The State Hermitage Museum: Hermitage News

Music of the Revolution: A Concert Series

On 28 September 2004 a press conference was held to present a concert series marking the anniversary of the State Museum of Political History. Eighty-five years ago while Yudenich’s forces were marching on Petrograd, chairman of the Petrosoviet G. Zinoviev signed an order creating a Museum of the Revolution. In the Old Style calendar then in effect, the date was 9 October 1919 and this remains the official date of the museum’s foundation.

Initially the museum was housed in the Winter Palace but it subsequently moved several times. At present it is situated in two town houses which before 1917 belonged to Matilda Kshenskaya and V.E. Brant. In June 1991 the museum was renamed the State Museum of Political History.

This is the only museum in St Petersburg devoted to the history of the state during the critical period in development of Russian society at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. It provides a survey of the events of modern society, the functions of the authorities, political parties and their leaders.

The museum traces its own history back to Russia’s first Museum of the Revolution created in Petrograd in 1919. In 1955 the museum took over two old town house which were built in the Art Nouveau style at the beginning of the 20th century and once belonged to prima ballerina of the Mariinsky Theater Matilda Kshesinskaya and the millionaire forestry products industrialist Baron V.E. Brant. Over the years the museum’s concept and exhibits changed a number of times. In 1994 the State Museum of the Political History of Russia was used as the basis for creating the first Children’s Historical Museum in the country.

To honor the anniversary date, two museums which are on different banks of the Neva but share a common history within the Russian state and are devoted custodians of this history, the State Hermitage and the Museum of Political History, have organized a concert series entitled Music of the Revolution. The name of the series is taken from an article by Alexander Blok called The Intelligentsia and the Revolution. The tragic polyphony of revolutionary events, their pathos, the interaction of personalities and the State – all of these elements are reflected in the musical and literary work of artists from different ages who held a diversity of world views.

The series Music of the Revolution consists of five concerts in different genres and is a joint project of the State Hermitage, the Museum of Political History, the St Petersburg and Leningrad Oblast Union of Musicians and the Worldwide Club of Petersburgers.

Program

State Museum of the Political History of Russia:

5 October
An evening of poetry by Alexander Blok, Music of the Revolution. Performed by L. Mozgovoi
Starts at 19.00

6 October
An evening of piano music. Frederic Chopin
A. Orlovetsky, winner of international competitions, pianist.
Starts at 19.00

7 October
An evening of vocal music, Romances of the Silver Age
S. Rakhmaninov, E. Irshai, G. Belov
Performed by soloist of the Mariinsky Theater E. Mirtova (soprano), A. Orlovetsky (piano) and T. Sakar (cello)
Starts at 19.00

State Hermitage:

8 October
From the Marseillaise to the Present Day. Beethoven, Oginsky, Strauss, the Elder
Performed by the State Hermitage Orchestra.
M. Sinkevich, conductor
Start at 19.00

9 October
S. Prokofiev. Festive Oratorio October (to texts by Marx, Lenin, Stalin)
Performed by the State Hermitage Orchestra and the D.D. Shostakovich Philharmonic Orchestra.
A. Titov, conductor.
Starts at 14.00

At the press conference

Director of the State Hermitage Mikhail Piotrovsky

Director of the State Museum of Political History Eugeny Artemov