ties of friendship not only to Petr I'ich, but also to Modest Il'ich […] And as for my father, there was no dearer person and better friend on the whole wide world than Petr Il'ich" [2].
Early in 1887, however, Kondrat'ev became incurably ill and underwent terrible agony during the last ten months of his life. Tchaikovsky stayed with him in Aachen for three of these months and tried to comfort and encourage his friend as best as he could, but in the end it was too much for him to bear and he left for Russia. After Kondrat'ev's death Tchaikovsky continued visiting his widow Mariia and daughter Nadezhda in Saint Petersburg. He also provided assistance to his late friend's servant Sasha Legoshin, whose character he thought very highly of [3]. According to Modest's biography of the composer, Tchaikovsky would often invite Legoshin's wife and children to stay with him at Maidanovo, Frolovskoe, and Klin during the summer months [4].
Works dedicated to Nikolai Kondrat'ev:
- Rêverie du soir—No. 1 of the Six Pieces, Op. 19 (1873)
Notes:
- See Modest Tchaikovsky, Жизнь Петра Ильича Чайковского, том 1 (1997), p. 328–330.
- Quoted in the notes to the memoirs of Nadezhda Kondrat'eva in: Воспоминания о П. И. Чайковском (1980), p. 378. Translated by Luis Sundkvist.
- See the following entry in Tchaikovsky's diary for 23 June/5 July 1886 while at Maidanovo: "What a joy it is to see Legoshin here so often; he is such a wonderful person. Lord! and to think that there are people who will turn up their nose at the sight of a servant [лакей] just because he is a servant. Why, I do not know anyone who has a purer and nobler soul than this Legoshin! And he is a servant! This sense of the equality of people in terms of their position in society has never struck me so decisively as in the given case". Quoted from: Дневники П. И. Чайковского, 1873–1891 (1993), p. 73.
- See Modest Tchaikovsky, Жизнь Петра Ильича Чайковского, том 3 (1997), p. 13.