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{{letterhead
|Date=5/17 May 1892
|To=[[Pyotr Jurgenson]]
|Place=[[Klin]]
|Language=Russian
|Autograph=[[Klin]] (Russia): {{RUS-KLč}} (a{{sup|3}}, No. 2805)
|Publication={{bib|1952/58|П. И. Чайковский. Переписка с П. И. Юргенсоном ; том 2}} (1952), p. 244 (abridged)<br/>{{bib|1979/112|П. И. Чайковский. Полное собрание сочинений ; том XVI-Б}} (1979), p. 88–89 (abridged)<br/>{{bib|1986/68|Tchaikovsky in America}} (1986), p. 196–197 (English translation)
}}
==Text and Translation==
{{Lettertext
|Language=Russian
|Translator=Brett Langston
|Original text={{right|''5 мая [18]92''<br/>''г[ород] Клин''}}
Душа моя! Пишу на ночь, хочется спать, и потому отвечу кратко, по пунктам:

1) Водку (чертовски дорого стоил мне этот своего рода ''виталин'') пришли товарным поездом.

2) Партитуру ''сюиты'' выслать мне необходимо; нельзя её печатать без моего просмотра.

3) Листок из «''Воеводы''» ожидаю и прошу извинить за рассеянность.

4) Юферов свою оперу мне не присылал, подписчиком не был (странный вопрос: все равно как бы ты спросил, люблю ли я покупать коровье говно и есть его?), но был приглашён в Дирекцию в Петербурге месяца 2 тому назад, когда ''Юферов'' играл свою оперу, причём наговорил этому нахалу много неприятного. Рекламу не читал.

5) Крауфорду отвечал, что благодарю за честь, но не понимаю, зачем меня зовут: если для удовольствия быть на выставке, то уклоняюсь, ибо ненавижу всякие выставки и сопряжённое с ними многолюдство и суету, если же для дирижирования, то не могу удовлетвориться ''платой за расходы'', тем более что выражение это очень эластично и предъявлять Выставке счёт, превышающий действительные расходы, я не могу, уехать же с пустым карманом тоже очень не намерен, ибо время и труд свой ценю высоко. Вследствие сего прошу гонорара 10000 долларов за 4-недельное пребывание в Чикаго, причём берусь дирижировать русскими концертами. Как угодно.
{{right|П. Чайковский}}

|Translated text={{right|''5 May 1892''<br/>''Town of [[Klin]]''}}
My dear chap! I'm writing at night and want to sleep, and so I shall answer your points briefly <ref name="note1"/>:

1) The vodka (which has been a damned expensive ''vitalin'') is coming by goods train <ref name="note2"/>.

2) I need you to send me the full score of the ''suite'' <ref name="note3"/>; it can't be printed without my seeing it.

3) You can expect the pages from "''[[The Voyevoda (opera)|The Voyevoda]]''" and I apologise for my absent-mindedness <ref name="note4"/>.

4) Yuferov didn't send me his opera <ref name="note5"/>, I wasn't a subscriber (a peculiar question: you might as well have asked me whether I'd like to buy cow shit <ref name="note6"/> and eat it), but I was invited to the Directorate 2 months ago to hear ''Yuferov'' play through his opera, when he duly rattled off this offensive nonsense. I haven't read the advertisements.

5) I replied to Crawford <ref name="note7"/> that I was grateful for the honour, but did not understand why my name had been put forward: if it were for the pleasure of attending the exhibition, then I must politely decline, because I detest all such exhibitions, and their associated crowds and bustle; and if it were for the purpose of conducting, then I cannot be satisfied merely with ''payment of expenses'', especially since the term is very vague, and I could not present the Exhibition with a bill which exceeded my actual costs, and I certainly should not intend to leave with empty pockets, since I value my time and labour highly. In view of this I'm asking for a fee of 10,000 dollars for a 4-week visit to Chicago, in return for which I undertook to conduct the Russian concerts. It's up to him.
{{right|P. Tchaikovsky}}
}}

==Notes and References==
<references>
<ref name="note1">Tchaikovsky is replying to [[Pyotr Jurgenson]]'s letter of 4/16 May 1892.</ref>
<ref name="note2">Two dozen bottles of "the most excellent vodka", sent to Tchaikovsky by [[Bernhard Pollini]], had been held up by the Russian customs office until all duty had been paid (see [[Letter 4641]] to [[Pyotr Jurgenson]], 9/21 March 1892).</ref>
<ref name="note3">The [[The Nutcracker (suite)|Suite]] from the ballet ''[[The Nutcracker]]''.</ref>
<ref name="note4">[[Jurgenson]] was publishing the overture to Tchaikovsky's first opera ''[[The Voyevoda (opera)|The Voyevoda]]'', but the composer had forgotten to return some handwritten pages containing amendments.</ref>
<ref name="note5">Tchaikovsky had heard Sergey Yuferov play through his opera ''Myrrh'' (Мирра) at the Mariinsky Theatre in [[Saint Petersburg]] on 8/20 March 1892. Yuferov also published it through private subscription.</ref>
<ref name="note6">This word is censored in all previous Soviet publications of this letter.</ref>
<ref name="note7">Crawford was the American consul in [[Saint Petersburg]], who had passed on an invitation to Tchaikovsky to attend the "World's Columbian Exposition" to be held in Chicago between May and October 1893 (see also [[Letter 4682]] to [[Theodore Thomas]], 5/17 May 1893). Tchaikovsky's terms were not accepted, but among the composers who did attend were [[Antonín Dvořák]] and Scott Joplin.</ref>
</references>

Letter 4683 - Revision history

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Brett at 20:33, 27 December 2019