Solovyov in Tsarist Russia 1796.

Chapter 446 The Concert Maria Wants

In fact, The Peddler was written by Nekrasov in 1861, but the music was composed even later.

Now if I take it out and play it with a balalaika, it does have some flavor.

But it is indeed quite troublesome that Maria is being so ambiguous with him.

You know, although this girl is the most honest, she is also the most sinister.

The sisters all have their own characteristics. Except for Anna who is too young, Maria is not as smart as Elena from the inside out. Alexandra is more introverted, and Catherine is more frivolous. She is the most difficult type to deal with.

After all, if she had made up her mind, it would be difficult to refuse. Besides, Paul had favored her the most. When he was in the palace, Solovyov knew how to deal with the young ladies. Maria got the most from him, especially poems and music scores.

This is also the greatest utilization value of an orange. When the knowledge is still rich, try to extract as much as possible. In addition, you must find a way to squeeze it dry. This refers to the knowledge aspect.

When it comes to emotional ambiguity, the two of them are obviously not at that level. As for Maria's initiative, Solovyov is also worried. Little girl, you must not dig any trouble yourself. I am no longer the boy I used to be.

It would be fine if Maria still treated him as her "best friend", but if the relationship developed to the same level as Louisa, Solovyov would feel that he was a sinful "best friend".

What happened between him and Louisa was enough. If something happened between him and Maria, I don’t know what the Queen Mother would think.

Although when the Queen Mother was in the palace, she often left the two young girls to be taken care of by these young officers and maids, and they even farmed together.

This kind of friendship that comes from working together is actually a wonderful fate.

But Maria was indeed special. She led Solovyov from the yard to the palace, and did something quite brutal in the reception room of her room.

"Take off your clothes and let me see."

After all, they are sisters raised together, and Maria has some similarities with her sister.

"That's not good, Your Highness. But there are no rats here, either."

In fact, she is still the same as when she was a child, just a little more mature.

But when it comes to mice, she is still the same.

"Don't mention the mouse. How come he looks like Misha, the one Katish liked? That's not surprising. You were still friends. It's just a pity for Petya, who died suddenly of an illness."

"It can't be helped. Birth, aging, sickness and death just come too fast, and this is an emergency. As for His Highness Paul, you still have to take good care of him. He is still less than two years old. At this age when teeth are growing, he is most susceptible to infection and convulsions. You must be careful."

What Maria cares about most is probably her son, and Solovyov emphasized this once again, speaking to her heart.

However, she still took off Solovyov's coat and insisted on taking a look at the injury.

"That's it. A French bayonet wounded my arm and a little scrape on the ribs. It's nothing serious."

Of course, Solovyov still looks like an artistic young man, but he seems to lift weights a lot in private and looks quite strong.

"You are a soldier, and I can't stop you from doing dangerous things. My brothers also face such dangers, but they are not like you who always risk their lives with others."

"Your Majesty did not go on the expedition this time, but His Highness Constantine and I often go on expeditions together, and we do often run into trouble."

"Yes, people are different. Or, can you use this grand piano and play some music again?"

"Your Highness, what are you going to do?"

Solovyov also noticed that Maria's love for music would never diminish.

"You can come over to my place and we can practice a quartet together. I'll play the harp and you can play the guitar or this grand piano."

"Balalayka, your highness. It is also a traditional instrument."

"Well, Balalaika, we need two more people besides these."

As long as he's not playing the suona, nothing can stop him once he starts playing.

"If you need a violinist."

"It's okay. The son of the King of Prussia will play the flute. As for the need for someone else to accompany the music, I really haven't decided yet."

"Or let one of the princesses try the violin or some other musical instrument."

"If you say so, besides Prince William, there is also Princess Charlotte, and that child is also a bit talented."

Solovyov was not unaware of what these two said.

Prince William, that is, the old Emperor William, but he doesn't need to come back now, he is still a child, and Maria is even the mother-in-law of him and his third brother Frederick Karl.

As for Charlotte, she was his apprentice and the future wife of Nicholas, the landlord's stupid son. The couple later had seven children and their relationship was quite deep.

If that's the case, doesn't it mean that Maria is testing out a husband for the child she hasn't conceived yet?
As for Nikolai's matter, Solovyov, as his teacher, had been introduced to him by his student by accident (although the official matchmaker was someone else), it was natural for him to help his student find a future wife.

But the person involved is definitely not aware of this matter.

The main purpose here is to ease the tense atmosphere. The Prussian royal family is not in Memel, and came to Jelgava because this place is, after all, the territory of the Duchy of Courland, and is still on the edge of the dead illegal organization.

It was also Queen Louise's idea to organize activities for the children. She had been feeling chest tightness and shortness of breath recently, but she still had to maintain the atmosphere of the exiled court, so she thought of organizing a quartet.

However, the Crown Prince himself did not participate. He was only a few months older than Nicholas. Instead, he was a spectator watching the performances of his second brother and eldest sister.

Perhaps, it was because of the problem of musical instruments. There was really no suitable musician in this family.

So Maria thought that her husband invited Goethe to stay in the court because she loved music and poetry, and would invite many other musicians in the future, not because he liked music as much as she did.

Therefore, the prince will not participate in the performance, and Maria has been looking for suitable people to join the quartet.

It’s just that Solovyov’s injury has not healed yet, and the instrument he used is indeed rather strange.

"Misha, why can't you use another instrument?"

"Maria," Soloviev called these young ladies. He had never called them that before, but he called them out subconsciously, which made the black-hearted Maria very happy. "I don't have the talent to play the piano, and it's too late for me to learn at my age. But bayan and balalaika are fine, or guitar, but other instruments are fine. Maybe you can give me the Khitan suona to try, it's quite exciting."

Fortunately, Maria did not bring him such an instrument, and only asked him to play the balalaika.

Otherwise, he really wanted to take the whole thing to a new level. Since there was no way to deal with the censorship, he would use the suona. Besides, music was obviously not easy to censor.

Moreover, he didn't like William very much. Although he had no problem with children, he was worried about what some people would do in the future.
You said you wanted him to come back, but his grandson still knows how to pay the workers' wages. He has been in contact with the workers in Moabit District and knows a little about the sufferings of the people. It would be better for him not to come back, or simply not to go.

As for Charlotte, when she first came over, she was very polite even to the barons who were much lower in status than herself, unlike the Prussian princes who were all a bit reserved.

Indeed, the men of the Hohenzollern family are more or less pretentious.

Charlotte's biggest advantage is that although she is young, she is very sensible and well-behaved, which really makes her leave a high impression.

Moreover, after Solovyov put on his coat, Prince William and Princess Charlotte could see the medal hanging on his chest.

"Baron, it seems that you have also received a commendation from your father."

"This is a reward for the battle at Eylau, but we were not able to drive the French away, and they hung around there for a long time."

"But you are remarkable, and you were wounded. You are also a brave knight, or you wouldn't have received so many medals."

What Charlotte said was true. Solovyov was indeed a warrior who was very good at fighting and was very good at earning medals.

As for the little girl from Prussia, she often saw the Junkers around her.
However, these people seem to be warmongers in normal times, but they are not very useful in fighting.

"If the Queen Mother could invite you to be a general."

"But I'm Russian, I can't be a general in Prussia, and I don't have any German blood. Especially with green eyes like these, I'm either a descendant of the Lithuanians in the forest, or I'm from the Caucasus, both of whom are very dangerous guys."

"Okay, Misha, stop teasing the kid here. We haven't seen what you look like on the battlefield, so you're not that scary."

Maria's words brought him back to the awkward conversation with Princess Charlotte.

"What do I look like, your highness?"

He can talk to Prince William and Princess Charlotte in a close manner, but he still needs to be more "respectful" to Maria, even though Maria always wants to be more ambiguous with him.

"What do you look like?"

"I think the Baron looks like a cat. My mother once had a cat with eyes like this."

"That must be a cat imported from Türkiye, I probably look like an Ankara or something."

Fortunately, he does not have heterochromatic pupils, otherwise he would have become a Persian cat on a German ship.

As for the way he stood and walked, he was always described by these aristocratic children as an angry Tom.

"Come to think of it, it really is very similar. Well, Misha, we should get ready for rehearsal."

At this moment, Prince William didn't have the chance to say a word.

Of course, he was a bit arrogant, but he still admired the Russian baron who was so good at fighting and fought so hard in the battlefield.

After all, he is the second in line to the throne, which means he is just a leading figure in the army, such as Prince Henry, the younger brother of Frederick the Great, or Prince Louis Ferdinand who was killed in battle, and Madame Recamier's rumored boyfriend Auguste.

He would never have thought that, through a series of coincidences, he would have the opportunity to become Emperor William.

But looking at the current situation, it is indeed difficult to say. The direction of history is slowly becoming out of control, like a wild donkey running wildly.

But he didn't know what to say, so he could only hold the flute like this.

As for the flute, it was the customary instrument for men of the Hohenzollern family.

Maria was troubled when it came to orchestration.

“This is not good”

William's level was indeed average. He was really not good at playing the flute, although this was a traditional art of the Prussian royal family.

But seeing how strong his cheeks were, Solovyov thought that he might be more suitable to play the lama instrument or the trombone, or maybe the trumpet or suona.

If all else fails, it would be more appropriate to let William change his career to become a trumpeter, since they are both wind instruments.

"If the flute is not so good, Your Highness, what do you think of being a trumpeter?"

"I?"

"Yes, Bugler."

However, Solovyov could not imagine what strange things would be here.

Maria didn't give him anything to play, especially since the suona was originally introduced from Persia. It was not surprising that the Turks and Arabs often used suona.

But he was the only one present who knew that the instrument needed to be replaced for Prince William. He had mentioned this before as it was too distracting.

"how about this?"

At this time, Solovyov was too late to stop Maria's fantasy, and she really gave the suona to William.

"Now that's great! I'm afraid I'm going to see a wonder that I've never seen before." But he could only think about this in his heart. Solovyov didn't say it out loud. If the child's parents saw this scene, he didn't know how embarrassed they would feel.

However, since Maria gave birth to her children, she has been very good at coaxing both older and younger children. She has experienced this feeling after becoming a mother.

After she prepared it for William, she didn't expect that this boy was really suitable for this instrument.

After hearing the prince playing like this, one can't help but have some strange thoughts.

For example, the fact that Weiwei Yixiao can get along well with the Ottomans shows that there is some racial talent involved. However, Russia has always been the Third Rome, and it is a bit strange to put the balalaika together with the Roman "elegant music".

Solovyov even had some strange ideas.

That is, to give some strange songs directly to Prince William, perhaps they will be of some wonderful use in the concert that Maria wants.

If it were performed, the effect would probably be something that would be hard to forget.

(End of this chapter)