Note 16 — ALEXANDER PORPHIRIEVITCH BORODIN

The year 1834 has been generally accepted as the year of Borodin’s birth. M. D. Calvocoressi (in the London Musical Times, June, 1934) reported that Serge Dianin had examined the church registers in Leningrad, and other documents which proved the date to have been October 31 (November 12), 1833, not 1834. “Borodin himself knew this quite well until October 31, 1873, when he wrote to his wife: ‘Today is my fortieth birthday.’ But on that very day an old servant of his mother, Catherine Beltzman by name, assured him that he was thirty-nine years old, not forty. Borodin was delighted, and never troubled to verify the information.”—EDITOR.