Bolshoy Nikolopeskovskiy pereulok 11
Tel. (499) 241 1901
Subway: Smolenskaya, Arbatskaya
Open: noon- 6pm Wed & Fri- Sun
10am- 5pm Thu
Skryabin House- Museum is a flat of a famous Russian composer Aleksandr Skryabin (1872- 1915) who lived in Moscow. His apartment was preserved as it was almost 100 years ago.
The first mention of a wooden one-story house at
11 Bolshoy Nikolopeskovsky pereulok dates back to 1802. Badly
damaged in a fire in 1812, the building was demolished in the 1850s,
and a brick mansion was erected in its place. A few years later, the
second floor was set up for the building according to the project of
Sergey Voskresensky.
In 1902, the house was again rebuilt by
the architect Phlegont Voskresensky: elements in the Empire style
were added, the facade was decorated with longitudinal rustication,
a rectangular attic and Bay Windows.
The first owner of the
building was N. P. Chikhaeva, who later sold the mansion to the wife
of the Dean of the faculty of history and Philology of Moscow
University, Apollo Grushka. The Professor lived on the first floor,
while the second floor was reserved for rent.
In 1901-1902, a
two-story building designed by architect Ivan Mashkov was built in
the courtyard, which served as an apartment building. It rented
apartments of the singer Yevgeny Zbruev and Margarita Eichenwald. In
the 1920s, the theater Studio named after Fyodor Chaliapin was
located here.
In 1912, Alexander Scriabin settled in a house
in Nikolopeskovsky lane with his family: his wife, Tatyana
Shletzer-Scriabina, her mother, Maria Shletzer, and children,
Ariadna, Julian, and Marina.
The composer rented a seven-room
apartment on the second floor. Opposite his house was the Church of
St. Nicholas on the Sands, after which the lane got its name. In
this apartment, the composer created the last piano compositions,
worked on the "Preliminary act", which remained incomplete.
The apartment where the pianist and composer Alexander Scriabin
(1872-1915) died, at the age of 43, has been preserved as when he
lived there. Scriabin studied at the Moscow Conservatory, where he
established an international reputation as a concert pianist. He was
also a very original composer and music theorist, best known for his
orchestral works such as Prometheus and the Poem of ecstasy.
Scriabin's music had a great influence on the young Igor Stravinsky
(1882-1971), and the leading composer Sergei Rachmaninoff
(1873-1943) was a regular visitor to his apartment.
Although
Scriabin spent most of his time abroad giving concerts, he was an
aesthete and paid considerable attention to furnishing and
decorating his fashionable apartment. The high rooms have pianos,
autographs, and stylish furniture from the time. However, the most
original element on the show is a device for projecting flickering
light. Regular concerts are held in rooms on the ground floor.
Exposition
The apartment is arranged according to the
enfilade principle: a number of rooms connected by a common corridor
pass one into another. A green glass lantern hangs in the hallway,
suspended from the ceiling by a chain. The letters IHS — the Greek
spelling of the name Of Jesus Christ-are engraved on the bottom of
the lantern. There is a phone and a mirror nearby.
Actor
Mikhail Derzhavin later recalled:
"When we got a little
older, we had a great time together when we skipped school. It was a
perfect day. First, we always went to the Scriabin Museum. This
Museum was located almost opposite the house, where the apartment of
the brilliant composer has been preserved to this day. We would go
there, put children's Museum Slippers on our feet so that we
wouldn't get trampled, and we would happily slap around all the
echoing rooms of the Museum. Here's a bell for the servants. Here is
his piano… We knew from childhood that Scriabin was the discoverer
of "color music". We were allowed to press the piano keys so that
various light bulbs would light up in response. There was a Gong in
the dining room that called all the household and guests to dinner.
We were also allowed to ring. So the time of the first two lessons
flew by...»
In the composer's office, covered with Wallpaper
with heraldic lilies, there is a Bechstein Grand piano, presented to
the composer by an official representative of the company. In
addition to Scriabin, it was played by guests: Sergei Rachmaninoff,
Vladimir Horowitz, Heinrich Neuhaus, Vladimir Sofronitsky and
others. Artists Nikolai Shperling and Leonid Pasternak, Directors
Vsevolod Meyerhold and Alexander Tairov, actress Alisa Koonen, poets
Konstantin Balmont, Vyacheslav Ivanov and Jurgis Baltrushaitis,
philosophers Nikolai Berdyaev and Sergey Bulgakov also visited here.
In the study there is a Desk and an armchair, brought by the
composer from Brussels. On the table is a lamp, a blotter, and a
color-light apparatus with twelve bulbs, which was created by
Professor Alexander Moser for the home performance of the symphonic
poem "Prometheus". Next to it is a high Desk where the musician
worked standing up. Now it contains sketches of the "Preliminary
action" for the "Mystery".
A glass-fronted art Nouveau
Cabinet holds books by Plato, Benedict Spinoza, Arthur Schopenhauer,
Friedrich Engels and Constantin Balmont, as well as the composer's
working papers.
"I liked to observe the mood of the listeners
of these concerts at home, watching them with an indirect eye and
not regretting at the same time losing my impressions of the
performance. During the performance, everyone sat in the same room
in chairs, where the music caught everyone. Alexander Nikolaevich
did not like anyone to be close to the instrument while playing.
Sunk in their chairs, thoughtful and attentive figures loomed <...>
When Scriabin finished playing, there was usually silence for a
while, then it was interrupted by some somewhat formal-sounding
praise.
Leonid Sabaneev»
Guests of honor were received in
the drawing room: the Gnessin sisters, the Gagarin, Trubetskoy, and
Shakhovsky families. There is a Grand piano made by John Becker,
presented to Scriabin by patron Mitrofan Belyaev. There is also a
bust of Scriabin by the sculptor Seraphim Sudbinin, commissioned as
a gift to the composer by the conductor Sergey Kusevitsky.
The dining room is furnished in light colors, on the shelves of
which are stored gifts presented to Scriabin: a faience bowl and
dish, a panel application of an Egyptian fresco. There is also a
large chandelier made in the art Nouveau style.
"The
scriabins were easy to receive their visitors, especially their
relatives. Usually in the dining room, passed the reception and
"inevitable power", which was a welcome, but modest. Usually it was
tea, which was poured by Tatyana Fyodorovna, sitting at the samovar,
at the narrow end of the table, opposite the window. Alexander sat
traditionally on the contrary, in the arm-chair.
Leonid Sabaneev
" the
next room of the exhibition is the room of Maria
Shletzer, the composer's mother-in-law. Here are documents and
materials about the life and work of Alexander Scriabin.
In
the composer's bedroom there is a bed, a wooden screen, a chest of
drawers, Empire chairs, a couch and a table, as well as a photo
portrait of Scriabin by Alexander Moser.
In the entire
apartment hang works of art by famous artists Boris Kustodeev
"Scriabin's Last concert in Petrograd", "horse Auction" by Rosa
Bonheur, drawings by Leonid Pasternak, works by Nikolai shperling,
reproductions of Leonardo da Vinci and Mikhail Vrubel. The bookcases
contain the composer's rich library, which includes publications on
theosophy, philosophy, aesthetics and natural Sciences.