<Translated from Russian automatically>
At the beginning of the year, the Bolshoi Theatre orchestra and choir performed triumphantly in St. Petersburg and Milan. Boris Lifanovsky, an orchestra musician and our permanent correspondent, tells us what it was like.
From January 7-9, 2008, the Bolshoi Theatre orchestra and choir, conducted by Alexander Vedernikov, performed at the La Scala theatre in Milan. The Bolshoi and La Scala share a long and close relationship; however, a tour by the Bolshoi orchestra specifically in Milan is undoubtedly an exceptional event. And given that right before the Milan concerts—on January 5—the orchestra, under the baton of its principal conductor, also performed in St. Petersburg, in the Grand Philharmonic Hall, a venue where it had not appeared for several decades, one can safely say that the recent "two-stage" tour is a significant milestone in the history of the ensemble.
The performance in St. Petersburg took place under rather challenging conditions: on the morning of January 5th, the Bolshoi Theatre orchestra flew from Moscow, held a full-scale rehearsal at the St. Petersburg Philharmonic in the afternoon, and performed a concert that same evening. For many symphony orchestras, such a schedule does not seem unusual; however, for a theatre orchestra, it cannot be called customary. The benevolent reaction of the St. Petersburg audience to every piece performed was all the more pleasing to witness.
The concert in St. Petersburg demonstrated that the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra possesses significant technical and emotional reserves: the tight schedule of their visit to St. Petersburg had no effect whatsoever on the quality of their performance, as evidenced by the audience's reaction. Furthermore, the ensemble prepared a "special" encore for the people of St. Petersburg: "Hymn to the Great City" from R. Glière's ballet "The Bronze Horseman". Lately, this music can be heard more often at the railway station than on the concert stage, so the performance of the Hymn momentarily created an almost visible bridge between the two capitals and made the farewell between the ensemble and the audience even warmer.
The overwhelming majority of La Scala symphony season ticket holders (as well as St. Petersburg audiences) are unfamiliar with the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra as a symphonic ensemble. But if in St. Petersburg the ensemble performed at the invitation of Yuri Temirkanov, which was an excellent recommendation in itself, then the invitation to Milan was in a sense an advance, especially since there the orchestra was scheduled to perform in the same subscription series as renowned European ensembles. As an example, one could cite at least the Gewandhaus Orchestra under the baton of Riccardo Chailly. This, undoubtedly, speaks to a serious level of trust in the Bolshoi Theatre. But when the expectations of the concert organizers are at such a high level, it imposes significant responsibility.
Based on the audience's reaction, the performance of the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra in Milan exceeded all expectations. At all three concerts, the hall was overflowing—it was impossible to find a single empty seat. All three times, the audience received the orchestra with enthusiasm. At the end of the first act—Tchaikovsky's "Francesca da Rimini" and Rachmaninoff's "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini" (soloist—Nikolai Lugansky) and at the end of the concert—Prokofiev's cantata "Alexander Nevsky," the applause did not subside for about twenty minutes. The difficult encore chosen by Alexander Vedernikov—the epigraph to Prokofiev's opera "War and Peace"—not only did not tire the audience but, on the contrary, provoked an additional explosion of applause.
Despite the fact that the program was the same, all three concerts, as is often the case, turned out to be different in their emotional mood. The "storm and stress" of the first performance, intended to conquer the Italian opera capital in one fell swoop, was replaced by a calmer, even more measured, performance at the third concert. Perhaps the third concert can be called the most balanced artistically. However, I repeat, the audience's reaction to the three "different" Bolshoi Theatre orchestras was invariably boisterous and warm.
The triumph—no exaggeration!—of the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra was shared by the soloist, Nikolai Lugansky. In May 2008, Nikolai Lugansky will perform all of Rachmaninoff's works for piano and orchestra with the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra across two concerts. The audiences in St. Petersburg and Milan heard only one composition from this program—the "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini"—and were completely captivated by the performance: Maestro Lugansky was called onto the stage several times, and he was literally forced to play an encore.
And, of course, the Bolshoi Theatre Chorus under the direction of Valery Borisov and the opera company soloist, mezzo-soprano Elena Manistina, made their significant contribution to the success of the tour. The literally mesmerizing beauty and power of the chorus's sound in "Alexander Nevsky" were replaced by a strictly sorrowful beauty in Manistina's voice.
In my opinion, each subsequent tour demonstrates the orchestra's increasingly confident performance in European halls, which acoustically differ significantly from Russian concert and theatre halls. There is also an increasingly enthusiastic reaction from European audiences to the ensemble's performances under the baton of Maestro Vedernikov. The limit, however, is clearly not yet reached.
Source.
At the beginning of the year, the Bolshoi Theatre orchestra and choir performed triumphantly in St. Petersburg and Milan. Boris Lifanovsky, an orchestra musician and our permanent correspondent, tells us what it was like.
From January 7-9, 2008, the Bolshoi Theatre orchestra and choir, conducted by Alexander Vedernikov, performed at the La Scala theatre in Milan. The Bolshoi and La Scala share a long and close relationship; however, a tour by the Bolshoi orchestra specifically in Milan is undoubtedly an exceptional event. And given that right before the Milan concerts—on January 5—the orchestra, under the baton of its principal conductor, also performed in St. Petersburg, in the Grand Philharmonic Hall, a venue where it had not appeared for several decades, one can safely say that the recent "two-stage" tour is a significant milestone in the history of the ensemble.
The performance in St. Petersburg took place under rather challenging conditions: on the morning of January 5th, the Bolshoi Theatre orchestra flew from Moscow, held a full-scale rehearsal at the St. Petersburg Philharmonic in the afternoon, and performed a concert that same evening. For many symphony orchestras, such a schedule does not seem unusual; however, for a theatre orchestra, it cannot be called customary. The benevolent reaction of the St. Petersburg audience to every piece performed was all the more pleasing to witness.
The concert in St. Petersburg demonstrated that the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra possesses significant technical and emotional reserves: the tight schedule of their visit to St. Petersburg had no effect whatsoever on the quality of their performance, as evidenced by the audience's reaction. Furthermore, the ensemble prepared a "special" encore for the people of St. Petersburg: "Hymn to the Great City" from R. Glière's ballet "The Bronze Horseman". Lately, this music can be heard more often at the railway station than on the concert stage, so the performance of the Hymn momentarily created an almost visible bridge between the two capitals and made the farewell between the ensemble and the audience even warmer.
The overwhelming majority of La Scala symphony season ticket holders (as well as St. Petersburg audiences) are unfamiliar with the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra as a symphonic ensemble. But if in St. Petersburg the ensemble performed at the invitation of Yuri Temirkanov, which was an excellent recommendation in itself, then the invitation to Milan was in a sense an advance, especially since there the orchestra was scheduled to perform in the same subscription series as renowned European ensembles. As an example, one could cite at least the Gewandhaus Orchestra under the baton of Riccardo Chailly. This, undoubtedly, speaks to a serious level of trust in the Bolshoi Theatre. But when the expectations of the concert organizers are at such a high level, it imposes significant responsibility.
Based on the audience's reaction, the performance of the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra in Milan exceeded all expectations. At all three concerts, the hall was overflowing—it was impossible to find a single empty seat. All three times, the audience received the orchestra with enthusiasm. At the end of the first act—Tchaikovsky's "Francesca da Rimini" and Rachmaninoff's "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini" (soloist—Nikolai Lugansky) and at the end of the concert—Prokofiev's cantata "Alexander Nevsky," the applause did not subside for about twenty minutes. The difficult encore chosen by Alexander Vedernikov—the epigraph to Prokofiev's opera "War and Peace"—not only did not tire the audience but, on the contrary, provoked an additional explosion of applause.
Despite the fact that the program was the same, all three concerts, as is often the case, turned out to be different in their emotional mood. The "storm and stress" of the first performance, intended to conquer the Italian opera capital in one fell swoop, was replaced by a calmer, even more measured, performance at the third concert. Perhaps the third concert can be called the most balanced artistically. However, I repeat, the audience's reaction to the three "different" Bolshoi Theatre orchestras was invariably boisterous and warm.
The triumph—no exaggeration!—of the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra was shared by the soloist, Nikolai Lugansky. In May 2008, Nikolai Lugansky will perform all of Rachmaninoff's works for piano and orchestra with the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra across two concerts. The audiences in St. Petersburg and Milan heard only one composition from this program—the "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini"—and were completely captivated by the performance: Maestro Lugansky was called onto the stage several times, and he was literally forced to play an encore.
And, of course, the Bolshoi Theatre Chorus under the direction of Valery Borisov and the opera company soloist, mezzo-soprano Elena Manistina, made their significant contribution to the success of the tour. The literally mesmerizing beauty and power of the chorus's sound in "Alexander Nevsky" were replaced by a strictly sorrowful beauty in Manistina's voice.
In my opinion, each subsequent tour demonstrates the orchestra's increasingly confident performance in European halls, which acoustically differ significantly from Russian concert and theatre halls. There is also an increasingly enthusiastic reaction from European audiences to the ensemble's performances under the baton of Maestro Vedernikov. The limit, however, is clearly not yet reached.
Source.
An Eyewitness Account
Boris LIFANOVSKY, January 18, 2008
