Do you know the best musical scenes of our country, intended for the performance of chamber music? Fans of this art form will certainly list many halls. But the Small Philharmonic Hall in St. Petersburg will be called one of the first, where unique acoustics allows listeners to catch every sound according to the composer's plan and allows any instrument and voice to demonstrate its versatility.
The spring of 1949 gave the city a new scene. 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 sound perception
The atmosphere of a small hall, where the performance of musical works was supposed for a small circle of people, tunes to a special perception of music - intimate and trusting. In the scale and magnificence of the interior, this concert hall is much inferior to the Great Philharmonic Hall, which nevertheless does not detract from its uniqueness. This is especially true for acoustics. The hall, designed for only 480 seats, allows the performer to be close to the listener, at a distance of gaze and voice. The chamberness of the atmosphere mentally transfers all the participants of the concert - both musicians and the public - in ancient times, when art gathered a narrow circle of connoisseurs in the salons and music living rooms.
The history of the house on Nevsky Prospect
A beautiful mansion that appeared in the middle of the 18th century at the intersection of Nevsky Prospekt and the Catherine’s Canal (today the Griboedov Canal) was built for General A.N. Vilboa, and later became the property of Prince A.M. Golitsyn.
It was from this time that the house began to attract the St. Petersburg nobility with ongoing musical concerts and masquerades, and already from the 19th century it will become a real musical center of the capital. By the beginning of the XIX century, the owner of the mansion was M.S. Kusovnikov, a millionaire merchant, a lover of entertainment with a natural acting talent. Prior to reconstruction in the 30s, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Society was regularly located in the house of Kusovnikov, regularly organizing concerts of eminent and young musicians.
Engelhardt House gathers the capital's elite
Engelhardt House - the mansion received its famous name by the middle of the XIX century. Its owner O.M. Engelhardt, the daughter of the merchant Kusovnikov, with his spouse, a wealthy philanthropist and art lover, continued to hold traditionally lavish masquerades, balls and musical evenings for high society. Having become the main concert hall of the capital, the couple Engelhardt invites many outstanding musicians of his time to perform on his stage: R. Wagner, F. Liszt, I. Strauss, P. Viardo and M.I. Glinka.
The music salon on Nevsky gathered the entire elite of the capital. There were poets A. Pushkin, V. Zhukovsky and M. Lermontov, writers I. Turgenev and K. Ryleyev, musician A. Rubinstein and fabulist I. Krylov. By the way, the popularity of Mrs. Engelhardt's masquerades was so great that, under the vivid impression of what he saw, M. Lermontov launched the action of his drama “Masquerade” in the walls of this mansion.
With the advent of new owners, the status of the musical center of the capital, the house gradually lost. 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. Noble evenings and meetings were held in it.
In 1941, at the very beginning of the war, the central part of the mansion was destroyed by a bomb. The 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 philharmonic hall took its first listeners. His address: Nevsky Prospect, 30.
New life of the chamber hall
In the premiere season, the Philharmonic Hall (St. Petersburg), the small hall of which was opened by the first of the restored concert venues in the country, launched its program diversely and broadly. 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 bewitching voice of debutant E. Obraztsova, the future famous Russian bass E. Nesterenko, the sound of the bow of young M. Weiman and M. Maisky and the virtuoso passages of the beginning pianists G. Sokolov and A. Ugorsky.
Anniversary Events 2014
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 of symphony orchestras, and the holding of competitions of young musical talents.