经济阴影下翻新后的莫斯科酒店

Alexey Shchusev was one of the most distinguished architects of the Soviet era, a designer of projects from the Russian pavilion at the Venice Biennale to Lenin’s mausoleum on Red Square. His design for the Hotel Moskva, however, was less successful. Legend has it that Stalin was shown alternative façades and unwittingly approved both. No one had the courage to press the question, so they built the two adjacent to one another. Attending the First All-Union Congress of Soviet Architects in 1937, Frank Lloyd Wright (whose wife had grown up in Moscow) reportedly condemned it as the ugliest building he had ever seen.

阿列克谢•苏契舍夫(Alexey Shchusev)曾是前苏联时代最为知名的建筑大师，他设计的作品众多，从威尼斯双年展(Venice Biennale)的俄罗斯展厅到莫斯科红场(Red Square)的列宁墓。但他设计的莫斯科酒店却不尽如人意。坊间的说法是斯大林(Stalin)曾看过酒店正面的两种设计图样，并在不知情的情况下把两种方案都批准了，但当时没人胆敢进一步征求斯大林意见，于是决定把这两种正面图样都付之实施，建成了紧挨着的建筑面。据称弗兰克•劳埃德•赖特（Frank Lloyd Wright，他妻子曾在莫斯科长大）1937年参加全苏建筑师大会(First All-Union Congress of Soviet Architects)时，曾把它贬为自己平生见过的最丑陋建筑。

It was a view shared by Yury Luzhkov, the Yeltsin-appointed former mayor of Moscow, who had it demolished in 2004. But this in turn provoked an outcry. Muscovites held a deep affection for the two-faced behemoth, an image of which has graced bottles of Stolichnaya vodka since 1948. The only solution was to reconstruct it exactly as it had looked, right down to the gigantic Cyrillic letters that run along its roof, spelling its original name. You can understand then that Four Seasons, the Canadian hotel management company that oversaw the rebuild and now operates the hotel (and whose name appears in rather smaller Roman type above the colonnaded portico), has had a tough time. It should have opened in 2008. Instead it was unveiled on October 30 this year.

前总统叶钊钦(Yeltsin)任命的前莫斯科市长卢日科夫(Yury Luzhkov)也持同样看法，他在2004年把酒店全部拆除。但此举却引发了众怒。莫斯科市民对这座双面巨型建筑情有独钟，自1948年以来，莫斯科酒店图片就一直印在苏联红牌伏特加(Stolichnaya vodka)的酒瓶上。唯一办法就是按原样重建，甚至包括酒店顶上用巨型西里尔字母标示的“莫斯科酒店”字样也原样复制。当时酒店重建的监理方、如今的酒店经营方加拿大四季酒店集团（Four Seasons，其酒店名字则用很小的罗马字母标示在柱廊门廊上方）历经千辛万苦才完成重建，诸位也就不难理解了。莫斯科酒店本应于2008年重新开业，然而一直拖到了2014年10月才正式对外开放。

The designers of its new interiors, London-based Richmond International, have aimed to recreate the imposing neoclassical public areas of the original building, at least in spirit. But during the build the mysterious disappearance from a warehouse of many of the original chandeliers and clocks salvaged during the demolition means that everything has had to be made anew and at first glance it all looks a bit too shiny. Even so, British double agent Guy Burgess, who resided here after his defection in 1951, might still recognise the columns, pilasters, myriad chandeliers and preternaturally gleaming marble floor, which, like the sporting mosaics that surround the glass-roofed swimming pool, have all been carefully recreated.

内部重装修的设计者来自伦敦的Richmond International建筑设计事务所，他们意在重建（至少在建筑精神上）酒店原先那些气势恢弘的新古典主义风格的公共区域。但在重建过程中，拆除时抢救出来的存放于仓库的很多树形吊灯以及挂钟原件却不翼而飞，此举意味着一切物件都得重新打造，乍一看，它们显得太过亮丽。即便如此，1951年叛逃至苏联、曾下榻在此的英国双重间谍盖伊•伯吉斯(Guy Burgess)或许还能识别出那些柱子、壁柱、无数的吊灯以及锃亮的大理石地面，它们与围绕玻璃顶棚游泳池那些运动风格的马赛克一样，都是精心复制而成。

The rooms, patterned carpets aside, have more obvious charm. Where once there were about 1,000 rooms, now there are just 180 unusually spacious ones. And mine at least (a Premier – the second-least-expensive category), was a treat to stay in, notwithstanding the not-quite-fitting curtains and complicated shower. The beds are very comfortable, the linens exquisite, and the screen that partially divides the sleeping and living areas, into which a pivoted television has been fitted, enabling you to watch it from the sofa or the bed, is ingenious.

酒店房间则更具魅力，更遑论那些精美图案的地毯了。昔日的酒店曾有约1000个客房，如今只有180套超大客房。至少我入住的客房（属倒数第二等的总理套房）为酒店免费提供，尽管窗帘不太合适，洗淋浴也颇费周折。客床非常舒适，日用织品精致考究，用来部分分隔睡眠区与起居区（安装了转动式电视，坐在沙发和床上都能观看节目）的屏风设计得非常巧妙。

There are other plus points too. Of the many Four Seasons I’ve stayed in, this is the first where rooms are equipped with Nespresso makers and iPads, and where you don’t pay for the WiFi. It’s a shame that the windows and balcony doors don’t open more than about 10cm, though I suspect that’s to prevent guests from taking pot shots at politicians because rooms on the left of the building directly face the State Duma.

除此之外，酒店还不乏其它诸多亮点。在本人入住过的诸多四季酒店中，这是首家在客房里配备了Nespresso咖啡机与iPad的，而且还免费提供WiFi。遗憾的是：窗户与阳台门最多只能开启10公分，尽管我怀疑此举旨在防止住店客人对政客肆意开黑枪，因为酒店左侧就正对着俄罗斯国家杜马(State Duma)大楼。

There are no such excuses, however, for calling its windowless “Russian-Nordic” restaurant Bystro, which means “quickly” in Russian. Were it called Bistro – the French word apparently derived from it – it might make sense. As it is, it suggests that they don’t want you to linger, which is a shame because at this time of year the inexpensive (at least by Moscow hotel standards) comfort food it offers – veal pelmeni (think giant tortellini), pearl barley with ceps, venison with “crispy moss and sour berries”) is alluring. More likely it’s because the top brass don’t speak much Russian. Indeed I was disappointed that the general manager, Max Musto, had made no effort to memorise even a sentence in Russian at the opening party. “It’s a very difficult language,” he pleaded.

但是，没有借口把无窗户的“俄罗斯-北欧风格”餐厅称为Bystro（在俄语中意为“快速”）。称其为小餐馆（很显然，法语中的“小餐馆”来自Bystro），或许更有意义。事实上，它暗示不希望客人在此作长期逗留，这着实让人遗憾，因为这个时节，价廉物美（按照莫斯科的酒店标准至少是如此）的爽心美食（牛肉饺子、薏米以及酥脆苔藓和酸酱果炖鹿肉）让人流连忘返。但更可能的原因是酒店高管不太会说俄语。勿庸置疑，让我深感失望的是：开张仪式时，总经理穆斯托(Max Musto)竟然说不了一句俄语。“俄语太难学了，”他这样为自己辩解道。

Musto is Italian, which may explain why the principal restaurant, Quadrum (which has views towards Red Square), is Italian. Here I dined on delicious turbot with a caponata rich in olives. Where was the fish from? I asked. The Black Sea? The Baltic? “Belarus,” he said: the standard answer to questions about provenance now that an embargo bans imports from the EU – not that this has prevented the hotel serving prosciutto, culatello, mortadella and excellent aged Parmesan. In Bystro, however, the salmon comes from Murmansk and the pike-perch from the Volga.

穆斯托是意大利人，这也许可以解释为何主餐厅Quadrum（可以俯瞰红场）是意式餐厅。我在此品尝了用橄榄油烹制的美味茄子酱比目鱼。我问服务员比目鱼来自哪里——是黑海还是波罗的海(The Baltic)？服务员说是“白俄罗斯”。这是比目鱼产地的标准答案，因为现在俄罗斯禁止从欧盟进口类似产品——但并非说此举可阻止酒店供应意大利熏火腿、摩泰台拉香肚、以及优质帕尔马陈年干酪。但在Bystro餐厅，大马哈鱼产自摩尔曼斯克(Murmansk)，梭鲈则产自伏尔加河(Volga)。

The most popular public area is the buzzy low-lit street-level Moskovsky Bar on the ground floor, presided over by Bek Narzy, something of a celebrity bartender hereabouts, who has ice shipped in blocks from Lake Baikal and whose subtly spiced reinvention of the Moscow Mule is a revelation.

最知名的公共区是热闹的Moskovsky Bar酒吧，它位于一楼，灯光昏暗，与街面齐平。酒吧由贝克•纳齐(Bek Narzy)负责，他是这一带最为知名的调酒师，调酒用的大冰块由贝加尔湖(Lake Baikal)船运至此，他改进的“莫斯科骡子”鸡尾酒(Moscow Mule)略带香料味，让人赞不绝口。

There is a lot to like about the hotel, not least the can-do attitude of its smiling, approachable staff. At the Four Seasons at Walt Disney World in Florida, which opened the same weekend, half the 450 staff had been recruited from the brand’s other 91 hotels. Here, visa issues meant that all but 14 of the 280 on the payroll are new to the company and are only just getting the hang of its exacting standards.

这家酒店的优点还有很多，尤其是那些面带微笑、亲近随和员工的诚挚服务。在佛罗里达迪斯尼世界(Walt Disney World in Florida)的四季酒店（与莫斯科酒店于同一个周末开张），450名员工中的一半从该连锁集团的其它91家酒店招募。在莫斯科酒店，从发放的签证可以看出，280名发放薪水的员工中，只有14名不是新员工，他们对酒店的超高标准还只是刚刚入门。

So perhaps the odd glitch is inevitable but in time, I’d hazard, it will become a great place to stay. For it is the best-located hotel in the city, its rooms are the biggest and have some of the best views, at least if yours is on the right with a view across Red Square to the Kremlin. Ten years in the making it may have been, but it’s been worth the wait.

因此，出现些许差错或许不可避免，但我斗胆认为，假以时日，莫斯科酒店定会成为高大上的酒店。因为它地处最佳地段，客房最为宽敞，周围还有着迷人美景，如果诸位入住在右侧客房，至少能欣赏到从红场到克里姆林宫(Kremlin)的胜景。这一切成为现实也许需要10年时间，但我觉得值得为此等待。

Claire Wrathall was a guest of Four Seasons () and Exeter International (). Double rooms cost from Rub21,250 (£290)

克莱尔•拉索尔是四季酒店（网址：）及Exeter International旅行社的客人。两人客房起价21250卢布（约290英镑）。