Russia: Taneyev postal card

Mark Jameson recently gave me this card. I had to think for a moment whether to include it on my postcard blog or here. I decided that since it was a postal card issued the the Russian postal authority, it really didn't belong on the postcard blog. Picture postcards form the heart of that other blog; this item is not such.

Russia issued this card in 2006 to celebrate the 150th birthday of Sergei Ivanovich Taneyev, a very famous Russian composer, teacher and pianist. Taneyev was long associated with the Moscow Conservatory. The stamp image shows a portrait and some musical notation. The cachet area of the card shows the main auditorium at the conservatory, including the Cavaille-Coll organ. A group of singers is on risers in front of the organ, with a conductor, presumably Taneyev himself. The other side of the card is totally blank, as is customary with postal cards in general.

The Moscow Conservatory instrument has figured prominently on stamps issued by Russia. Use the label listing at right to find the posts related to those stamps.

Russia: Moscow Conservatory

This definitive stamp (Scott 6433) features the organ at the Moscow Conservatory in Russia. This stamp was issued in 1998, following currency re-valuation. A similar stamp was issued two years before, with high-denominations, before the currency change. Another stamp was issued in 1999 with the same design and denomination, but with a change in the vertical lines of the shading. The organ and Piotr was built by the Cavaille-Coll firm of France. A relationship between organist-composer Charles-Marie Widor and Piotr Illyich Tchaikovsky led to the decision to work with Cavaille-Coll. Apparently Widor felt a French builder could best capture the pathos of Russian musical sensitivities in the new organ. The new instrument was built in 1896, but went first to the Paris Exhibition before being installed in the conservatory, an interestingly circuitous route. After work on the instrument three times in the imd- to late 1900's, by the 1990's heating and cooling issued in the hall had damaged the organ such that it was unplayable.

Note: there are 3 versions of this stamp:
1997, 5000 rubles, Scott 6382
1998, 5 rubles, Scott 6433
1999, 5 rubles, redrawn, with micro-printing replacing the vertical lines in the background, Scott 6560
I have the 1998 pictured here, and it's the only version I own.