[116] Of Cherevichek, “The Little Shoes.”
[117] Tchaikovsky was staying in N. F. von Meck’s house at this time.
[118] In return for the dedication of the twelve songs.
[119] Opera by Serov.
[120] Orlik’s part is written for a bass, and Lody has a tenor voice.
[121] Their first meeting since 1869.
[122] In an account of his visit to Leipzig, which Tchaikovsky afterwards published as the Diary of My Tour in 1888, he characterises the German composer more fully: “Brahms is rather a short man, suggests a sort of amplitude, and possesses a very sympathetic appearance. His fine head—almost that of an old man—recalls the type of a handsome, benign, elderly Russian priest. His features are certainly not characteristic of German good looks, and I cannot conceive why some learned ethnographer (Brahms himself told me this after I had spoken of the impression his appearance made upon me) chose to reproduce his head on the first page of his books as being highly characteristic of German features. A certain softness of outline, pleasing curves, rather long and slightly grizzled hair, kind grey eyes, and a thick beard, freely sprinkled with white—all this recalled at once the type of pure-bred Great Russian so frequently met with among our clergy. Brahms’s manner is very simple, free from vanity, his humour jovial, and the few hours spent in his society left me with a very agreeable recollection.”
[123] In the same series of articles appeared the following sketch of Grieg: “There entered the room a very short, middle-aged man, exceedingly fragile in appearance, with shoulders of unequal height, fair hair brushed back from his forehead, and a very slight, almost boyish, beard and moustache. There was nothing very striking about the features of this man, whose exterior at once attracted my sympathy, for it would be impossible to call them handsome or regular; but he had an uncommon charm, and blue eyes, not very large, but irresistibly fascinating, recalling the glance of a charming and candid child. I rejoiced in the depths of my heart when we were mutually introduced to each other, and it turned out that this personality, which was so inexplicably sympathetic to me, belonged to a musician whose warmly emotional music had long ago won my heart. It was Edvard Grieg.”
[124] See [Appendix C], p. [762].
[125] Pupil of Brassin and Madame Sophie Menter at the St. Petersburg Conservatoire, and, later on, an intimate friend of Tchaikovsky.