Persimfans / Battleship Potemkin

Persimfans literally means the «first symphonic ensemble» –  an Orchestra without Director.

The most famous musical accompaniment of Sergei Eisenstein's well-known silent historical film Battleship Potemkin is associated with Dmitry Shostakovich’s symphonies No. 4, 5, 8, 10 and No. 11 (“1905”).

However, there are several more musical accompaniments to this picture: Beethoven’s symphonies, and music by Nikolai Kryukov. The most recent works are the sound tracks by British pop duet Pet Shop Boys (2004); by Del Rey & The Sun Kings (2007); by the English composer Michael Naiman (2012).

Edmund Meisel (1894–1930), a German composer, wrote music in 1926 for the European release of the film Battleship Potemkin. Meisel included in his music various for more emotional effect on the audience. In 2005, with the general leadership of the Deutsche Kinemathek Foundation, with the participation of the Gosfimofond (State Film Fund) and the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, the author’s version of the film, without censure or remakes, and was voiced by Edmund Meisel’s music.

Persimfans (First Symphony Ensemble) was founded under the influence of the revolutionary ideas of collective labor by Lev Tseitlin and existed between 1922 and 1932 in The Soviet Union. Persimfans included the best musicians of Moscow (artists of the Bolshoi Theatre, professors and students of the Moscow Conservatory) and successfully gave concerts all around the country. Sergei Prokofiev spoke about the Orchestra with enthusiasm.

In 2009, Persimfans was recreated in the Music Laboratory of the Theatre "School of Dramatic Art" due to the initiative of its director, Peter Aidu.