Concert hall - Chelyabinsk, chamber and organ music

On September 12, 1986, on the day of the celebration of the 250th anniversary of Chelyabinsk, under the vaults of the former church, and now the Hall of Chamber and Organ Music on the Red Field, ancient Russian and foreign music sounded performed by the Moscow ensemble "Madrigal". The first listeners were those who took part in the restoration of the building. Many efforts and skills, efforts and souls were invested by workers, engineers, technicians of the repair and restoration site of the Chelyabinsk Regional Department of Culture, ten construction associations and Chelyabinsk factories to restore the former temple of Alexander Nevsky, which is listed as a unique creation of Russian architecture of the early XX century. The Church of Alexander Nevsky has been counting down its history since the early 80s of the XIX century. On the former outskirts of the city was broken in 1881 Alexander Square. The name was given in memory of Emperor Alexander II. On the collected Chelyabinsk and his personal funds, the merchant Kutyrev laid a chapel here, named after the outstanding Russian commander Prince Alexander Nevsky, for military exploits raised to the rank of a saint. Construction was carried out without the participation of the architect and was soon suspended, all buildings were broken; in this form, the square lasted about 10 years. Only on October 3, 1984, the Orenburg Conservatory offered Kutyrev “to turn the chapel he had begun into a church.” The construction in the late XIX-early XX century in Chelyabinsk of the Church of Alexander Nevsky was not an isolated phenomenon. The opening of the railway station in 1892 for 10 years doubled the population of the provincial town, and in the first decade of the XX century it amounted to more than 60 thousand. The Church, taking care of the moral education of the flock, urgently demanded the appearance of new religious buildings. One of them was the temple of Alexander Nevsky. In 1907, at the request of local merchants and burghers, the church was resumed under a new project, the author of which was Alexander Nikolaevich Pomerantsev (1849-1918). By this time, the head of the workshops of the higher school at the Academy of Arts was already an architect with a world reputation. According to his designs, the famous Moscow trading rows (1889-1893), Alexander Nevsky cathedrals in Moscow, Sofia and other cities were built. At the end of the XIX century Pomerantsev with a group of Russian architects, which included K. Ton, V. Shchusev, developed a new style in architecture - "Russian-Byzantine". This style was also used in the construction of the temple in Chelyabinsk. It took four years to complete the outdoor work. 60 thousand rubles were spent on the construction, donated by the Chelyabinsk residents, the city Duma and Nicholas II. There was only enough money to build walls. Included in the project mosaic above the entrances, pedestals for high reliefs in the tent part of the building were not implemented. The building committee of the parish-church guardianship created at the church sought to complete with the remaining funds the internal work on lighting the building, painting the walls, painting the dome part, etc. Local masters were involved in the work on the iconostasis and monumental painting: the iconostasis was made by a master woodworker from Verkhneuralsk, and icons for the iconostasis and dome painting were created in the workshop owned by the artist V. M. Oshchepkov. Art works were carried out from the end of 1914 to May 1915, and in 1916. Divine services in the church of Alexander Nevsky were held for more than 10 years, starting from 1916. Soon after the Great October Socialist Revolution, the secular authorities of Chelyabinsk in memory of the events of 1905 assigned Alexander Square a new name - Scarlet Field. In 1924, the parish council of the church openly joined the platform of the autocephalous church, recognizing the ruling Soviet power as the only legitimate government. His position in relation to Soviet power was confirmed by the Congress of the Chelyabinsk diocese, held in the building of the temple of Alexander Nevsky on June 29, 1926. Since the late 20s - early 30s in Chelyabinsk began the destruction of church buildings in the city squares, the removal of chapters from churches. Not escaped a similar fate and the temple on the Red Field. Disfigured, it was often used as a warehouse. Since 1940 and during the Great Patriotic War, the collections of the Chelyabinsk Regional Art Gallery were located here, from November 15, 1956 to 1981 a planetarium worked, then a chess school. Preparations for the new birth of the monument, the future temple of art, began in 1983. In the Central State Archive of Ancient Acts in Leningrad, 30 sheets of correspondence with the description of construction and drawings made by A. N. Pomerantsev were found: 2 facade of the building, its plan and section without specifying the dimensions. The painstaking work of architects and designers began, who had drawings without dimensions and 2 photographs of 1916 and 1956. The authors of the reconstruction project were the Moscow architect L. N. Nenagliadkin and the architect of the Chelyabzhitzhandproekt Institute K. I. Gusarov. A unique, unparalleled work on the restoration of the building was carried out. The facade has been completely renovated. The secret of chain and cross masonry of brick was rediscovered. The walls of the building with brickwork of different colors were covered with material that gave the building a homogeneous beautiful red color. Again, 13 domes were installed at a height of 30 meters. The largest bulbs are 2 meters in diameter, 5 meters in height; the diameter of the smallest ones is 1.2 meters. Each bulb ends with a spire of 2.5 meters. The interior of the building was transformed - elegant moulding in gilding, the walls are decorated with panels of marble, jasper, coil, labradorite; panels and floors are made of solid wood; original window frames, doors, etc. are remade. An air conditioning system was developed for the organ. The coating with copper sheets of the bulbs of the heads of the church was made by the master tinner V. I. Tikhomirov. Work on the roof was performed by masters R. and M. Komarov. Lap works were carried out by the sculptor M. Utkin, sculpting with gilding - V. Grebenkin and V. Otto. The masonry of the walls was made by the mason R. Klimychev, wood carving by carpenter V. Palagichev . In July 1987, an organ made by Oyle masters from the GDR sounded in the building of the former Orthodox Church. The sound of the organ, noble and restrained inscribed under the altar vaults, rushes upwards. The Chelyabinsk organ has a powerful clean sound. The chief organ master of the Moscow Conservatory, N.V. Malinina, installation consultant and the first concert performer of the new organ, on July 30, 1987, at the solemn opening of the organ hall, demonstrated the entire range and power of the instrument. For the first time under the arches of the hall the music of I. S., Bach, D. Frescobaldi, E. A. Arro, S. Frank was performed. The building on the Red Field again became a temple, but not a cult, but a temple of art.