Tchaikovsky and His Love Letters

Nadezhda Filaretovna von Meck  is best known today for her artistic relationship with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. She supported him financially for 13 years, enabling him to devote himself full-time to composition, but she stipulated that they were never to meet.

He  dedicated  his Fourth Symphony to her and during thse years he created some of the world's most beautiful music and wrote her over 1,2000 letters

There is a Russian website where all(?) the Tchaikovsky/Von Meck letters are published: http://www.tchaikov.ru/letter.html

With the help of Google Translate you can read them (in bad English of course, but in general it’s quite clear what it’s all about).

    The title  of the Fourth symphony reads: "Dedicated to my best friend."
He wrote in one of his letters to her: 
  "But I never told you that I owe you everything. The main thing is that I love you so much.
    Your Petr Chaikovsky

Their friendship ended with a letter. After 13 years, this invisible friend wrote to tell him she could no longer support him financially. She ends the letter with  the words "remember me sometimes."

The Piano Trio gained much popularity in Tchaikovsky's lifetime and was a work that naturally found its place in memorial events in St. Petersburg and Moscow. It is fitting therefore to listen to this excerpt as both a tribute and memorial to their friendship and love.