Small Hall of the Philharmonic named after M.I. Glinka. The history of the unique chamber scene

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Do you know the best chamber music scenes in our country? Fans of this art form will certainly list a lot of halls. But one of the first to be named will be the Small Philharmonic Hall in St. Petersburg, where the unique acoustics allow listeners to capture every sound according to the composer's intention and enable any instrument and voice to demonstrate its versatility.

The spring of 1949 brought a new stage to the city. It was the Small Hall of the Philharmonic, the "younger brother" of the Leningrad Academic Philharmonic. He received the name of the composer M. I. Glinka, in whose work chamber music occupied a special place.

Special perception of sound

The atmosphere of a small hall, where the performance of musical works was supposed to be for a small circle of people, sets up a special perception of music - intimate and confidential. In terms of the scale and splendor of the interior decoration, this concert hall is much inferior to the Great Philharmonic Hall, which, nevertheless, does not detract from its uniqueness. This applies especially toacoustics. The hall, designed for only 480 seats, allows the performer to be close to the listener, at a distance of sight and voice. The intimacy of the atmosphere mentally takes all the participants of the concert - both musicians and the audience - into the distant past, when art gathered a narrow circle of connoisseurs in salons and musical drawing rooms.

History of the house on Nevsky Prospekt

A beautiful mansion, which appeared in the middle of the 18th century at the intersection of Nevsky Prospekt and Ekaterininsky Canal (today Griboedov Canal), was built for General A. N. Vilboa, and later became owned by Prince A. M. Golitsyn.

It was from this time that the house began to attract the Petersburg nobility with its musical concerts and masquerades, and from the 19th century it would become a real musical center of the capital. By the beginning of the 19th century, M. S. became the owner of the mansion. Kusovnikov, a millionaire merchant, a lover of entertainment with a natural acting talent. Before reconstruction in the 1930s, the Kusovnikov House housed the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Society, which regularly organizes concerts by eminent and young musicians.

The House of Engelhardt gathers the beau monde of the capital

The mansion received its famous name - the Engelhardt House - by the middle of the 19th century. Its owner O. M. Engelhardt, the daughter of the merchant Kusovnikov, and her husband, a we althy philanthropist and connoisseur of art, continued to traditionally arrange magnificent masquerades, balls and musical evenings for high society. Having become the main concert hall of the capital, the Engelhardt couple invites you to perform atmany outstanding musicians of his time: R. Wagner, F. Liszt, I. Strauss, P. Viardot and M. I. Glinka.

Music Salon on Nevsky Prospekt gathered all the beau monde of the capital. Poets A. Pushkin, V. Zhukovsky and M. Lermontov, writers I. Turgenev and K. Ryleev, musician A. Rubinshtein and fabulist I. Krylov have been here. By the way, the popularity of Mrs. Engelhardt's masquerades was so great that, under the vivid impression of what he saw, M. Lermontov unfolded the action of his drama "Masquerade" precisely within the walls of this mansion.

With the advent of new owners, the house gradually lost its status as the musical center of the capital. New shops and shops appeared here, banks worked for almost 40 years, but the reconstruction of the building, carried out by the new owners, did not affect the concert hall. It hosted noble evenings and meetings.

In 1941, at the very beginning of the war, the central part of the mansion was destroyed by an air bomb. Restoration of the house began one of the first before the end of the war. Construction work was carried out from 1944 to 1948, and already in May 1949 the small hall of the Philharmonic received its first listeners. Its address: Nevsky prospect, 30.

New life of the chamber hall

In the premiere season, the Philharmonic (St. Petersburg), the small hall of which was opened as the first of the restored concert venues in the country, launched its program diversified and wide. Not only scheduled performances were held, but also various musical events dedicated to memorable dates, author's evenings and solo performances by musicians.

Among the first performers of this chamber scene were the composer of the besieged city D. Shostakovich and his student G. Sviridov. The music of V. Solovyov-Sedoy and A. Petrov, S. Slonimsky and V. Gavrilin sounded here. The Small Philharmonic Hall heard the enchanting voice of the debutante E. Obraztsova, the future famous Russian bass E. Nesterenko, the sound of the bow of the young M. Vayman and M. Maisky, and the virtuoso passages of the beginning pianists G. Sokolov and A. Ugorsky.

2014 Anniversary Events

All concert events that took place on the stage of the Small (chamber) Philharmonic Hall in 2014 were dedicated to two significant dates - the 65th anniversary of the opening of the Small Hall of the Academic Philharmonic and the 210th anniversary of M. I. Glinka. A special place among the planned musical evenings was given to chamber music, the progenitor of many musical genres, performances by symphony orchestras, and competitions for young musical talents.