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Hamburg

Hamburg is a federal state and the second-largest city in Germany. During Tchaikovsky's lifetime it was a free city state, which joined the German Empire in 1871.

Tchaikovsky visited Hamburg on the following occasions:

• 10/22 July–16/28 July 1861 — on his first journey outside Russia, Tchaikovsky found Hamburg to be "incomparably better than Berlin" [1].
• 29 December 1887/10 January 1888–30 December 1887/11 January 1888 — to attend a concert conducted by Hans von Bülow.
• 5/17 January–10/22 January 1888 — to rehearse and conduct a concert of his own works at the Konventgarten (8/20 January), including the Serenade for String Orchestra, the Piano Concerto No. 1 (soloist Vasily Sapel’nikov), and the Theme and Variations from the Suite No. 3. Cordial meetings with Daniel Rahter, Josef Sittard, and Theodor Avé-Lallemant, who "almost with tears in his eyes exhorted me to leave Russia and settle in Germany" [2].
• 26 February/10 March–4/16 March 1889 — to conduct his Symphony No. 5 at a Philharmonic Society concert (3/15 March), At rehearsals he met Johannes Brahms, Josef Sittard, and Willy Burmester. "My new symphony was an enormous success, and everyone without affectation treated me as an old and dear friend" [3].
• 17/29 May–18/30 May 1891 — returning from his American tour on the steamship Prince Bismarck, Tchaikovsky stayed overnight at the Hôtel Saint Pétersbourg.
• 6/18 January–9/21 January 1892 — attending rehearsals and a production of Yevgeny Onegin at the Hamburg Opera Theatre (7/19 January), conducted by Gustav Mahler.
• 25 August/6 September–29 August/10 September 1893 — attending a production of Iolanta at the Hamburg Opera Theatre (26 August/7 September), conducted by Gustav Mahler, as well as a performance of Leoncavallo's opera Pagliacci in the second half of that evening's double bill, with Berta Foerstrová-Lautererová as Nedda. Tchaikovsky stayed at the house of Bernhard Pollini.

External links:
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• Wikipedia entry for Hamburg

Bibliography:

• Peter Feddersen, Tschaikowsky in Hamburg. Eine Dokumentation (2006)

1. Letter 56 to Ilya Tchaikovsky, 9/21 July 1861 [back]
2. Autobiographical Account of a Tour Abroad in the Year 1888, Chapter XI [back]
3. Letter 3815 to Nadezhda von Meck, 5/17 March 1889 [back]