Metadata: M. A. Bikhter
Collection
- Country:
- Russia
- Holding institution:
- Russian Institute of Art History
- Holding institution (official language):
- Российский институт истории искусств
- Postal address:
- 190000, St. Petersburg, Isaakievskaia pl., d. 5
- Phone number:
- (812) 315-45-49
- Web address:
- http://artcenter.ru/structure/kabinet-rukopisej/
- Email:
- spb@artcenter.ru
- Reference number:
- F. 96
- Title:
- M. A. Bikhter
- Title (official language):
- Бихтер М. А.
- Creator/accumulator:
- Bikhter, Mikhail Alekseevich
- Date(s):
- 1888/1947
- Language:
- Russian
- Hebrew
- Yiddish
- Extent:
- 153 archival storage units
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Photographic images
- Graphic material
- Physical condition:
- Good
- Scope and content:
-
The documents in the fonds are divided into the following sections: manuscripts of M. A. Bikhter, including memoiristic writings and journal notes (1921-47); his correspondence, including letters from M. I. Brian, Iu. L. Veisberg, A. V. Ossovskii, E. F. and M. F. Gnesin, M. V. Iudina and others (1912-44), materials pertaining to M. A. Bikhter’s biography (1892-1947), photographs (1898-1959) and materials of various persons (1888-1947).
Materials pertaining to Jewish history and culture may be provisionally divided into three thematic groups:
1) Personal documents of M. A. Bikhter: his birth certificate, issued by the Moscow community Rabbi Z. K. Minor and notarised with the seals of the St. Petersburg community rabbi and the Tver’ Townsmen’s Administration (1892), and the certificate regarding his assignment to a conscription office (1899).
2) Concert posters, fliers, and programs, including for performances in which M. A. Bikhter took part as a vocalist or accompanist, in particular, concerts organised by the Jewish Folk Music Society at St. Petersburg’s Nobles’ Assembly Hall (1910), at the great hall of the St. Petersburg Conservatory (1910, 1913), and in the building of the Jewish almshouse of M. A. Ginsburg (1915), which featured performances of works by the following members of the Jewish Folk Music Society: Joseph Achron, A. M. Zhitomirskii, I. Kaplan, Sussmann Kisselhof, G. S. Kopyt, P. R. L’vov, M. A. Mil’ner, L. I. Saminskii, L. M. Tseitlin, Efrayim Shkliar, L. L. Shtreikher, Iu. D. Engel’ and others, as well as A. G. Rubinshtein; performing at these concerts were M. A. Bikhter, M. I. Brian, E. O. Mikolaevskaia, I. S. Tomars, S. Lazerson, D. S. Shor, and others; the programme of a performance by a quintet from the Moscow branch of the Jewish Folk Music Society to benefit the Poal Tzedek (“Honest toiler”) Society to Promote the Crafts Training of the Children of Poor Jews, which featured performances of works by Aleksandr Krein, Iu. D. Engel’ (Yo’el Engel), etc. (1915); the programme for a Moscow Art Theatre performance at the Imperial Mikhailovskii Lyric Drama Theatre based on S. S. Iushkevich’s play Miserere (1911); etc.
3) Photographs, in particular, of M. A. Bikhter; of Mariia Isaakovna Brian, the singer and vocal teacher, and participant in concerts of the Jewish Folk Music Society, S. A. Kussevitskii; and O. M. Shteinberg, with a dedicatory inscription: “To a model of reliability and conscientiousness, from one ready to believe it”; etc. (1898-1959).
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
Mikhail Alekseevich Bikhter (real name: Moisei Khaimovich Beikter; 1881-1947) was an ensemble pianist, conductor, teacher and Distinguished Artist of the RSFSR (1938). In 1910, he graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory’s piano and composition departments, having been instructed by A. N. Esipova, A. K. Liadov, A. K. Glazunov, M. O. Shteinberg and N. N. Cherepnin. In the 1910s, he took part in concerts organised by the Jewish Folk Music Society. From 1912 to 1916, he was a conductor at the Petrograd Musical Drama Theatre. His best production was considered to be Eugene Onegin, with his interpretation of the work receiving high praise from V. I. Safonov, M. I. Tchaikovsky and S. A. Samosud. M. A. Bikhter was recognised as one of the finest ensemble pianists of his time; L. Auer, Ts. A. Kiui, E. Petri, F. I. Chaliapin, Iu. D. Engel’, M. V. Iudin and others greatly admired his talent. M. A. Bikhter’s accompanists included such major singers and instrumentalists as S. V. Akimova, I. A. Alchevskii, A. V. Verzhbilovich, I. V. Ershov, N. I. Zabela-Vrubel’, E. Izai, I. Ioakhim, F. Kreisler, S. Iu. Levik and others. In 1934, he became a professor of the Leningrad Conservatory in the chamber singing department. He gave concert performances during the Siege of Leningrad. He kept a journal, including during the blockade, excerpts of which were published in the journal Sovetskaia muzyka (nos. 9, 12, 1959).
The Russian Institute of Art History (RIII RAS) is a research institute of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation. It was founded in 1912 by Count V P Zubov on the model of Florence’s Istituto statale d’arte. Originally it was called the Institute of Art History and was housed in the mansion of V P Zubov. After the October Revolution, Zubov transferred his home to the new government and the institute became a state institution, in 1920 receiving the new title of Russian Institute of Art History. It has undergone several name changes over the course of its existence – from 1924-31, it was called the State Institute of Art History; from 1933-37, the State Academy of Art History; from 1958-62, the State Research Institute of Theatre, Music, and Cinematography; and since 1992, the Russian Institute of Art History. The institute’s staff included Iu N Tynianov, B M Eikhenbaum, B V Asaf’ev, V M Zhirmunskii, A V Preobrazhenskii and other well-known literary critics and musicologists.
The Manuscripts Office (formerly the Historiography Office, the Office of Archival Fonds) of the Russian Institute of Art History features a collection of unique documents covering Russian musical and theatre life of the 18th to 20th centuries. It was organised in 1938, when the institute received collections of the Leningrad Philharmonic’s Museum of Music History. The Manuscripts Office currently has 130 fonds of personal provenance, as well as a number of other collections.
- Access points: locations:
- Russia
- St Petersburg
- System of arrangement:
- The fonds comprises a single series arranged by structure and in part alphabetically.
- Finding aids:
- An inventory is available.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Theological Seminary
