Tchaikovsky
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Hamburg

Hamburg is a federal state and the second-largest city in Germany. During Tchaikovsky's lifetime it was a free city state, which joined the German Empire in 1871.

Tchaikovsky visited Hamburg on the following occasions:

• 10/22 July–16/28 July 1861 — on his first journey outside Russia, Tchaikovsky found Hamburg to be "incomparably better than Berlin" [1].
• 29 December 1887/10 January 1888–30 December 1887/11 January 1888 — to attend a concert conducted by Hans von Bülow.
• 5/17 January–10/22 January 1888 — to rehearse and conduct a concert of his own works at the Konventgarten (8/20 January), including the Serenade for String Orchestra, the Piano Concerto No. 1 (soloist Vasilii Sapel'nikov), and the Theme and Variations from the Suite No. 3.
• 26 February/10 March–4/16 March 1889 — to conduct his Symphony No. 5 at a Philharmonic Society concert (3/15 March), At rehearsals he met Johannes Brahms and Willy Burmester. "My new symphony was an enormous success, and everyone without affectation treated me as an old and dear friend" [2].
• 17/29 May–18/30 May 1891 — returning from his American tour on the steamship Prince Bismarck, Tchaikovsky stayed overnight at the Hôtel St. Pétersbourg.
• 6/18 May–9/21 May 1892 — attending rehearsals and a production of Evgenii Onegin at the Hamburg Opera Theatre, conducted by Gustav Mahler.
• 25 August/6 September–around 29 August/10 September 1893 — attending a production of Iolanta at the Hamburg Opera Theatre.

References:

1. Letter 56 to Il'ia Tchaikovsky, 9/21 July 1861 [back]
2. Letter 3815 to Nadezhda von Meck, 3/15 March 1889 [back]