Tchaikovsky, None But The Lonely Hearts

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky composed a set of six romances for voice and piano, Op. 6, in late 1869; the last of these songs is the melancholy None but the Lonely Heart (Russian: Нет, только тот, кто знал, Net, tol ko tot, kto znal), a setting of Lev Mei s poem The Harpist s Song, which in turn was translated from Goethe s Wilhelm Meister s Apprenticeship. Tchaikovsky dedicated this piece to Alina Khvostova. The song was premiered by Russian mezzosoprano Yelizaveta Lavrovskaya in Moscow in 1870, following it with its St. Petersburg premiere the following year during an allTchaikovsky concert hosted by Nikolai Rubinstein; the latter was the first concert devoted entirely to Tchaikovsky s works.