Modest chose to dedicate his entire life to literature and music. He wrote plays, translated
sonnets by
Shakespeare into Russian and wrote librettos for operas by his brother Pyotr, as well as for other composers such as
Eduard Nápravník,
Arseny Koreshchenko,
Anton Arensky and
Sergei Rachmaninoff. Being the nearest friend of his brother, he became his first biographer, and also the founder of the Tchaikovsky Museum in
Klin.
Plays
Predrassudki (Предрассудки – Prejudices)
Simfoniya (Симфония – Symphony)
Den' v Peterburge (День в Петербурге – A Day in St Petersburg)
Tchaikovsky: Iolanta (Иоланта – Iolanta), Op. 69, 1891, based on the Danish play Kong Renés Datter (King René’s Daughter) by
Henrik Hertz, translated by Fyodor Miller and adapted by Vladimir Rafailovich Zotov. Premiered: 1892,
Mariinsky Theatre,
St Petersburg.