There are one hundred musicians and 70 choristers on the stage, so imposing and significant. The symphonic debut of the Bolshoi Theatre in La Scala is a real event. It is intended to further strengthen the brotherhood of the two theaters, which in the future promises us a tour of the Moscow troupe in Milan and the artists of La Scala in Moscow — in 2009 on the occasion of the opening of the Bolshoi Theater's "big" stage. All tickets for three concerts of Muscovites were sold out. The audience was captured by the power and confidence of conductor Alexander Vedernikov, the brilliant technique of pianist Nikolai Lugansky, the hypnotic charm of the scores: the musical analogue of Dante's Inferno is Tchaikovsky's Francesca da Rimini, Rachmaninov's Variations on a Theme of Paganini, Prokofiev's epic cantata Alexander Nevsky, written for Eisenstein's film.Each orchestra has its own soul, to summarize, the great American ensembles have a poetic one, the Europeans have an exquisite one (absorbed in the harsh "service to music" — in German orchestras and bright, bright — in Italian ones). The soul of Russian musicians from Bolshoi is romantic and even desperately dramatic. Behind the flawless whole, they did not lose their subtle shades. The heartbreaking torments of Nevsky, the blinding infernal storm that carries Francesca, the changeable intonations of Rachmaninov. To describe everything in a nutshell, it was the Bolshoi Theater that invited La Scala. And he fully expressed his creative credo.

The Bolshoi arrived — and showed himself to be such at the La Scala Theater

Elsa AIROLDI,
Il Giornale, 01/10/2008