“Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov as Reflected in Their Friendship”: An Unpublished Article by А. N. Rimsky-Korsakov

Abstract

The paper discusses the materials related to the work of A. N. Rimsky-Korsakov (1878–1940, son of the composer, musicologist, Ph.D.) in the 1930s when he was preparing the first scientific publication of the small, yet significant correspondence between the distinguished Russian composers P. I. Tchaikovsky (1840–1893) and N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov (1844–1908). Before that, the letters of the musicians had been published only in parts; researchers into the composers’ legacy had used and quoted only certain excerpts. A. N. Rimsky-Korsakov collected all the letters known at that time (not all the letters we know today had been found by then) from various archives of the USSR, including the House-Museum of P. I. Tchaikovsky in Klin. He also prepared an academic commentary and wrote a large research paper on the issues discussed in the correspondence and the most complicated aspects of the musicians’ works. The correspondence was only published as late as in 1945 in the third collection of papers “Soviet music”, without A. N. Rimsky-Korsakov’s introductory article. His materials were practically never used in the subsequent editions of either composer’s letters. Now these materials — the introductory paper to the correspondence and independent studies of the musicians’ friendship — are part of the scholar’s archive at the Cabinet of manuscripts in the Russian Institute of Art History (Saint Petersburg). Despite dating back over 80 years, they retain their significance, thanks to the researcher’s road knowledge and expertise, his personal involvement in many of the events under consideration, as well as his personal interest in an unbiased interpretation of the correspondence.