From 1 February to 19 March, in the Music and audio materials reading room (room 305) there runs an exhibition "The depths of word and music” timed to the 200th anniversary from the birth of Russian composer A.S. Dargomyzhsky.
The creativity of Alexander Dargomyzhsky (1813-1869) exerted a profound influence on the development of Russian musical art of the 19th century. Along with Michael Glinka he is the founder of the realistic trend in Russian music which followers became many composers.
In the center of the composer’s creative interests there was chamber and vocal music – romances, songs, arias, duets. The reproduction of living intonations of human speech served to him a basic means in creation of a concrete individual image. Having said: “I want the sound to express directly a word. I want the truth!” he perfectly defined his artistic credo.
Alexander Dargomyzhsky expanded the sphere of vocal lyrics and enriched its genres. Creating songs and romances, he addressed to the poetry of M. Lermontov, A. Koltsov, A. Delwig, V. Zhukovsky, but most of all to A. Pushkin’s verses. Pushkin’s works became the basis for his operas, he set to music many verses of the great poet.
The composer was an innovator of the opera language, he created a new genre of Russian opera – a national-household psychological drama, for the first time he embodied in music the theme of social inequality. He also wrote instrumental pieces, worked in the field of symphonic music.
The exposition starts with music editions of the composer’s best romances including “I Loved You”, “The Youth and the Maiden”, “The Night Zephyr”, “Titular Counselor”, “Old Corporal”, “Miller”, a fantasy for vocal and the piano “Wedding”. Among the exhibits there is A. Dargomyzhsky’s main work – the opera “Rusalka” (1856), as well as the opera-ballet “The Triumph of Bacchus” (1848), operas “Esmeralda” (1841), “The Stone Guest” (1869), fragments from the unfinished opera “Rogdana”. Symphonic works “Baba-Yaga, or From Volga nach Riga” (1862), “Ukrainian Cossack” (1864), “Finish Fantasy” (1867), and also "The Complete Set of Vocal Ensembles and Choirs", "The Collection of Works for the Piano" etc are on display.
Another part of the exposition are audio documents with the composer’s works from the stocks of the National Library of Belarus. Visitors can listen to A. Dargomyzhsky’s arias, romances and songs performed by Evgenie Nesterenko, Maria Maksakova, Alexander Vedernikov, Tamara Sinjavskaya, Konstantin Pluzhnikov, Lamara Chkonia etc.
The last exposition section contains encyclopedic editions about the composer’s life and creative career.
The exhibition presents more than 100 documents including illustrative material.
Contact phone number: (+375 017) 293 27 52.
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
