Going to the railway station for a symphony concert?

Going to the railway station for a symphony concert? What? In nineteenth-century Saint Petersburg this was quite commonplace: society gathered for balls and concerts at the Pavlovsk Music Station, which was built “for the refuge and pleasure of the public” by Franz Anton von Gerstner, the builder of the first railways in Bohemia, Austria and Russia, as the terminus of the Tsarskoye Selo Railway. On 23 May 1838 the concert hall with its restaurant was opened, and regular concerts began to be held at the station. Stars of the first magnitude performed here: Chaliapin, Prokofiev, Kschessinska; Anna Pavlova gave her last Russian dance; and the “Waltz King” Johann Strauss played there ten seasons in a row! At various times the station was visited by Lermontov, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Glinka, Tchaikovsky and Balzac. What became of it, and why has nothing been heard of it? After the Great Patriotic War all that remained was a lantern-fountain, tucked away in the depths of Pavlovsk Park. Yet on the internet the station is beginning a new life. Follow their Facebook page!