And it was in Moscow that I first met Tschaikovsky, a most amiable, kind, gentle, modest man, with just that touch of melancholy in his composition which to me seems to be a characteristic of the Russian. I spent a week in Moscow, singing, among other things, in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, in Russian, a language which in my opinion, as regards melodiousness, comes immediately after the Italian. Nicolai Rubinstein conducted an excellent performance, and afterwards he, Tschaikovsky, and I had supper.