In the English translation of Modest Tchaikovsky's Life and Letters
of Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky this is a paragraph descrbing Tchaikovsky's
memories of meeting Grieg:
LEIPZIG, December 21st 1887 (January 2nd 1888).
"Yesterday the public rehearsal took place. I was very nervous, but my
success was unusually flattering. . . But it is Grieg who has altogether
won my heart. He is most taking and sympathetic, 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."
Philip de Vos
Cape Town - South Africa
13/06/2013 21:27