Декабрьские вечера

“ … As though someone's wings have silently flown up … Richter's hands have plunged into the keys, as into a font. Music was hardly perceived, hardly gleamed … the contours of   something over  reality began to appear,  the new flesh, the new moon showed up … And there and then disappeared   as soon as notes ended”

 Jury Borisov

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The “December Nights” in the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts - a music festival  timed  for appropriate  exhibitions, have been held  in the Museum since 1981. The idea of them belonged to Svyatoslav Teofilovich Richter (1915 - 1997) and to the director of the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts I.A.Antonova. Svyatoslav Richter was the inspirer and art director of the music festival. The main idea of “December Nights” is that  of the unity of culture - through a reconstruction of images of  certain epochs in the synthesis of music, painting, poetry and dramatic art. Spectators and listeners find themselves as if in a temple or in a hall of a palace,  music and monuments of  fine arts seem to have returned into their natural surroundings. At the same time the White Hall of our Museum with its  chamber space is an  ideal place for music, conveying  a sense of partnership to a musical   process. Since 1998 the festival has been known as the “December Nights of Svyatoslav Richter” and  after the  death of the great musician Jury Bashmet became its art director. Over these years many unique programs have been performed at the festival which has won world renown. The participants of the festival are outstanding musicians, directors, actors, poets. Among them - Svyatoslav Richter, Oleg Kagan, Natalia Gutman, Jury Bashmet, Gidon Kremer, Victor Tretiakov, Mikhail Pletnev, Eliso Virsaladze, Christoph Eschenbach, Justus Franz, Murray Perahia, Peter Schreier, Robert Holl, Boris Pokrovsky, Anatoly Efross, Andrey Voznesensky, Evgeny  Evtushenko, Bella Akhmadulina, Sergey Jursky, Borodin String Quartet, King's Consort, Hagen-Quartet, Takasc Quartet, Arditti String Quartet, Vladimir Spivakov, Gerard Causse, Julian  Milkis, Barbara Bonney, Eduard Brunner, Alexandre Rudin, Beaux-Arts Trio, “Moscow Soloists”, “Moscow Virtuosoes”, “Il Giardino Armonico”, Hilliard Ensemble, Emma Kurkby, Michael Chance, Alexey Lubimov, Lars Vogt, Piotr Anderszewski, Pascal Devoyons, Alexandre Melnikov, Thomas Zehetmair, Christian Tetzlaff, Valery Afanasiev, Misha Maisky, Mario Brunello, Jan  Bostridge, Alexandre Knyazev, Oleg Meisenberg, Irina Arkhipova, Dominique Labelle, Elisabeth Leonskaya, etc.

A high performance  level at the “December Nights”, programs including rare, sophisticated  chamber music compositions , - all what  Richter so valued, - attracted the devoted public to the  Museum. Richter used to say more than once: “The best concert is when  listeners are standing round the stage. It is necessary, that everyone can be admitted to a concert. Richter valued the “true” public, real judges of the art of music. “The  public is always right”, - he would say. And our purpose is to keep a high level of the festival, all that was so dear to the  great musician.

The archives  of December Nights

695-83-46, 697-72-05, 697-47-05

Address: Bolshaya Bronnaya House, 2 / 6, Apt. 58 (16 th floor)

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