Theodor Avé-Lallemant

Johann Theodor Friedrich Avé-Lallemant (born 2 February 1806 in Magdeburg; d. 9 November 1890 in Hamburg) was a German musician and music teacher.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was introduced to Avé-Lallemant in January 1888 when the Russian composer arrived in Hamburg to conduct a concert of his own music at the Philharmonie.

3, took place on 8/20 January, and two days later Tchaikovsky, accompanied by his German publisher Daniel Rahter, called on Avé-Lallemant and spent a few hours at his house.

The old man touched me by his invitation nach Deutschland zu übersiedeln [to emigrate to Germany]",[1] and Tchaikovsky would describe their conversation in more detail in the account of his concert tour which he wrote up a few months later in his Autobiographical Account of a Tour Abroad in the Year 1888 (Chapter XI): First of all I should mention the chief director of the Philharmonic Society, the aged Herr Avé-Lallemant.

When I then visited this kindly old gentleman, who passionately loves music and who, as should be obvious to the reader, is quite free from that aversion which many old people have against everything that has been written in recent times, I had a very lengthy and interesting conversation with him.Herr Avé-Lallemant openly confessed that there was a lot in those works of mine which had been performed in Hamburg that wasn't to his liking; that he could not stand my noisy instrumentation; that he hated some of the orchestral effects which I resorted to (especially with regard to the percussion), but that all the same he saw in me the makings of a good, truly German composer.

Almost with tears in his eyes he exhorted me to leave Russia and to settle permanently in Germany, where the classical traditions and the general atmosphere of a higher culture would not fail to correct me and rid me of those deficiencies which he felt were easily accountable by the fact that I was born and grew up in a country which was still so unenlightened and backward when compared to Germany as regards progress.Evidently, Herr Avé-Lallemant harbours a deep prejudice against Russia, and I tried as far as I could to mitigate his hostile feelings towards our country, which, incidentally, this venerable Russophobe did not actually express openly, but merely allowed to shine through in his words.

Rahter wrote to Tchaikovsky on 22 September/4 October 1888 that, in his view, Avé-Lallemant would not be offended by this, since he too would understand that it was a necessary gesture to secure the invitation from the Royal Philharmonic Society.

[7] However, as Modest Tchaikovsky observed in his biography of the composer: "The agreeable impression of that evening was slightly clouded by the fact that Avé-Lallemant, to whom the symphony is dedicated, was unable to attend the concert due to ill health.