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Usovo

Usovo (Усово) is a village in the Bondari district (Бондарский район) of Tambov oblast (Тамбовская область) in the Russian Federation. During Tchaikovsky's lifetime it was the part of the Kirsanovsk district (Кирсановский уезд) in the Tambov province (Тамбовская губерния) of the Russian Empire.

The composer's friend Vladimir Shilovskii had an estate at Usovo, which Tchaikovsky regularly visited during the early 1870s.

• early/mid August–late August/early September 1871 — on his first visit the composer reported that he felt "surrounded by tender concerns, so that I remained very contented" [1].
• late July/early August–14/26 August 1872 — completing the draft of his Symphony No. 2.
• early/mid August to late August/early September 1873 — working on the draft of the fantasia The Tempest (begun on 7/19 August). "I was in a blissfully peaceful frame of mind. wandering each day in the forest and in the evening through the immense steppes, and at night sitting by the open window and revelling in the quiet emptiness, broken occasionally by indefinable nocturnal sounds. In these two weeks, without any effort, as if under the influence of some supernatural force, I wrote the whole of The Tempest in rough" [2]
• mid/late July–late August/early September 1874 — orchestrating the opera Vakula the Smith, which was completed (except for the overture) on 21 August/2 September.
• late May/early June–20 June/2 July 1875 — completing the whole of the draft of the Symphony No. 3 (begun on 5/17 June), which would eventually be dedicated to Vladimir Shilovskii
• mid/late August 1875 — spending the last days of his summer vacation at Usovo before returning to Moscow.
• early/mid September 1876 — visiting in order to borrow 2,000 roubles from Vladimir Shilovskii.

Notes:

1. Letter 237 to Anatolii Tchaikovsky, 3/15 September 1871 [back]
2. Letter 815 to Nadezhda von Meck, 22 April/4 May 1878 [back]