Probably, each of us when mentioning the name of the great Russian composer P.I. Tchaikovsky's first associations will be similar. This is the inspired music of the ballet "Swan Lake" and the magnificent First Concert for Piano and Orchestra. And also - the International Competition of Performers and the Moscow State Conservatory, whose main concert venue is the Great Hall.
The Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory is located in the pedestrian zone of the historical center of Moscow in building No. 13/6 on Bolshaya Nikitskaya Street. Leaving Arbatskaya metro station on Nikitsky Boulevard, turning to Nizhny Kislovsky Lane and reaching Maly Kislovsky Lane, you get to Bolshaya Nikitskaya. Next - a square with a monument to Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. And behind it is a beautiful old building with a half-tube. This is the glorious BZK.
Architectural performance
The famous architect V.P. Zagorovsky, who designed the concert hall building for the Moscow Conservatory, created a monumental architectural structure. From the old house of the late 18th century, which belonged to Princess Dashkova, only the facade and the half-tonond were left. In the design and construction, various architectural solutions were used, both classical and inherent in the modern era. Among them:
- numerous arched ceilings and columns,
- huge massive stairs in the foyer and elaborate spiral staircases leading to the amphitheater,
- semicircular windows and medallion bas-reliefs,
- pilasters with floral ornaments and honed finishes.
The lobby is divided into three naves and is made in the spirit of an ancient temple. The main thing in the exterior and interior decoration of the hall is a combination of light colors and strict lines.
Thanks to such a magnificent design in the Great Hall, academic ability is combined with style. He is majestic and chamber at the same time.
The Great Hall has a patroness
In 1901, at the opening of the Great Hall, the St. Petersburg Northern Glass Society presented the Moscow State Conservatory with a stained glass window depicting Saint Cecilia, which is revered by Christians as the patroness of sacred music.
During one of the bombings in 1941, a window with a stained-glass window was knocked out by a blast wave. The 5–4.3-meter-wide wall opening was bricked up, and the lost historical image was forgotten for many years. In the "dashing 90s", the remains of a glass cloth that had been preserved until that time were simply thrown into a landfill. The masterpiece was restored, and this was done as close as possible to the original, due to the fact that the dimensional drawings of the whole stained glass window and its fragments were preserved. And a handful of precious fragments, which miracle worker Alexander Bernstein managed to save by a miracle, was used to select modern analogues of stained glass.
In the spring of 2011, after the completion of large-scale reconstruction of the Great Hall of the Conservatory, the recreated stained glass window took its former place in the foyer of the stalls.
The work of the workshop, headed by Vadim Lebedev, an employee of the restoration and history of the stained-glass windows of the Hermitage, was appreciated and blessed by the Moscow Patriarchate. The consecration was performed by Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, who studied at this leading musical university in the country, and now is a member of his board of trustees. At the same time, the image of the holy martyr Kikilia (Cecilia) of Rome with a particle of relics was donated to the musicians. The relic reverently accepted the rector of the Moscow Conservatory, Professor Alexander Sergeyevich Sokolov.
Thanks to the diligence and diligence of many people, the renowned temple of music after the reconstruction came to life, returned its legendary “prayer” and gained even more spirituality.
Classic time
To move from the everyday to the sublime, you just need to come to the Great Hall shortly before the concert.
There is a special conservative atmosphere. Expositions dedicated to the history of music and the country's leading music university are located in the lobby and lobbies on all floors. Of interest are posters of past concerts and photographs of teachers and students of the conservatory of different years. Busts, statues and paintings, as well as exhibits of the museum of N.G. Rubinshtein - everything has to communicate with the beautiful. In addition to this, you can familiarize yourself with thematic exhibitions of artists and photographers, and replenish your collection of classical music recordings.
To the right of the main entrance to the hall is the painting by I.E. Repin "Slavic Composers", which depicts a meeting of famous and little-known musicians of the 19th century. The peculiarity of this picture is that the artist brought together people who lived at different times. But they belonged to the same musical era, and this alliance and common contribution to world culture.
On both sides of the hall from the stage to the amphitheater, stucco medallions with portraits by famous artists are placed. Great Russian composers - Glinka, Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Rubinstein, Dargomyzhsky, Borodin, as well as masters of foreign classical music - Bach, Beethoven, Wagner, Mozart, Schubert, Chopin, look at the listener from the paintings.
Above the stage there is a bas-relief depicting the founder of the conservatory Nikolay Grigorievich Rubinstein, whose name was assigned to the building of the Great Hall in 2006.
The appearance of St. Cecilia, inscribed in the interior during the design of arches above the boxes and flights of stairs, recalls her patronage of the famous temple of art. Even in the elements of stucco decoration and in the metal frame of the fixtures, ancient musical emblems of orchestral string and wind instruments are visible - lyre and trumpet.
Everything is subordinate to classical music and filled with this music.
King of musical instruments
One of the features of the Great Hall is the unique instrument installed on its stage.
The organ was purchased in Paris, with the money of Moscow philanthropists, by order of the railway tycoon, Baron Sergei Pavlovich von Derviz, whose children studied under Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. On the tablet of the organ prospectus, the inscription "the gift of S.P. von Derviz" engraved in gold letters is still preserved.
The famous French master Aristide Cavallier-Coll took up the production, whose instruments adorn Notre Dame Cathedral, as well as concert halls around the world. The design and construction of the organ lasted more than two years. Created by the spring of 1899, the instrument was the last work of an outstanding master of organ-building in Europe, and is considered the best embodiment of his creative ideas. At the X Paris World Exhibition in 1900, the organ of Covallier-Coll became the owner of the Grand Prix.
The patriarch or the king of instruments (that's what musicians call the organ) has a great academic and educational significance for the conservatory. Over the long years of his ministry to music, he became an integral part of solo, choral, ensemble and symphony concerts. Unlike temple organs, which have a solemn volume, the academic conservative instrument has a quiet, penetrating sound, so that every note is audible.
For uniqueness, "colossal merits and authority in the field of pure art", in 1988 the BZK body was given the status of an artistic and historical monument.
