On 21 November the Russian Museum reads the Marble Palace differently: as a musical salon in the spirit of Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna. A tour of your choice, then a piano recital in the White Hall, where Johann Strauss gave his first concert in 1856.
It suits a visitor who wants one unhurried evening inside one building. Here is what the programme is and how to fit it into a museum day.
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Two palaces inside one building
The general tour covers the state rooms: the Marble Hall, the sculptural ensemble of the main staircase and the story behind the palace's name. It is the public face of the building.
The second tour is the opposite: the private rooms of Grand Duke Konstantin Romanov, opened for the first time for this event. They are open storage, entered only with a museum researcher, and limited to 15 tickets. One route is the palace on display; the other is where people lived and made music.
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Why the evening is called a salon
The museum frames the night as a continuation of Elena Pavlovna's salons, which drew painters, writers and scholars of St Petersburg. A salon meant conversation, music and people sharing a room — which is why the tour and the recital belong together.
Expect chamber scale, not an orchestral gala: Chopin, Schubert, Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky, played by laureates of international competitions studying with professor Tatyana Zagorovskaya of the St Petersburg Conservatory. Strauss's 1856 concert took place in this same hall.
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