“The Disintegration of the Atom”: The Return of Herman Galinin’s Music

On November 10, 2025, the Moscow International House of Music will host the premiere of the play “The Disintegration of the Atom”, dedicated to the life and work of the brilliant but forgotten composer German Galynin. The performance is an attempt to return to the listener the music of a nugget composer, whose fate is a tragic example of a talented man deprived of recognition.

Galynin’s life is a path from Tula orphanage to a psychiatric hospital, marked by phenomenal talent and tragic non-disclosure. His life, in which he was loved by Shostakovich’s pupil, left many unanswered questions: what was he really called, where and how did he grow up, where did he have such a gift?

In 1951, the composer received the Stalin Prize for “Epic Poem on Russian Themes”, but a serious illness destroyed his future, forcing him to spend 15 years in a hospital bed, continuing to compose. Dmitry Shostakovich noted: "Galynin's mighty talent ..." It was tragically lost, reaching only the first peaks.

The performance combines music, theater and documentary evidence so that the viewer does not just hear, but feels how talent and perseverance conquer circumstances. It involves famous musicians: Dmitry Serdyuk, Vladimir Vishnevsky and Vladimir Shulga. The Orpheus Radio Symphony Orchestra, led by Sergei Kondrashev, will perform Galynin’s works reflecting the historical context of the era in which he lived: the scale of construction, the war and the revival of Russia.

This performance is part of the V International Music Festival “Energy of Discoveries”, which, within the framework of the project of the Orpheus Teleradiocenter and Unipro PJSC “Reviving the Heritage of Russian Composers”, has already revived the memory of many forgotten Russian and Soviet composers.