I personally managed to get acquainted with Tchaikovsky a few days before his death. In October, in St. Petersburg, under the direction of Tchaikovsky, his 6th symphony was to be performed for the first time. He came from Klin to Moscow and was supposed to leave for St. Petersburg the same evening. In the morning he went to the conservatory, came to Taneyev’s class. Me, my friend Alchevsky and another student — Malkovskaya — were there.

After this conversation, we went upstairs, where a small morning party was organized for him. The organist Morozov played Bach’s c-moll fugue, and then for Tchaikovsky for the first time his quartet ‘Night’, composed to the music from Mozart’s ‘Fantasy’. The students sang,

I saw Tchaikovsky many times, as he often came to Moscow. Pyotr Ilyich was always dressed unusually simply, but at the same elegantly (he often wore a velvet jacket). Culture and some kind of innate nobility was in his whole appearance. At the same time, Tchaikovsky behaved in a simple way and did not in any way drape himself into a ‘celebrity’.