Ivan Golunov and Irina Kravtsova

“ You usually find this in sound-recording studios, but small ones, whereas a studio this size (an area of 600 square meters [6,459 square feet] and a volume of about 8,000 cubic meters [282,517 cubic feet] ) is a unique approach. After it was built, they spent 10 years fine tuning the acoustics, until they got it perfect. There’s no other concert hall like it. When someone says, ‘you can always record at the Moscow Conservatory’s Great Hall — they’ve got good acoustics there,’ this person admits their own incompetence. ”

“ Since last summer, two state enterprises have been exchanging property in Moscow: the All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (VGTRK) and the “Izvestia” publishing house (which no longer has any connection to the newspaper or website that bears the same name) . The main asset being transferred from VGTRK to Izvestia is the Broadcasting and Sound Recording State House (GDRZ) , which was traded for the building that houses the studio for a national TV talk show hosted by Olga Skabeeva and Evgeny Popov. ”

“ Since last August, Russia’s musical public has been petitioning the country’s leaders, warning that GDRZ’s new owners plan to liquidate the unique studios that recorded generations of classical musicians, closing down a space where two national orchestras rehearsed until recently. The head of the Izvestia publishing house is 38-year-old Ekaterina Smirenskaya, whose father is business partners with Vladimir Dyachenko. ”