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Introduction
Acknowledgements
Chronology
Cities visited by Berlioz
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It was relatively late in his career (1847) that Berlioz made his first trip to Russia: by then he had already made two extensive trips to Germany, in 1842-3 and 1845-6. The success of his first German venture encouraged Berlioz to look further afield. The idea of a trip to Russia surfaces jokingly in a letter of the composer to his sister Nanci in September 1843: ‘If the Emperor of Russia wants me then I am up for sale; I must investigate…’ (Correspondance génerale no. 847, hereafter CG for short). The project becomes more definite in the early summer of 1845 when Berlioz mentions to several correspondents his plan to travel there in the autumn (CG nos. 962, 985-6). During the same year he dedicated the first edition of his Symphonie Fantastique to the tsar Nicholas I, no doubt in anticipation of the visit. In the end it was to Vienna that he departed in October, with the intention of proceeding to Russia afterwards, though the success of the trip to central Europe postponed the Russian visit for another year.
Berlioz was no stranger to Russia when he went there, and many threads connected him to the country even before his first visit. He had already met the composer Glinka (1804-1857) during his stay in Italy in 1832. Glinka subsequently stayed in Paris for a year in 1844-45 and the two men came to admire each other – Berlioz performed some of Glinka’s music and devoted an appreciative article to the Russian composer. Russia was actually welcoming to musicians from elsewhere in Europe, and many worked there – when Berlioz came in 1847 the majority of players in the orchestra at St Petersburg were in fact German. Friends and acquaintances of Berlioz had preceded him in Russia, as for example Franz Liszt who made a deep impression there. There was interest in Berlioz and his music ahead of his arrival. His travels elsewhere in Europe in the 1840s had made him famous. His Requiem had already been performed in St Petersburg as early as 1841 to great effect. It was performed under the direction of Heinrich Romberg, who like others had studied at the Paris Conservatoire; Romberg was to be of great assistance to Berlioz during his first visit. There was in fact in contemporary Russia a particular demand for all things French on the part of the intelligentsia: Berlioz was bound to be warmly received (for the Russian context of Berlioz’s visits see the articles by Elena Dolenko and Linda Edmonson on this site).
Berlioz made two trips to Russia, at widely separated intervals (in 1847, and in 1867-8). Both were of great significance in his career, though in different ways. The first visit had been planned for some time, but what prompted Berlioz to go was in part the failure of the first two performances of La Damnation de Faust in Paris in December 1846, which left the composer deeply in debt. Berlioz hoped that the trip would enable him to restore his financial position: it succeeded beyond expectation, and Berlioz never forgot that it was Russia that had saved him (cf. Memoirs chapter 59 [end], dated 18 October 1854). The trip also had other beneficial results. He made numerous friends there – among others Berthold Damcke, who subsequently settled in Paris (1859) and remained very close to him; Princess Carolyn Sayn-Wittgenstein, who later persuaded Berlioz to undertake the composition of Les Troyens; and the young writer and music critic Vladimir Stasov who became one of his staunchest champions in Russia. It was to Stasov that Berlioz gave in 1862 the autograph score of his Te Deum for the benefit of the municipal library in St Petersburg, where it has since remained (CG no. 2650). Another lasting impression on Berlioz from his first trip was the extraordinary quality of the choir of the Imperial Chapel. Not long after (by 1850) Berlioz arranged two choral works by Bortniansky (Holoman nos. 122-3). The experience may also have suggested the writing of the Te Deum.
But for all the success and rewards that attended Berlioz’s first visit to Russia, his initial impact on the Russian musical scene was seemingly limited, apart from Glinka who was already a convert.
The second trip was different in this and other respects. It is perhaps remarkable that Berlioz made it at all. The composer was old, disillusioned, and in poor health; he had been deeply affected by the inadequate and incomplete performances of Les Troyens in 1863 and the failure of the publisher Choudens to issue the full score, and had just suffered the cruellest blow of all, the death of his only son Louis in June 1867. Although he stressed to his correspondents his need for money (e.g. CG no. 3290, to Princess Sayn-Wittgenstein), the decisive reasons were probably musical. Shortly after receiving the invitation to Russia (18 September 1867) he turned down an even more lucrative offer (100,000 francs), from the piano maker Steinway, to visit New York (CG no. 3279). The offer made by the Grand Duchess Elena Pavlova to give six concerts in St Petersburg, for a fee of 15,000 francs with an advance of 6,000, was one that he may have felt he could not refuse. The terms were generous and the material conditions for the trip far better than they had been in 1847. There was also now a group of young Russian musicians devoted to his music and clamouring for his presence, among them Mili Balakirev and César Cui: only the previous month Cui had been pressing Berlioz to let him have a copy of at least some parts of the full score of Les Troyens (CG no. 3268). Soon after his arrival in St Petersburg Berlioz in fact wrote to his friend Damcke in Paris asking him to send a manuscript copy of the full score which everybody was anxious to know (CG no. 3308): it is not known what may have happened to the copy that was sent (cf. CG nos. 3356, 3359, to Stasov and Cui respectively). It is fitting that among the very last letters in Berlioz’s correspondence should be two he received from Balakirev and Stasov (September and October 1868), in which they tell him of the lasting effect of his visit and urge Berlioz to resume composition (CG nos. 3374-5).
Above all Berlioz had a chance to perform with a new and first rate orchestra, that of the St Petersburg Conservatoire, the music of his idols, especially Beethoven and Gluck, the latter little known to Russian audiences. Initially he planned to devote the first five concerts to music by them and a few other composers (including Weber), and only the last one to his own, though eventually he was pressed to include more of his own music. According to contemporary accounts the concerts were a revelation. The trip was thus a manifesto for all that he stood for. It had the character of a musical mission, but it also had a valedictory quality: it left Berlioz exhausted and marks in effect the end of his musical career. He never conducted again and had little more than a year to live after his return.
All excerpts from Berlioz’s writings and from other sources in French have been translated by Michel Austin specifically for this site.
For modern photographs and information on the history of various buildings connected with Berlioz’s visits to Russia we are indebted to Pepijn van Doesburg (for Saint-Petersburg), Elena Dolenko, Natalia Oleneva and V. Poljakov (for Moscow); their help and advice have been of great assistance in the compilation of these pages.
Note: the chronology of Berlioz’s stays in Russia is complicated by the fact that whereas western Europe followed the Gregorian calendar (first introduced in 1582), Russia continued until 1918 to use the Julian, which was 12 days behind. To take this into account double dates have been given below for the periods Berlioz spent in Russia; the first is the Gregorian date, and the second (in brackets) the Julian.
Before the first visit
1832
January-March: Berlioz meets the Russian composer Glinka in Rome
1841
1 March: first performance of the Requiem at St Petersburg, conducted by
Heinrich Romberg (who later helps Berlioz in St Petersburg)
1844
4 August: Glinka settles in Paris for a year
1845
16 March: Berlioz performs pieces by Glinka at a concert at the Cirque Olympique
25 March: Berlioz writes to Glinka asking him for information about himself and
his music for an article he is writing (CG no. 953)
6 April: Berlioz performs more music by Glinka at a concert at the Cirque
Olympique
16 April: Berlioz devotes a whole article to Glinka in the Journal des
Débats
May: First edition of the Symphonie Fantastique, dedicated to
Nicholas I of Russia
Summer: Berlioz is planning to travel to Russia in the autumn
October: Berlioz departs for Vienna, with the intention of proceeding to Russia
afterwards (the plan was not followed up)
1846
6 and 20 December: the first two performances of La Damnation de Faust in
Paris leave Berlioz deep in debt
First visit of Berlioz to Russia – 1847
January: Berlioz decides to make a trip to Russia, with financial support
from several friends and advice from Balzac
14 February: Berlioz leaves Paris for Russia, apparently on his own
15-17 February: Berlioz stays in Brussels
18-20 February: Berlioz stays in Berlin, where he receives a letter of
introduction from the King of Prussia for his sister the Tsarina
21-27 February: Berlin travels from Berlin to St Petersburg, by sledge for the
last four days
28 February (16 February): Berlioz arrives in St Petersburg and stays in a
private house on Nevsky
Prospect
14 March (2 March): Prince Odoevsky publishes an article on “Berlioz in St
Petersburg” in the Sankt-Peterburgskie Vedomosti
15 March (3 March): First concert of Berlioz in St Petersburg
25 March (13 March): Second concert of Berlioz in St Petersburg, with the same
programme; the
concerts are financially profitable and enable Berlioz to cover his debts
27 March (15 March): Performance of the last movement (Apothéose) of the Symphonie funèbre et triomphale
at a musical festival for the benefit of invalids
31 March (19 March): Berlioz departs for Moscow by sledge; the journey takes
four days
ca 5 April (24 March): Berlioz arrives in Moscow
ca 10 April (29 March): Concert of Berlioz in Moscow;
the Moskovskiye Vedomosti calls Berlioz the Victor Hugo of music
April (late March- early April): Berlioz attends a performance in Moscow of Glinka’s first opera, A
Life for the Tsar
20 April (8 April): Berlioz returns to St Petersburg
April - early May (April): Idyll
with a young Russian chorister
4 May (22 April): Berlioz meets Princess
Sayn-Wittgenstein for the first time
5 May (23 April): Third concert of Berlioz in St Petersburg: complete
performance of Roméo et Juliette at the Imperial Theatre, together with
the overture Le Carnaval romain and the first two movements of Harold
en Italie
6 May (24 April): Berlioz hears a special performance of mass at the Imperial Chapel
12 May (30 April): Fourth concert of Berlioz in St Petersburg: second complete
performance of Roméo et Juliette at the Imperial Theatre, together with
Part II of La Damnation de Faust
ca 20 May (8 May): Farewell concert by Berlioz in St Petersburg, with the Symphonie
Fantastique and other pieces
22 May (10 May): Berlioz departs for Riga
ca 24 May - 2 June: Berlioz stays in Riga
29 May: Berlioz gives a concert in Riga, with Harold en Italie, excerpts
from La Damnation de Faust and other pieces
ca 4 June: Berlioz arrives in Berlin
19 June: Berlioz performs La Damnation de Faust in Berlin
ca 25-30 June: Berlioz returns to Paris
1862
11 September: Berlioz donates the autograph score of the Te Deum to Vladimir Stasov for the municipal library in St Petersburg
Second visit of Berlioz to Russia – 1867/68
1867
Early August: César Cui asks Berlioz for permission to make a copy of parts
of the score of Les Troyens
18 September: Berlioz accepts a generous invitation from the Grand Duchess Elena
Pavlovna to give a series of 6 concerts in St Petersburg
27 September: Berlioz turns down a lucrative offer from Steinway to visit New
York
2 October: Wieniawksi, leader of the court orchestra of St Petersburg, asks
Berlioz to let him play the Rêverie et caprice at a concert in St
Petersburg and the solo viola part of Harold en Italie (CG no. 3282; the latter
request did not materialise)
October: Preparations for the trip to Russia
12 November: Berlioz leaves Paris for Russia
14 November: Berlioz stays in Berlin
15 November: Berlioz leaves Berlin for St Petersburg
17 November (5 November): Berlioz arrives at St Petersburg, and stays at the
Mikhailovski Palace
26 November (14 November): Berlioz writes to Damcke in Paris asking him to send
a copy of the full score of Les Troyens
28 November (16 November): First concert in St Petersburg
7 December (25 November): Second concert in St Petersburg
11 December (29 November): Celebration for Berlioz’s birthday in St Petersburg;
he is made Honorary Member of the Russian Musical Society
14 December (2 December): Third
concert in St Petersburg
28 December (16 December): Fourth
concert in St Petersburg
1868
1 January (20 December 1867): Berlioz
leaves St Petersburg for Moscow
8 January (27 December 1867): First concert in Moscow
11 January (30 December 1867): Second concert in Moscow
12 January (31 December 1867): Reception in honour of Berlioz
13 January (1 January 1868): Berlioz
leaves Moscow for St Petersburg
25 January (13 January): Fifth concert in St Petersburg
5 February (24 January): Berlioz
goes to a performance of Glinka’s A Life for the Tsar but leaves during
the 2nd Act
8 February (27 January): Sixth and last concert in St Petersburg
13 February (1 February): Berlioz leaves St Petersburg
17 February: Berlioz back in Paris
21 August: Last letter of Berlioz to Stasov (CG no. 3373)
22 September (10 September): Letter of Balakirev to Berlioz
17 October (5 October): Letter of Stasov to Berlioz
1869
8 March: Death of Berlioz
[See also Concert in the Manège (in English translation) and Концерт в Манеже (in the original Russian)]
Riga (in Russia in Berlioz’s time)
Related pages on this site:
Berlioz Mémoires (in the original French)
Index of letters of Berlioz cited
The Hector Berlioz Website was created by Monir Tayeb and Michel Austin on 18
July 1997;
The Berlioz in Russia pages were created on 7 December 2003.
© 2003-2009 (unless otherwise stated) Michel Austin and Monir Tayeb for all the photos, engravings and information on Berlioz in Russia pages.
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