Now it’s beautiful inside too. Forests fell from the conservatory’s interiors

The Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory has almost completed interior restoration work. The main staircase, Glazunov’s small hall and the house church with Ryabushkin’s painting were freed from the scaffolding. “Fontanka” shows the restored main rooms of the Temple of music.

A year ago, scaffolding was removed from the facades of the long-suffering Conservatory. Now they have begun to be filmed in the interior of the building.

Mikhail Ognev /

“The restoration of interiors is being completed at the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory. Scaffolding has already been dismantled on the main staircase, in the small hall of Glazunov and the house church, and the decoration of the premises is presented in the same form as in the year of the building’s opening in 1896,” the press service of the PPK “United Customer”, which is the state customer of the works, told.

In the hall, where the main staircase leads, specialists are engaged in parquet flooring. The coating was recreated, and the material, wood grade, and mosaic pattern exactly match the original. The walls, which were painted white in Soviet times, have returned to the historical warm light shade, which plays with olive and beige tones.

The grand staircase in the conservatory is one of the best preserved places. 99% of the plaster and stucco in the upper part have been preserved to this day, says restorer Alexandra Andreeva. Of the 46 steps of the marble staircase, fragments of only six steps had to be changed. The staircase is made of the famous Italian marble Bianca Carrara. And here the restorers were very lucky: they managed to find marble to replace not just the same variety, but from the “native” quarry, where the stone from which the staircase was made was extracted.

Photo: Mikhail Ognev /

Photo: Mikhail Ognev /

Photo: Mikhail Ognev /

Photo: Mikhail Ognev /

Photo: Mikhail Ognev /

Courtyards

“In the first half of the year, new public spaces were equipped by specialists under two new glass and aluminum domes. At the same time, the useful area of the building has been increased by 700 square meters,” explained the press service of the PPK “Unified Customer”.

The “increase” in the area occurred precisely due to the courtyards: one of them is slightly larger than the other. They used to have smoking rooms where the servants of Euterpe and Terpsichore went, now you can no longer smoke there, but public spaces will appear.

Photo: Mikhail Ognev /

Photo: Mikhail Ognev /

Photo: Mikhail Ognev /

Both courtyards were covered with a translucent roof.

February 2024 Photo: JSC “Politekhstroy”

February 2024 Photo: JSC “Politekhstroy”

February 2024 Photo: JSC “Politekhstroy”

Photo: Mikhail Ognev /

Photo: Mikhail Ognev /

As told in the company “Politekhstroy-Svargo”, the general contractor of the conservatory, the installation of the domes is fully completed. Aviation aluminum, which was used in the construction, has an advantage over steel: it is not inferior in strength, but almost three times lighter.

Glazunov Small Hall and organ

The Glazunov Small Hall, which restorers nicknamed “curly” because of the abundance of fine stucco decoration, already flaunts without scaffolding. There is a restored painting by the painter Andrey Ryabushkin on the ceiling. Three wooden balconies overlook the hall. In the corners on the walls there are four stucco panels in the form of compositions with fruits and musical instruments — only the restoration took about four months.

Many years later, the sarcophagus was removed from the organ, which ensured the safety of the instrument. Polytech told us that the restoration of the organ building began about a month ago, and the planned completion date is the end of July. Restorers are only engaged in the restoration of the case, tuning a musical instrument is a separate job. It will be conducted with the participation of a conservatory specialist.

Photo: Mikhail Ognev /

“Throughout the entire course of the restoration and the change of general contractors, the organ was always under the close attention of the conservatory staff, the temperature and humidity regime was maintained inside and controlled by special sensors. Thanks to this, the tool was saved,” explained Sergey Rybak, a representative of Politekhstroy.

Photo: Mikhail Ognev /

Photo: Mikhail Ognev /

Photo: Mikhail Ognev /

Photo: Mikhail Ognev /

Photo: Mikhail Ognev /

Photo: Mikhail Ognev /

Photo: Mikhail Ognev /

The restorers got the body of the organ with several layers of varnish and paint, defects in carving, cracks. “We will clean up, remove all defects, recreate the carvings in the places of loss and then paint them,” restorer Alexey Samokhvalov outlined the prospects.

From the lobby of the Glazunov Hall, you can access the balcony: it overlooks the Theater Square and the monument to the musician, whose name the conservatory is named after. The floor of the balcony is lined with broom tiles.

“Since the construction of the building, we have inherited a large legacy of Metlakh tiles, we are currently undergoing a large-scale project to restore and recreate it. The Metlakh tile is unique in that it can serve for centuries without losing its properties,” says Sergey Rybak.

Photo: Mikhail Ognev /

House Church

The restoration of the paintings by Andrei Ryabushkin and Vasily Belyaev has been completely completed in the house church. After clearing, it became clear that about 50% of the painting had been preserved. During the stage of scientific restoration, specialists toured the archives and temples of Kostroma, Rostov, Moscow and St. Petersburg in search of sketches by Ryabushkin and Belyaev. For example, photographs of the composition “As yours is the Kingdom” have not been preserved and Ryabushkin’s sketches were used to recreate it.

The artists drew special inspiration from the Cathedral of the Savior on Spilled Blood. In it, paintings in a non-classical manner by Ryabushkin and Belyaev were decorated after the completion of the house church, the style of the artists was well preserved, says Alexandra Chernogortseva, head of the restoration department of Politekhstroy-Svargo.

Photo: Mikhail Ognev /

Photo: Mikhail Ognev /

Photo: Mikhail Ognev /

Photo: Mikhail Ognev /

The technology, as in the case of the Glazunov Hall, was preserved historically. The lower part of the church is painted on plaster, the upper part is on canvases.

Alexey showed the places of the belt clearings. In some places, the historical painting was covered with up to nine layers, and even more in the lower part. Several such clearings, where each of the later layers is visible, will remain on the walls. As the restorer explained, on the one hand, it has a memorable value, on the other, if a restorer comes to the object in the future, he will be able to get an idea of the layering.

Photo: Mikhail Ognev /

Photo: Mikhail Ognev /

Work has already begun on the installation of stained glass windows in the window fillings.

Photo: Mikhail Ognev /

Photo: Mikhail Ognev /

Photo: Mikhail Ognev /

The dates of the first concert at the conservatory remained the same, the PPK “United Customer” told — it is scheduled for the second half of 2024.

Irina Korbat,

Photo: Mikhail Ognev /

Photo: Mikhail Ognev /

The building of the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory was closed for renovation in 2014. The educational institution moved to Glinka Street, 2. Then a series of successive contractors began. The process did not really move from the spot, and the condition of the building deteriorated.

In the early summer of 2023, seven years later, the scaffolding was removed from the conservatory, and the building appeared in its historical light beige color. In addition to the reconstruction and restoration of the building, furniture and musical instruments and paintings are also being restored.

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Источник: www.fontanka.ru