Forgotten Names: Flutist and Pedagogue Max Berg
Abstract
The article addresses gaps in the history of Russian performance practice on wind instruments by reintroducing the name of Max Vasilyevich Berg, a talented German flutist and pedagogue, and one of the leading musicians of the Mariinsky Theatre. The aim of this study is to reconstruct the main stages of M.Berg’s life and creative career within the context of the musical life of Breslau and St.Petersburg in the last third of the 19th – first half of the 20th centuries. The research is based on the following sources: the Central State Archive of Literature and Art of St.Petersburg; the Russian State Historical Archive; Presidential Library; the State Archive of Wrocław (Poland); Russian and foreign relevant publications and books on the history of musical culture in Germany and Russia in the second half of the 19th – first half of the 20th centuries. The methodological framework of the study relies on a comprehensive approach that integrates historical-biographical, comparative-historical, and archival methods, source studies, and contextual analysis. The theoretical value of this work lies in the fact that it presents, for the first time, a reconstructed creative biography of M. Berg. This contributes to the understanding of the cultural landscape of Russia in the first half of the 20th century and reintegrates the “forgotten names” of talented musicians into the context of contemporary scholarly research.
About the Authors
M. V. Kholodova
Dmitry Hvorostovsky Siberian State Academy of Arts
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Maria V. Kholodova, Cand. Sc. (Art Criticism), Professor, Music History Department,
Krasnoyarsk, 660049.
E. S. Shmeltser
Dmitry Hvorostovsky Siberian State Academy of Arts
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Ekaterina S. Shmeltser, a Fifthyear Student,
Krasnoyarsk, 660049.
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Review
For citations:
Kholodova M.V., Shmeltser E.S. Forgotten Names: Flutist and Pedagogue Max Berg. ARTE. 2026;(2):5-20. (In Russ.)
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