Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Reading notes

• To Ye. M. Lintvareva, December 1888. Moscow. §4 the composer Tchaikovsky

  Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky; Chekhov reports having spoken to him about Elena's brother and offers the aside that the famous composer is unpretentious in person -- "not at all like a demigod."

• To P. I. Chaykovsky, 14 October 1889. Moscow. §3 Very, very touched, dear Pyotr Ilyich

  "Дорогой Петр Ильич" -- the composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, addressed here by first name and patronymic, marking the warmth of their brief autumn 1889 correspondence; the occasion for Chekhov's thanks (a gift or kindness received) is left unspecified in the letter itself.

• To P. I. Chaykovsky, 14 October 1889. Moscow. §4 You left your cigarette case at my place.

  "Портсигар" -- a cigarette case Tchaikovsky forgot during a visit to Chekhov's Moscow apartment; its return, with the small joke about three missing cigarettes, is the practical occasion for this note alongside the thanks in \S3.

• To I. M. Kondratyev, 28 December 1889. Moscow. §46 twenty-five new addressees

  The afterword singles out the beginning of Chekhov's correspondence with Tchaikovsky and his growing closeness with the actor Svobodin as the most notable additions among the volume's twenty-five new addressees; Chekhov's own letters to Svobodin have not survived; the character of that correspondence can be judged only from Svobodin's answering letters, in the section "Letters Not Preserved and Not Found."

• To P. I. Chaykovsky, 18 October 1891. Moscow. §4 Pyotr Ilyich!

  Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, by 1891 Russia's most celebrated living composer, was a genuine and mutually admiring acquaintance of Chekhov's, not merely a famous name being invoked for favor -- which is what makes this a real, working friendship-request rather than a fan letter. Chekhov had dedicated his 1890 story collection \emph{Gloomy People} to Tchaikovsky, explaining to his publisher Suvorin that the gesture was "a partial, minimal expression of that huge critical essay which I, scribbler that I am, have been drawing up [in my head] about his magnificent talent," and had written that he was ready to "stand day and night as a guard of honour in front of the house where Pyotr Ilyich is living." Tchaikovsky, for his part, had been introduced to Chekhov's stories in April 1887 (reading them together with Nikolai Kashkin, entity_id), came to admire them, and called on Chekhov in Moscow on 14 October 1889 specifically to thank him for the dedication once he learned of it in advance of publication -- the two men's mutual esteem was thus already two years old and personally sealed by an actual visit at the time of this letter. The address "Much respected... Pyotr Ilyich!" (\S3-4) and the closing "Sincerely respecting You and boundlessly devoted" (\S8) are warm even by the standards of Chekhov's correspondence, consistent with a real rather than merely deferential regard.

• To M. I. Chaykovsky, 16 March 1890. Moscow. §5 I'm ready to stand honor guard day and night at the porch of the house where Pyotr Ilyich lives -- that's how much I respect him.

  Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893), the composer -- to be kept distinct from his younger brother Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky, this letter's addressee and a playwright (see, the subject of \S3). Chekhov's tribute here is deliberately, self-consciously hyperbolic ("honor guard day and night," ranking Tchaikovsky second in all of Russian art after Tolstoy, with himself facetiously ninety-eighth) -- a register of comic overstatement rather than literal claim, in keeping with Chekhov's habitual self-deprecating hyperbole toward artists he genuinely admired. He goes on, in the same breath, to note his own "utter lack of musical gift" as the reason he cannot express the admiration in any form except the dedication itself.

• To G. M. Chekhov, 29 December 1890. Moscow. §7 Когда увижусь с П. И. Чайковским

  Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, the composer, whom Chekhov reports he will ask about a visit to the Chekhovs' Taganrog house -- implying Tchaikovsky had been in Taganrog at some point and Georgy might know or have heard about it. Chekhov and Tchaikovsky moved in overlapping Moscow artistic circles in this period (Tchaikovsky would shortly propose that Chekhov dedicate a story collection to him, and Chekhov reciprocated by dedicating "Gloomy People" / the 1890 collection to the composer).