Concert Hall named after P.I. Tchaikovsky

1952

Tchaikovsky Concert Hall. Photo 1948-1952.

1940: Finishing the building and opening the hall

By 1940, already on a different aesthetic basis, under the leadership of architects D.N. Chechulin and K.K. Orlov, the interior and exterior decoration of the building was completed.

But in the new decorative form, the initial ideas of the project are strongly visible. The place of the alleged artistic and orchestra was taken by a powerful organ. A concrete well for the mechanism of rotating circles occupied the audience buffet, the service light gallery turned into a narrow balcony. The new facade with a powerful portico and a carpet wall turned into the square.

The oval of the main space of the hall, started by the first authors led by Meyerhold, has been preserved. Ten rows of small stalls, and then, one after another, three steep amphitheaters rise with a total capacity of 1,500 seats.

Tchaikovsky Concert Hall. Photo 1940-1942

In this form, the hall was opened on October 12, 1940.

1939: Building transferred to Moscow Philharmonic

In 1939, the unfinished building of the Meyerhold Theater was transferred to the Moscow Philharmonic for conversion into a concert hall, named after P.I. Tchaikovsky.

The ground lobby of the Mayakovskaya metro station and the reconstructed building of the State Theater named after Vs. Meyerhold on Gorky Street. Moscow. 1938-1939 Glavarchiv of Moscow.

At the same time, the author of the project, Vsevolod Meyerhold, was arrested, and in 1940 (six months before the opening of the hall), shot.

1938: Construction stoppage in connection with the liquidation of the Meyerhold Theater and the opening of the Mayakovskaya metro station

By 1937, the frame of the building was almost completely erected, but in January 1938 the construction was stopped in connection with the order to liquidate the Meyerhold Theater.

In 1938, the Mayakovskaya metro station was opened in the corner of the building. The authors of the station's projects are architect A. N. Dushkin, design engineer R. A. Sheinfein, the lobby is architects Ya. G. Lichtenberg, Yu. P. Afanasyev.

1933: Continuation of construction and competition for the facade of the theater building

By 1933, it was possible to build the most basic: a huge reinforced concrete elliptical hall appeared inside the old walls, the steps of a large amphitheater were built in concrete, a playground with two circles and a hold were made. The hall was blocked, overhead lights were arranged, a foyer and stairs were built. Two floors of half-rings of artistic and latrines were made on the back wall of the hall. In the same year, an architectural competition is announced for the facade of the Meyerhold Theater. Further work was transferred to the architect A. Shchusev, and then to D. Chechulin and K. Orlov.

Unrealized projects of the Meyerhold Theater

At that time, the stylistic focus of Soviet architecture turned from constructivism towards classical forms. Shchusev proposed erecting a rectangular tower with Art Deco elements on the corner of the building and decorating the facade with diamond-shaped ornaments. It was on this option that Chechulin later relied on, who was entrusted with the execution of the final design.

According to Shchusev's project, the tower of the "glass skyscraper" was to be crowned with a statue of "agitator, throat, leader...."

One of the projects of the building was noted in Soviet philatelic materials (1937)

1932: The Meyerhold Theater moves to the building of the modern Maria Ermolova Drama Theater

In 1932, the Meyerhold Theater moved to the premises where the Maria Ermolova Drama Theater is currently located.

One of the original, fortunately unrealized, projects of the Meyerhold Theater on Triumfalnaya Square, 1932

1930: Building redevelopment project

Vsevolod Meyerhold planned to reconstruct the building on Triumfalnaya Square and turn it into the largest and most modern theater in Moscow.

The design of the theater building was prepared by architects Sergei Vakhtangov, the son of Yevgeny Vakhtangov, and Mikhail Barkhin. The 1930 project included a roof-dome, a glass ceiling and a transformable stage consisting of two movable circles. Meyerhold's main idea was to create a common stage space and auditorium.

Anisimov writes: "Everything was unusual here. Meyerhold tried to materialize in this structure the finds of many productions. The stage and hall formed a single space inscribed in a giant ellipse. There was no portal, orchestra pit and ramp. The stage with an elongated "tongue" poured into the middle of the hall. There are two lifting and lowering circles on it: a small one, in the place of which is now the stalls of the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, and a large one - in the place of the existing stage. These rotating and vertically movable drums could form flexible staging platforms. Artistic had access directly to the stage through the openings, repeating the famous scenery for Meyerhold's production of The Examiner. Above them, on the balcony behind the stage, a place was unexpectedly found for the orchestra. Spectator seats with a steep amphitheater rose from the center to the borders of the ellipse. Meyerhold dreamed of a sprawling ceiling in the hall, but in those years it was difficult to carry out such complex mechanics, and in nature only a very interesting glass ceiling was made, which provided upper daytime lighting. "

They say that Meyerhold wanted Pushkin's words to be carved on the pediment of the new theater building: "The spirit of the century requires important changes on the dramatic stage." And M. Sadovsky recalled - "It was assumed that the facade of the building would be decorated with large paintings made in mosaics depicting individual scenes from the performances of GosTIM."

The corner of Gorky Street and the square was supposed to be accented by the so-called "creative tower," which would house laboratories for the work of the creators of the play: directors, artists, designers, composers.

K. Rudnitsky in the article "The Collapse of the Theater" wrote: "After the tragic death of Mayakovsky, many of his friends wanted the urn with the poet's ashes to be walled up in the wall of the new Meyerhold Theater."

In 1931, a second option was presented, a more radical one, where the new building was considered only with the dimensions of the site.

1927

Triumphal Square. Photo 1925-1927.

1922: Building transferred to Meyerhold Theatre

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Buff Miniature Theater was located on the site of the concert hall, then the Zone light genre theater ―. In 1913, directly opposite the theater building, one of the first Moscow cinemas was opened - the Khanzhonkov House, later the famous Moscow cinema. Nearby, on the site of the modern Theater of Satire, is the popular Circus of the Nikitin Brothers, then the Music Hall.

After the revolution in 1922, the building was transferred to the Vsevolod Meyerhold State Theater. For ten years, famous performances were held here: Meyerhold"Mystery Buff" by Vladimir Mayakovsky, "Inspector General," "Woe to the Mind" (based on the comedy by Alexander Griboedov "Woe from Wit") and others.

1920: Vsevolod Meyerhold creates "RSFSR-1 Theater"

The RSFSR-1 Theater was created by Vsevolod Meyerhold in Moscow in 1920 (Meyerhold Theater since 1923).