“One day he remarked fearlessly: ‘I am sure of this--Serov has more talent for composition than Wagner.’ Schumann’s _Third Symphony_ and Rubinstein’s _‘Ocean’ Symphony_ made the greatest impression upon him. Later on, under the bâton of the composer, our enthusiasm for the latter continually increased. Many readers will be surprised to hear that one of Tchaikovsky’s earliest crazes was for Henri Litolff--but only for the two overtures, _Robespierre_ and _Les Girondistes_. I can say without exaggeration that, after hearing these two overtures and Meyerbeer’s _Struensee_, Tchaikovsky was always an impassioned lover of programme music. In his early overtures, including _Romeo and Juliet_, the influence of Litolff is easily perceptible, while he approached Liszt--who did far more to inspire the young generation--with hesitation and mistrust. During his student years, _Orpheus_ was the only one of Liszt’s symphonic poems which attracted him. The _Faust Symphony_ he only valued long afterwards. It is but fair to state that Liszt’s symphonic poems, which enslaved a whole generation of Russian composers, only exercised an insignificant and ephemeral influence upon Tchaikovsky. “It is important to observe that, at this early period, he showed many curious and morbid musical antipathies which he entirely outgrew. These dislikes were not for particular composers, but for certain styles of composition, or, more strictly speaking, for their quality of sound. For instance, he did not like the combination of piano and orchestra, nor the timbre of a string quartet or quintet, and least of all the effect of the piano with one or more stringed instruments. Although, for the sake of experience, he had studied the general repertory of chamber music and pianoforte concertos, and now and then was charmed by a work of this nature, he afterwards took the first opportunity of condemning its ‘detestable’ quality of tone. Not once, but hundreds of times, he has vowed in my presence never to compose a pianoforte concerto, nor a violin and piano sonata, nor any work of this class. As regards the violin and pianoforte sonata, he has kept his word. Not less strange was his determination, at this time, never to write any small pieces for piano, or songs. He spoke of the latter with the greatest dislike. But this hatred must have been quite Platonic, for the next minute he was growing enthusiastic with me over the songs of Glinka, Schumann, or Schubert.