A number of the respondents on this Forum seem very familiar with
travel in Russia. I'm interested in going to Russia and specifically to as
many of the Tchaikovsky sites as possible with Klin being a must. Given
that I'm not proficient in the Russian language and that I would be a
first-time visitor, I will likely need to submit to the pre-planned
itinerary of a travel agency. Can anyone suggest a reputable agency or
perhaps some alternative plan that can satisfy my yearning to travel
there?
Thank you,
Steve Warren
Dear Mr. Warren,
there are different suggestions for travelling and visiting places with
relevance for Tchaikovsky. Relative easy is Moskow / Klin and St.
Peterburg.
1. All-inclusive tour, easiest way: all bigger agencies in western
countries offer all-inclusive tours with standard visit programs for
Moskow and St. Peterburg. If you book such a private tour you can drop out
some program items and use the time for visiting your individual places.
As an example: pass on the Tretjakov gallery and come to see the Glinka
museum at Moskow. The tourist guides normally accept that. If you have a
local tourist guide he can arrange himself extraordinary and individual
tours. The travel agencies normally are booking at big international (and
very comfortable !) hotels with english speaking staff at the reception.
You can arrange taxi tours to visit favoured places with help of
reception. The Russians are perfect in spontaneous organization. You can
count on them, but negotiating prices with assistance of hotel reception
before starting activities is absolute necessary.
The reception can also arrange visits at the opera or at concerts. Some
works of Tchaikovsky which are not so popular in the west (suites, chamber
music, etc) are part of the standard repertoire or part of performance
cycles in Russia.
2. Booking of flight, hotel and transfer from airport to hotel
Select an international hotel with English speaking reception staff via
internet or with assistance of a travel agency in your home land.
As above described reception can help you for further activities.
If you don’t speak any words in russian and if you can’t read the
cyrillic lettering be careful by using any public transportation. It’s
indeed exciting and very interesting, but the public transportation system
is not always self-explanatory. The people don’t speak english and often
the younger people don’t have the heart to do speaking english although
they can.
Furthermore there are horror stories about safety. Don’t believe them !
Be careful in the same manner as in western cities. It's only the
traffic which is dangerous, because of the broad roads and speeding cars.
I’ll prepare for this forum a short address list (St. Peterburg and
Moskow) with respect to Tchaikovsky and some further tips.
Rüdiger Herpich
I am very grateful for the prompt and comprehensive response of Rüdiger
Herpich to my questions about traveling in Russia. It is very helpful and
I look forward to his listing of the Tchaikovsky sites in
Klin/Moscow/Petersburg.
Many thanks,
Steve Warren
Dear Mr. Warren,
please find attached a collection of places and adresses, which are
interesting due to Tchaikovsky at Moscow and Saint Petersburg:
Moscow:
There is a fine, modern hotel one minute from the conservatory, not
very cheap, but just several hundred meters away from red place and near
Arbat, called Marriott Moscow, the staff at reception and service is
speaking perfect english, Voznesensky pereulok 7
(www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/mowcy-cortyard-Moscow-city-center) next
metro-station: Arbatskaya, line 3, Вознесенский переулок 7, Метро:
Арбатская
Suggestions, Tchaikovsky items:
1. Glinka Museum, Fadeyev street 4, metro station: Mayakovskaya, line
2, open: 12 am –7 pm, monday closed, улица Фадеева 4, Метро: Маяковская.
Small but very nice exhibition from Glinka to Shostakovich, some full
scores of Tchaikovsky, personel things and autograph of Pathétique
2. Museum of wax figures, prospect mira 25, metro station: prospect
mira, line 6 and ring line, 11 am –7 pm, Музей Восковых Фигур, проспект
мира 25, Метро: Проспект мира Figures of Tchaikovsky, Chechov, Gogol,
Pushkin, etc. in style of Mme. Tussaud, about 100 figures
3. Tchaikovsky conservatory, Bolschaya Nikitskaya street 13/6,
metro-station: Arbatskaya, line 3, Московская государственная
консерватория, ул. Болшая Никитская д.13/6, Метро: Арбатская Conservatory
with the well-known sculpture of Tchaikovsky in the park, several concerts
halls inside
4. Tchaikovsky concert hall, triumph place 4/31, metro station:
Mayakovskaya, line 2Концертный зал им. Чайковского, триумфалная площадь
4/31, Метро: Маяковскаяmost beautiful concert hall in Moscow, café
“Tchaikovsky” inside
5. Bolshoi theatre, theatre place 2, (www.bolshoi.ru/en/)on-line
booking of tickets possible, metro station: Teatralnaja, line 2,Болшой
театр, театральная площадь 2, Метро: Театральная.
6. One House of Nadeshda fon Mekk, where Tchaikovsky was sometimes a
guest, Maly haritonyevsky street no 1, metro station: Krasnye vorota, line
1. Малый харитоньевский переулок 1, Метро: Красные ворота. Light-coloured,
single-storey house in neo-classical style.
7. Former printing plant building of Jurgenson, where notes and scores
of Tchaikovsky’s works were printed, Hohlovsky street 7, metro station:
Kitai-Gorod, line 6 / 7, Хохловский переулок 7, Метро: Китай-город. Old
and typical plant building. Jurgenson bought this house from the Russian
Music Society, which had a printing press inside.
8. House, where Tchaikovsky lived in 1872/1873, Kudrinsky pereulok
46/54, metro station: Krasnopresnenskaya, ring line or line 7. Кудринский
переулок46/54, Метро: Краснопресненская. yellowish house with white greek
colums and the follwing letters on the wall directly under the roof:
КУЛЬТУРНЫЙЦЕНТР П. И. ЧАЙКОВСКОГО,café inside
9. House museum of Tchaikovsky at Klin, 141600 Moscow Region,
Tchaikovsky Street, 48 (
http://www.museum.ru/mscreg/e5_cont.htm ) 10 am - 6 pm except of
wednesday, thursday and the last monday of the month,
Государственный дом-музей Чайковского, ул. Чайковскoго 48, Клин,distance:
80 km from down-town of Moscow. best way: taxi from down town needs almost
2 hours one way. Once can negotiate, that the taxi driver wait until visit
is terminated to bring back to down town (2005: 80 € complete).
Train from railway station Leningrad, Kalanchovskaya place 3 to Klin.
At Klin bus line 5п or 5л to the museum. Railway station Leningrad is near
to metro station: Komsomolskaya, line 1 Ленинградский вокзал, Каланчовская
площадь 3, Метро: Комсомолская
If you can't by tickets at the widespread ticket counters due to
language reasons, you can make with
http://www.operaandballet.com/reservations for events at all
important opera houses and concert halls in Moscow. They will bring early
enough the tickets to the reception of your hotel.
Saint Petersburg
There is a big hotel, called azimuth – not directly located in the
center, but just 20 minutes away from Mariinsky theatre, Mariinsky concert
hall, and conservatory, the staff at reception mostly speaking english (http://www.allrussiahotels.com/russia/petersburg/hotel/azimuthotel-stpetersburgformersovetskaya.html)
Suggestions, Tchaikovsky items:
1. Tchaikovsky’s gravesite at the cemetery of the Aleksandr-Newsky
monastery, Aleksandr Nevsky place, Tichvin cemetery, open 11 am – 19 pm
except of thursday, metro station: Aleksandr Nevsky place, line 3 /
4Александро-Невского лавра, площадь Александра-Невского, Метро:
Александра-НевскогоThe cemetery is on the right part of the field, very
nice, with many trees, shadow, wonderful atmosphere in the evening,
Tchaikovsky, Rimsky-Korsakow, Borodin, Mussorgsky, Balakirew, A.
Rubinstein and Glinka in one section. Ironically Cesar Cui was placed
directly beside of Tchaikovsky
2. Tchaikowsky’s last residence for 15 days before his death (flat of
Modest), Malaya Morskaya street 13 (at the corner), metro: Gostiny dvor /
Nevsky prospect, line 2 / 3. ул. Малая морская 13, Метро: Гостинный двор /
Невский Проспект.Hotel, music shop and fast food restaurant inside the
building
3. Leiners restaurant, now “literature cafe”. The restaurant where
Tchaikovsky enjoyed his very last dinner with a pleasant society, Nevsky
prospect 18, metro: Gostiny dvor / Nevsky prospect, line 2 / 3,
Литературная кафе, Невский Проспект 18, Метро: Гостинный двор / Невский
Проспект
4. School for jurisprudence, where Tchaikovsky was long a student, at
the channel fontanka, no 6, in the opposite of the summer garden, metro
station Chernyshevskaya, line 1. In the summer garden is the first scene
of the opera “The Queen of Spades” Наб. Фонтанки 6, Метро: Чернышевская
5. Mariinsky theatre, where a lot of works of Tchaikovsky were
performed the very first time, theatre place, metro station: far away,
Sadovaya / Sennaya place, line 2, 4. In the opposite of the main entrance
of the Mariinsky theatre is the conservatory. Мариинский театр, театралная
площадь, Метро: Сенная площадь / Садовая. 15 minutes away from the theatre
is the new concert hall of the Mariinsky theatre, which has fantastic
acoustic properties !
6. Cathedral of Lady of Kazan, in this cathedral the body of
Tchaikovsky was placed after his death. Liturgy was here carried out for
celebration, Kazansky place at Nevsky prospect, metro: Gostiny dvor /
Nevsky prospect, line 2 / 3,Казанский собор, казанский площадь, Метро:
Гостинный двор / Невский Проспект
7. Hall of the Nobility, now called Shostakovich philharmonic hall,
where the first performance of the Pathétique took place. Nevsky Prospect
no 30, metro: Gostiny dvor / Nevsky prospect, line 2 / 3Невский Проспект
30, Метро: Гостинный двор / Невский Проспект.
In Saint Petersburg it is also possible to make a reservation for a lot
of concert and opera events in different locations: http://www.balletandopera.com
If the payment via internet doesn't work, they kindly call you immediately
back by phone and they speak excellent english.
I wish all travellers a reverential meeting at these places with the
spirit of Tchaikovsky.
Rüdiger Herpich
Dear Rüdiger,
Once again, my thanks to you for your exhaustive list of Tchaikovsky
sites to visit in Russia. I do have one more question. Do you know where
the Cathedral of Christ the Savior is located? It is the church that was
dedicated to the Russian victory over Napoleon and for which Tchaikovsky
composed the Overture of 1812.
Thank you again,
Steve Warren
The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour was in Moscow. Stalin had it
demolished, but was rebuilt during the 1990s — see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_of_Christ_the_Saviour
Brett Langston