Gramophone

Categories / Population/Urban Living
GRAMOPHONE, the first phonographs appeared in St. Petersburg at the beginning of the 1880s, shortly after they had been invented by T. Edison. At the beginning of the 1890s they were replaced by gramophone records and gramophones. British joint-stock company Grammophon (49 Malaya Morskaya Street) and German firm International Sonophon, for a certain period of time enjoyed monopoly status on the market, supplying St. Petersburg with their productions. In 1897 French firm Brothers Pate opened a studio for listening to gramophone records in the Passage (48 Nevsky Prospect), and at the beginning of the 20th century - a shop (64 Nevsky Prospect). At the same time gramophone records Columbia, Richard Jakob and others appeared on the market. Initially Petersburg firms were established for the sale of gramophone records and gramophones: the association V.I. Rebikov and Co (17 Malaya Morskaya Street), Merkur Bureau (38 Troitskaya Street, present Rubinstein Street) and others. Gramophone and International Sonophon Firms produced exclusively records of Russian artists: M.G. Savina, F.I. Chaliapin, A.D. Vyaltseva, V.F. Komissarzhevskaya and others. In 1902, the American gramophone society with the assistance of engineer V.I. Rebikov founded a gramophone factory in St. Petersburg producing both gramophones and records (123 Fontanka River Embankment closed in 1905), where up to 1,000 gramophone records were made annually. Since the beginning of the 20th century in Petersburg factories producing gramophone records (factories of I.P. Rapgof, P.N. Skuridin, Gramophone Factory of Gatchina and others) functioned. In the 1910s, up to 5,000 gramophones of various modifications and up to 20,000 gramophone records were sold annually in St. Petersburg. In 1902-16 in St. Petersburg first specialized magazines in Russia "Gramophone and Phonograph", "Gramophone", "Gramophone World" and others appeared. In 1919 all sound recording enterprises were nationalized. In the 1920s-30s in Petersburg (Leningrad) there was the 1st Leningrad Plant Gramplasttrest, the 2nd Gramophone Record Factory, Leningradsky Record Player Plant and others. In 1932 the studio Mineral producing gramophone records (3 Sinopskaya Embankment, not preserved) was formed, in 1939 it was renamed Plastmass Studio (since 1956 - a factory of the same name). In June 1946 on the territory of the former Anilinkrasitel Artel (7 Tsvetochnaya Street) Leningrad Gramophone Records Plant was founded (since 1953 - Akkord Plant), there in 1956 the production of long-playing records was launched and in 1962 the production of stereophonic records started. In 1964 the plant and the Plastmass Factory consolidated and under the Melodia name entered the All-Union Firm of the same name (since 1993 Patephone Joint-Stock Company). By the beginning of 1970s the Plant produced 23 million records a year, in 1993-97 produced audiocassettes, and since 1997 - CDs. In 1961-93 the House of Gramophone Records operated (72 Novocherkassky Avenue). In 1959 Leningrad Studio of Gramophone Recordings (57 Karl Marx Avenue, now Sampsonievsky Avenue) was opened. In 1964 it became a part of the Melodia Firm and in 1993 was reorganized in Petersburg Gramophone Recording Studio (since 1988 its main office is located at 1a Bolshoy Avenue, Vasilievsky Island). In 1959 an instrument studio was created in the Academic Cappella (still functioning), in 1959-97 a studio in the State Philharmonic worked. Since the late 1990s there has been a rising interest in gramophone recordings, in St. Petersburg a market of modern foreign gramophone records has appeared (13 Vosstania Street). Since 1999 a private Deryabkin's Musem of Phonographs and Gramophones has been functioning (47 Bolshaya Pushkarskaya Street) in St. Petersburg.

References: Искусство запечатленного звука. М., 1964; Железный А. И. Наш друг - грампластинка: Зап. коллекционера. Киев, 1989; Кружнов Ю. Н. Философия сохраненного звука // Аудиомагазин. 2000. № 3. p. 134-137.

Y. N. Kruzhnov. Chaliapin Fedor Ivanovich
Edison Thomas
Komissarzhevskaya Vera Fedorovna
Rapgof I.P.
Rebikov V.I.
Savina Maria Gavrilovna
Skuridin P.N.
Vyaltseva Anastasiya Dmitrievna
Bolshaya Pushkarskaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 47
Bolshoy Ave of Vasilievsky Island/Saint Petersburg, city, house 1, litera л. А
Bolshoy Sampsonievsky Ave/Saint Petersburg, city, house 57
Fontanka River Embankment/Saint Petersburg, city, house 123
Malaya Morskaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 49
Malaya Morskaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 17
Nevsky prospect/Saint Petersburg, city, house 64
Nevsky prospect/Saint Petersburg, city, house 48
Novocherkassky Ave/Saint Petersburg, city, house 72
Rubinsteina St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 38
Sinopskaya Embankment/Saint Petersburg, city, house 3
Tsvetochnaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 7
Vosstaniya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 13
Искусство запечатленного звука. М., 1964
Кружнов Ю. Н. Философия сохраненного звука // Аудиомагазин, 2000
Железный А. И. Наш друг - грампластинка: Зап. коллекционера. Киев, 1989 Passage, department store
Philharmonic named after D.D. Shostakovich