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Tchaikovsky Foundation digitalizes entire works of composer

The Pyotr Tchaikovsky International Charitable Foundation has plans to make an English-language version of the publication later this year
Tchaikovsky Museum in Moscow Boris Kavashkin/TASS
Tchaikovsky Museum in Moscow
© Boris Kavashkin/TASS

MOSCOW, March 25. / TASS /. The Pyotr Tchaikovsky International Charitable Foundation and the Muzyka Publishers completed the digitization of the composer’s complete works, and it is now publically available on the foundation’s website, the organization’s press service reported on Monday.

"The completion of the electronic version of the complete works of Tchaikovsky, carried out by the publishing house together with the foundation for several years, made it possible to realize the project, the significance of which is difficult to overestimate. It is important that the complete works appeared in the public domain, and now all professionals and amateurs can use the music," the press service quoted the President of the Foundation and the general director of Muzyka publishing Mark Zilberkvit.

According to him, the fund has plans to make an English-language version of the publication in 2019, which "will make it accessible to the entire world music community."

During the preparation of the electronic version, comments were made on some inaccuracies of texts from today's perspective. The specialists reviewed all pages of 63 volumes of the collected works and, as necessary, carried out their restoration in electronic form. For a quick search, the digitized version was provided with an alphabetical index of works. "It is also important to be able to copy and have in any part of the collection, arbitrarily small, for example, one or another aria, a play," noted the publishers.

The complete collection of Tchaikovsky's works in 63 volumes was created from 1940 to 1990 by several generations of the most authoritative Russian musicologists and composers. As emphasized in the Tchaikovsky Foundation, the publication remains the only one completed by a similar collection of works by the composer.

Pyotr Tchaikovsky is one of the best-known Russian composers; he was also a conductor, and a music critic. The author of the opera "Eugene Onegin", the ballet "Swan Lake", the symphony "Winter Dreams" and many other masterpieces. As a recognition of the maestro's contribution to musical culture, the Moscow Conservatory was named after him.