Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Anton Pavlovich Chekhov had known about each other before they met and felt a great warmth towards each other. The young writer was inspired by the composer’s music, while the latter had discovered and acknowledged Chekhov’s talent even before they were first introduced. The music critic Nikolai Dmitriyevich Kashkin recalled one episode when Tchaikovsky read Chekhov’s story “The Letter” (“The Laymen”) in the newspaper “NovoyeVremya” on April 19, 1887,

The very next day Pyotr Tchaikovsky sent a letter to Anton Chekhov at the address of the editorial office of “Novoye Vremya”, where he expressed “his delight at finding such a fresh and distinctive talent”. Alas, Chekhov never received the letter.

Two years later, Anton Chekhov was going to publish a collection of short stories titled “Moody People”, and he wrote to Tchaikovsky requesting permission to dedicate the book to him. A couple of days later, on October 14, 1889, instead of a written reply, Chekhov received a visitor at his house on Sadovaya Kudrinskaya Street in Moscow. The doorbell rang and there was Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky standing on the doorstep.

Chekhov and Tchaikovsky spoke about music and literature throughout the evening, discussing their future joint endeavor: Anton Pavlovich was set to write a libretto for the opera “Bela”, based on Mikhail Lermontov’s “A Hero of Our Time”.

A few hours after Pyotr Ilyich left, a messenger delivered to Chekhov a photograph and a letter from Tchaikovsky, who wrote,

A copy of this photograph is kept in the Melikhovo museum, and the original is in the Chekhov House-Museum in Yalta.

Chekhov and Tchaikovsky’s creative plans were not destined to come true: the composer toured Western Europe extensively, while Chekhov set off for Sakhalin Island to study the life of convicts. They maintained their correspondence and always shared a deep mutual admiration.