Piano, ruler and rubber band. The Edison Denisov Museum will appear in the Tomsk Philharmonic

The office of the famous composer Edison Denisov will be recreated at the Tomsk Philharmonic. Here Tomsk residents will be able to see the musician’s personal belongings, donated by his widow Ekaterina Denisova-Bryuzhman.

Denisov’s desk, chair, table lamp, sharpened pencils and erasers – all this was brought to Tomsk from the composer’s Moscow apartment on Kutuzovsky Prospekt. A slide rule has also arrived in our city, with which the musician has not parted since his student days, when he studied mechanics and mathematics at Tomsk State University. The largest exhibit in the collection was a 350-kilogram piano from FEURICH, which belonged to the composer. The instrument requires repair.

Packing and sending things to Tomsk was carried out by a licensed piano tuner, artist of the Tomsk Academic Symphony Orchestra, oboist Vladimir Pestov, who managed to visit Denisov’s work room in Moscow.

“It seemed as if the owner had just left the office.” I was amazed by the paintings that hang on the walls. They darkened over time. Among them are portraits of Denisov, his wife, as well as landscapes (paintings by Boris Birger, with whom the composer was friends). And there, in my office, everything began to coalesce in my mind – his unique compositional style, Denisov’s style, his love for painting, for literature… The incomprehensible Denisov opened up, became clear to me: our fellow countryman, compatriot, mathematician and musician,” he said Vladimir Pestov

According to the director of the Tomsk Philharmonic, Natalia Chabovskaya, the museum will be available for visiting to all listeners of the Philharmonic:

— We hope that the originals, returned to the historical homeland of the author of the opera “Foam of Days”, the ballet “Confession”, numerous chamber instrumental and vocal works, as well as music for the films “Nameless Star”, “The Tsar’s Hunt”, “An Ideal Husband”, will be of interest Tomsk residents and will awaken the desire to listen to the music of their great fellow countryman.

The piano and other personal belongings of the composer arrived in Tomsk during the All-Russian festival “DENISOV. 95 years since the composer’s birth.” It started online on April 6, Denisov’s birthday, and will end in the Great Concert Hall of the Tomsk Philharmonic on December 12. The modern ballet “Confession” to the music of Edison Denisov is scheduled for this date. During the year, 9 more concerts of chamber and organ music will take place in the halls of the Philharmonic.

Text: based on materials from the Tomsk Philharmonic and Tatyana Vesnina

Photo: Serafima Kuzina

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