“MOST HONOURED NICHOLAI ANDREIEVICH,--Thanks for your kind letter. You must know how I admire and bow down before your artistic modesty and your great strength of character! These innumerable counterpoints, these sixty fugues, and all the other musical intricacies which you have accomplished--all these things, from a man who had already produced a _Sadko_ eight years previously--are the exploits of a hero. I want to proclaim them to all the world. I am astounded, and do not know how to express all my respect for your artistic temperament. How small, poor, self-satisfied and naïve I feel in comparison with you! I am a mere _artisan_ in composition, but you will be an _artist_, in the fullest sense of the word. I hope you will not take these remarks as flattery. I am really convinced that with your immense gifts--and the ideal conscientiousness with which you approach your work--you will produce music that must far surpass all which so far has been composed in Russia. “I await your ten fugues with keen impatience. As it will be almost impossible for me to go to Petersburg for some time to come, I beg you to rejoice my heart by sending them as soon as possible. I will study them thoroughly and give you my opinion in detail.... The Opera Direction has commissioned me to write music for the ballet _The Swan Lake_. I accepted the work, partly because I want the money, but also because I have long had a wish to try my hand at this kind of music. “I should very much like to know how the decision upon the merits of the (opera) scores will go. I hope you may be a member of the committee. The fear of being rejected--that is to say, not only losing the prize, but with it all possibility of seeing my _Vakoula_ performed--worries me very much. “Opinions here as regards _Angelo_[41] are most contradictory. Two years ago I heard Cui play the first act, which produced an unsympathetic impression upon me, especially in comparison with _Ratcliff_, of which I am extremely fond.”