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• KNIGHTS OF SKRIABIN POPULARIZE HIS IDEAS (the 80th foundation anniversary of Skriabin's memorial museum)

KNIGHTS OF SKRIABIN POPULARIZE HIS IDEAS

(the 80th foundation anniversary of Skriabin's memorial museum)

By O. Bugrova
This year Skiabin's memorial museum in Moscow celebrates the 80th anniversary of its creation. Pianist, composer, poet and philosopher, Skriabin went down in history as the father of the symbolist trend in music. His legacy ranges from romantic piano miniatures in Chopin style to monumental symphonic pieces. An innovative-minded composer, Skriabin was one of the first to experiment with colour music. Skriabin-philosopher propagated a fusion of all arts into a global culture designed to unite humanity.
Alexander Skriabin's memorial museum occupies a house on Arbat Street in the heart of Moscow. In 1912 the 40-year-old composer rented a spacious apartment on the second floor where he lived until his sudden death in 1915. With no money to pay the rent Skriabin's widow, left without means of subsistence, thought of moving out but the house's owner, prominent Latinist and an admirer of Skriabin's talent Apollon Grushka persuaded her to stay and accept his financial support.
Even after the composer's death Skriabin's hospitable apartment continued to attract musicians, philosophers, artists and poets. The museum revived traditional Skriabin concerts. Twice a year, on the composer's birth and death anniversaries, renowned pianists play Skriabin's piano pieces on his favourite Bechstein grand piano. Vladimir Sofronitsky is rightfully considered to be the best interpreters of Skriabin's legacy.
In the 1960s the museum housed an experimental electronic music studio with one of the world's first synthesizers designed by engineer Yevgeny Murzin who called it ANS (an acronym of Skryabin's full name Alexander Nikolayevich Skriabin). ANS became a test ground for the search for new forms expression by Alfred Schnitke, Edison Denisov, Sofia Gubaidulina, Eduard Artemyev and other modern Russian composers. Today the museum runs a whole set of international projects, among them the "Skriabin and World Culture" book series, regular music festivals and exhibitions in Europe. Skriabin's sketches to his unfinished work "Preliminary Action" along with his special "light circle" consisting of 12 electric bubbles painted in different colours, each corresponding to a certain tonality, will be displayed at a forthcoming exhibition in Spain. Close contact is being maintained with the Skriabin society in Bogliasco, Italy, where the composer wrote his famous "Poem of Ecstasy".
"In 1984 we conducted a complex restoration of the building", the museum's director Tamara Rybakova says. "This enabled us to essentially expand our activity. We launched several new projects, among them "Children Paint Music", the release of CDs featuring Skriabin's music in the performance of young musicians, laureates of the Skriabin prize instituted by our museum, and lots of other programs. This year at the 19th International Convention of Business Initiatives in Paris our museum received the golden star "For Quality". We are looking for Skriabin enthusiasts and find them both in Russia and abroad".