Count Mikhail Yuryevich Vielgorsky (Wielhorski) was the godson of Empress Catherine II and a prominent statesman. He was also a close friend of Alexander Pushkin. Vielgorsky was known primarily as a celebrated music expert, violinist, pianist, and composer.

Vielgorsky composed several romances based on poems by Pushkin, including “The Old Husband, the Terrible Husband, ” “The Raven to the Raven Flies, ” “The Black Shawl, ” and “Who by Stars and by the Moon…” (from “Poltava”). Pushkin wrote the poem “Bells Are Ringing…” for Vielgorsky’s unfinished opera “Gypsies” which later became known as a popular “gypsy” romance.

Pushkin frequently attended musical gatherings at the Vielgorskys’ home. The Vielgorsky salon was universally acknowledged by contemporaries as the focal point of musical life in the capital, serving as “the finest refuge for all musical luminaries of the day, ” according to the composer and music critic Alexander Nikolayevich Serov. The French composer Hector Berlioz also referred to it as “the little ministry of the arts” (or “the little temple of the arts”).

Vladimir Alexandrovich Sollogub, a novelist and playwright, recalled,

Sollogub further noted that,

In the late 1820s and early 1830s, Mikhail Yuryevich Vielgorsky and his younger brother Matvey Yuryevich, a musician and virtuoso cellist, resided at 84 Moika River Embankment. Between 1833 and 1837, they lived in the House of Golenishchev-Kutuzov located on Mikhailovskaya Square, which is now known as Building 3 in Arts Square. From 1837 until 1844, they resided at the corner of Mikhailovskaya Square in the Dashkova House, today known as Building 5 in Arts Square. In 1844, the family moved to Building 4, which today is known as the Brothers Vielgorsky House. Notable artists such as Robert and Clara Schumann, Hector Berlioz, Bernhard Romberg, and Henryk Wieniawski performed there.