Rimsky-Korsakov Memorial Apartment Museum

On Zagorodny Prospekt, in the wing of an apartment building, a memorial museum devoted to the life and work of the composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov occupies what was once his home — a branch of St Petersburg's Museum of Theatre and Music. It was here, in the third-floor apartment, that the composer wrote eleven of his operas between 1893 and 1908 and received guests at his celebrated musical evenings.

Rimsky-Korsakov moved into the house, which belonged to the widow of General Vasily Lavrov, in 1893. Every other Wednesday, musicians, artists and singers gathered here: among the visitors were the pianist and composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, his fellow composer Alexander Glazunov, a young Igor Stravinsky, the painter Ilya Repin, the singer Feodor Chaliapin and Alexander Scriabin. Guests were accompanied on the family's Becker grand piano by the host's wife, the pianist Nadezhda Nikolaevna. It was within these walls that Sadko, The Tale of Tsar Saltan, The Tsar's Bride, Kashchei the Immortal, The Golden Cockerel and six further operas were composed.

After her husband's death, Nadezhda Nikolaevna carefully preserved and catalogued his manuscripts, scores, letters and family relics, which later formed the basis of the collection. In 1908 she moved in with her son, and in 1918 the former apartment was turned into a communal flat. It was not resettled until 1971, and on 27 December that year, on the initiative of the composer's descendants, the museum opened here. The memorial rooms — the hall, study, drawing room and dining room — were recreated from an inventory kept by one of the composer's sons, who had recorded the exact arrangement of the furniture and belongings. Today the collection holds 505 items, including the manuscript of The Golden Cockerel on the desk in the study and the very same Becker grand piano in the drawing room.

Among the memorabilia is a gold pen presented to the composer at the premiere of his opera May Night at the Mariinsky Theatre in 1880 — Rimsky-Korsakov used this pen for all his subsequent works. In 2010 the museum held an exhibition as part of an international conference on the composer's legacy, displaying material from collections in St Petersburg, Moscow and the Ionian University in Greece, including a rare electronic instrument, the emiriton.

The museum's small concert hall continues the tradition of the composer's Wednesday evenings: it hosts the "Evenings in the House on Zagorodny" series featuring opera soloists, and since 2012 has also hosted organ recitals. On Saturdays, concerts by young musicians are held for schoolchildren, and the museum regularly takes part in city festivals, including the Night of Museums and the Earlymusic festival.

Preserving the authentic atmosphere of a composer's household at the close of the nineteenth century, the museum on Zagorodny Prospekt remains one of the few places in Russia where the interiors and belongings of a great musician have survived to this day in almost their original state.