The Museum of Music houses an Edison Gem Phonograph.

According to Thomas Edison, he invented the phonograph in the late 1870s. He was inspired by experiments to improve the telephone and telegraph. In particular, he wanted to create a device capable of recording messages.

In Russia, people learned of the phonograph in 1878, and a year later it was shown to the public. Tchaikovsky lived during this time of technological progress and could not ignore its manifestations in the field of music, first of all, the prospects of music recording.

In 1889, Tchaikovsky, who sensitively appreciated the importance of this device for the future of music, agreed to give an advertising review for it, in which he noted,

In early January 1890, Pyotr Tchaikovsky took part in a collective recording using an Edison phonograph, which preserved his voice for history. Julius Block, an entrepreneur and collector of recording devices, managed to record the voices of famous musicians and performers, including the voice of the great composer, in his Moscow apartment. The meeting was attended by the Bolshoi Theater soloist Yelizaveta Lavrovskaya, the pianist, composer, founder and first director of the St. Petersburg Conservatory Anton Rubinstein, the pianist and conductor, director of the Moscow Conservatory Vasily Safonov, the pianist and inspector of the Moscow Conservatory Alexandra Hubert, as well as Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Julius Block himself. It was he who recorded the voices of those present, using the Edison phonograph.

Tchaikovsky left St. Petersburg for Moscow on January 4, 1890, where he rehearsed in the morning on January 6, and conducted the orchestra in the evening, with Anton Rubinstein soloing. The next day, a solo concert of the great pianist took place, which all the above-mentioned participants attended. That year, it was the only possible time they could be together. An ordinary everyday scene from the life of famous contemporaries was recorded on a wax roller. Those present tried to persuade Anton Rubinstein to play at least a few chords on the piano, but to no avail.