Tchaikovsky
www.tchaikovsky-research.net

Ivan Klimenko (1841–1914)

Ivan Klimenko

Architect, railway official, amateur musician, and friend of Tchaikovsky (b. 1841; d. 1914), born Ivan Aleksandrovich Klimenko (Иван Александрович Клименко).

Klimenko first met Tchaikovsky during the early 1860s at Aleksandr Serov's house in Saint Petersburg, and later became one of the composer's closest friends during his period of residence in Moscow (1866–1878). In 1908 Klimenko published his own reminiscences of the composer: My Recollections of P. I. Tchaikovsky (Мои воспоминания о П. И. Чайковском).

Tchaikovsky's works dedicated to Ivan Klimenko:

• Why? — No. 5 of the Six Romances, Op. 6 (1869).

Tchaikovsky's correspondence with Ivan Klimenko:

• 20 letters from Tchaikovsky to Ivan Klimenko have survived, dating from 1869 to 1893.