Bishkek connoisseurs of art received a series of books published by the patron, dedicated to the life and work of Tchaikovsky and other famous representatives of the Russian creative intelligentsia. The meeting participants were especially interested in the publication dedicated to the correspondence between Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Nadezhda Filaretovna von Meck, the widow of millionaire Carl von Meck. The composer speaks of her, as was her custom, touching and awed by her. Their correspondence lasted for about fourteen years and is used today as the basis for compiling a biography of Tchaikovsky.
“There is a person who plays a leading role in the story of my life for the last ten years,” the composer wrote about Nadezhda von Meck. “This person is my good genius. I owe her all my well-being and the opportunity to dedicate myself entirely to my favorite work. Well, I never saw her or heard the sound of her voice.
The most curious thing is that both adhered to a special framework of behavior. In their diaries, they all write that their meetings were fleeting and distant, but they never communicated personally, and if they accidentally met somewhere, they always passed by, as if they were unfamiliar to each other.
It’s hard to imagine, but the great musical genius was once unsuccessful, and critics reacted negatively to his early works. Nadezhda von Meck wrote to Tchaikovsky that his works were ahead of his time. It was thanks to the wisdom of this amazing woman that Pyotr Ilyich did not give up or give up creativity, eventually creating works that the whole world admires.
Nadezhda Filaretovna survived Tchaikovsky by only two months. But it was not her death that brought an end to many years of correspondence, but the financial difficulties of the von Meck family. Nadezhda herself was upset that she could no longer help the composer financially, which she informed him about in her last letter. Von Meck decided to leave Tchaikovsky’s life precisely because of this, thinking that the composer did not need her only as a friend for her. But she was wrong. Tchaikovsky sent him several more letters, which, however, remained unanswered.
Direct speech
Denis von Meck, philanthropist, publisher:
– According to statistics, one in four people on Earth has a passion or hobby, and the most common is the collector, especially among the male half of humanity. In my case, this hobby helps a lot, because the more you try to study the subject, the more you get into the story. In school and university we are taught to memorize dates, last names and boring terms, but when a person begins to be interested in his family history, it comes to life. There are visual images, relationships. The concept of history as a science arises.
Nevertheless,
convolutes and auction
The beginning of Denis von Meck’s unusual hobby – compiling and publishing books dedicated to iconic figures of Russian culture – was an auction. In it, Denis Andreevich acquired a rare book dedicated to the work of Alexander Pushkin in the perception of various composers, as well as the author and musicologist Igor Belza. The philanthropist decided to republish it, adding articles and essays by other authors. This is how the first convolute of Denis von Meck called “Pushkin and Tchaikovsky” was born. Next came “Mozart and Tchaikovsky”, consisting of four parts.
In addition, the already finished collection “Tchaikovsky on the world map” will see the light. In addition to music, the composer’s passion was traveling. During his lifetime, he visited 165 settlements and 19 countries of the world at a time when many of them did not even have railways. Tchaikovsky also studied foreign languages in order to read literary works in the original.
Separately, it is worth stopping at a collection called “The Tchaikovsky Family”, which will also be published in the near future. It seems that everything is known about the great composer, but in reality there are still unpublished recordings, letters and essays. According to Denis von Meck, Pyotr Tchaikovsky could have become a writer. This is confirmed by 17 volumes of his books, which included critical articles by the composer, memoirs, diaries and letters. And Tchaikovsky had a large family, and everyone in it showed this or that talent. For example, the father of the composer Ilya Petrovich is an outstanding engineer. He ran a factory that employed tens of thousands of people.
