Evenings of Contemporary Music, musical society

Categories / Art/Music, Theatre/Art and Literary Associations, Circles
EVENINGS OF CONTEMPORARY MUSIC, musical society, existed between 1901 and 1912, aimed to perform and popularise European and Russian chamber music from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The society was associated with the Mir Iskusstva (World of Art) Union and the Moscow Muzyka newspaper edited by V.V. Derzhanovsky. Founded by V.F. Nuvel (an official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, amateur composer, critic, and S.P. Diaghilev's assistant-to-be), V.G. Karatygin (the leading musical critic of the time, composer, pianist and biologist by training), I.I. Kryzhanovsky (composer, teacher and physician) and pianist L.V. Nikolaev. Some of the society's original members included A.N. Benois and A.P. Nurok, to be later joined by composers N.N. Cherepnin, N.Y. Myaskovsky, S.S. Prokofiev and I.F. Stravinsky. The society programmes were considered private, and their meetings were held in J. Becker's grand pianos depository (18 Kazanskaya Street), and later moved to Karatygin's flat (3 Alexandrovsky Avenue, present-day Dobrolyubova Avenue). The society succeeded in arranging 56 concerts in all (the first was held on March 31, 1902 in the Maly (Small) Hall of the Conservatory), performing of hundreds of early unknown works by M.Ravel, C. Debussy, A. Schonberg, and other European composers. In addition, the society organized a gala concert of M. Reger's music (1906), as were the professional debuts of Stravinsky (1907), and Prokofiev and Myaskovsky (1908). M.P. Mussorgsky's The Wedding was brought to the stage for the first time by the society. Each of the society's gatherings was of journalistic interest, and was reported in the press. This was partly due to Karatygin, Kryzhanovsky and Myaskovsky, who vigorously upheld the rights of new music to spite the traditionalists. Aside from the hall of the Conservatory, the society held its concerts at the concert hall of the Society of Civil Engineers (5 Serpukhovskaya Street), on the premises of the Music School (16 Nevsky Prospect), and at the Reformed College (38 Moika River Embankment). These concerts were frequented by the same group of listeners, and never achieved any significant commercial success.

References: Нестьев И. В. Музыкальные кружки // Русская художественная культура конца XIX - начала ХХ века. М., 1977. Кн. 3. С. 474-482; Петровская И. Ф. Музыкальное образование и музыкальные общественные организации в Петербурге, 1801-1917 гг.: Энцикл. СПб., 1999. С. 64-65.

A. L. Porfiryeva. Becker Ya.
Benois Alexander Nikolaevich
Cherepnin Nikolay Nikolaevich
Debussy Claude Achille
Derzhanovsky V.V.
Dyagilev Sergey Pavlovich
Karatygin Vyacheslav Gavrilovich
Kryzhanovsky Ivan Ivanovich
Mussorgsky Modest Petrovich
Myaskovsky Nikolay Yakovlevich
Nikolaev Leonid Vasilievich
Nouvel Walter Fedorovich
Nurok Alfred Pavlovich
Prokofiev Sergey Sergeevich
Ravel Maurice
Reger Max
Schonberg Arnold
Dobroliubova Avenue/Saint Petersburg, city, house 3
Kazanskaya Street/Saint Petersburg, city, house 18
Moika River Embankment/Saint Petersburg, city, house 38
Nevsky prospect/Saint Petersburg, city, house 16
Serpukhovskaya St./Saint Petersburg, city, house 5
Нестьев И. В. Музыкальные кружки // Русская художественная культура конца XIX - начала ХХ века. М., 1977
Петровская И. Ф. Музыкальное образование и музыкальные общественные организации в Петербурге, 1801-1917 гг.: Энцикл. СПб., 1999 World of Art, Association
Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory
Civil Engineers Society
Reformed School