Tchaikovsky
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Theodor Avé-Lallement

Johann Theodor Friedrich Avé-Lallement was a German musician and musicologist, born at Magdeburg on 2 February 1806.

The son of a music teacher, Avé-Lallement studied music from the age of nine, in Greifswald and Lubeck, before settling in Hamburg in 1828. Here he helped to found the Philharmonic Society (Philharmonie) in 1838, becoming its chairman and director of concerts. Half-a-century later he met Tchaikovsky, who was conducting a concert of his own music at the Philharmonie. The composer wrote about this meeting In his Autobiographical Account of a Tour Abroad in the Year 1888:

"First of all I will mention the chief director of the Philharmonic Society, the aged Herr Avé-Lallement. This venerable gentleman, more than eighty years old, showed me special attention and treated me with paternal affection. Despite of his age and infirmity, he travelled a great distance to witness two rehearsals, concerts, and even cancelled an engagement with Mr Bernuth. He explained this extraordinary courtesy by saying that he wanted to have my photographs taken by the best photographer in Hamburg, in order to have a personal memento of my visit. And so I was ordered to sit for around an hour, and to choose the size and type of photograph. Meeting with this pleasant old man, I found that he had a passion for music and, it became apparent, was completely averse to everything composed in recent times. I had a lengthy and interesting conversation with Herr Avé-Lallement, in which he confessed frankly that my works played in Hamburg seemed to him to be soulless, that he could not stand my noisy instrumentation, and hated some of my orchestral effects (and in particular with the percussion), yet he still held out a secure hope that I could become a good German composer. Almost with tears in his eyes he begged me to leave Russia and to settle forever in Germany, where its classical conditions and high culture could not fail to correct me from my deficiencies, which he felt were easily explained by the circumstance that I was brought up in a country that is still backward when compared to Germany as regards progress. Clearly Herr Avé-Lallement holds a profound prejudice against Russia, and it was impossible to dilute his hostility to our homeland; however, this was expressed so warmly and kindly by the honourable Russophobe, that we parted great friends."

The composer did not forget this meeting, and he dedicated his next major work - the Symphony No. 5 - to "Monsieur Theodore Avé-Lallement á Hamburg". Unfortunately ill health prevented the dedicatee from hearing Tchaikovsky conduct the new work at the Hamburg Philharmonie on 15 March 1889.

Theodore Avé-Lallement died in Hamburg on 9 November 1890, aged 84.