Museums of Russia: An updated exposition opened in the Sviatoslav Richter Memorial Apartment

An updated exposition has opened in the Sviatoslav Richter Memorial Apartment (Moscow). Visitors have an opportunity to see both iconic museum items and unknown exhibits from the collection of the musician himself.

The Memorial Apartment showcases picturesque works by painters of the older generation, vivid representatives of the culture of the Silver Age and the early Russian avant-garde and friends of Sviatoslav Richter – Robert Falk, Vaslily Shukhaev, Elene Akhvlediani. Works by non-conformist artists, Dmitry Krasnopevtsev and Anatoly Zverev, from the collection of the pianist are exhibited in the dining hall.

Visitors will see pastels by Richter himself that haven’t been exhibited before. Family icon, old prayer book of the musician’s grandfather, Pablo Picasso’s drawing The Rider and the Bull and his ceramic plate from a workshop in Madura, as well as rare photographs from the archive are also exhibited for the first time. A special display is dedicated to records and sheet music signed by Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears.

In Richter’s office, visitors will see sheet music of the 24 Preludes and Fugues by Dmitri Shostakovich signed by the composer’s mother, a Golden Disk of the Melodiya Company, and rare documents.

The exposition also features remarkable objects of the apartment’s interior: two Steinway & Sons pianos, Florentine floor lamps of the XVI century, French tapestry, Japanese ceramics, vases of Émile Gallé, “damask of Benjamin Britten”, puppets of Rezo Gabriadze, paintings of Anna Troyanovskaya, Robert Falk, Keto Magalashvili, Pyotr Konchalovsky and Martiros Saryan, as well as Spanish wooden sculpture of baby John the Baptist, created in the XVIII century.

Sviatoslav Richter’s contemporaries called his apartment on Bolshaya Bronnaya Street “the highest cultural point of the capital”. There, Richter held exhibitions, home concerts and film screenings, performances, literary readings and music listening parties, and organized masquerades and balls with special cultural programs.