Rachmaninoff – A Night to Remember

Rachmaninoff in Concert

Last night the wife and I got to go to an absolutely wonderful concert featuring the music of Rachmaninoff. I’ve heard orchestras play in the States but nothing like what we got to hear last night. What we got to take part in is what is called the Lilac Festival that comes to Kazan once a year, this just happens to be the fifth year of this incredible event.This year the Tatarstan National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alexander Sladkovsky started the concert by playing symphony #4 to a standing ovation. Mr. Sladkovsky has lifted the Tatarstan National Symphony Orchestra to becoming world-renowned  playing in many theaters around the globe. When soloist Boris Berezovsky came on stage he played several wonderful pieces that were truly mesmerizing, he totally captivated the audience with his presence. The concert was concluded by the Symphony playing several symphonic dances that were dedicated to Maya Plisetskaya a Russian ballet dancer who recently died at the age of 89 years old in Germany. Both my wife and I left the concert feeling culturally elevated having listened to such great music.

 

Alexander Sladkovsky

Alexander Sladkovsky graduated from the Moscow Conservatory and later from the St. Petersburg Conservatory. He made his conducting début with the Opera and Ballet Theatre of the St. Petersburg Conservatory in a performance of Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte in 1997. In 1999, Alexander Sladkovsky won the III International Prokofiev Competition.

Between 1997 and 2003 Alexander Sladkovsky was conductor and then Principal Conductor of the St. Petersburg State Capella, and between 2001 and 2003 served as Principal Conductor of the State Opera and Ballet Theatre of the St. Petersburg Conservatory. Alexander Sladkovsky was Assistant Conductor to Mariss Jansons in staging of G. Bizet’s Carmen in 2005, and to Mstislav Rostropovich in The Unknown Mussorgsky programme in 2006 (both productions with the Saint Petersburg Conservatory).

Between 2004 and 2006 Sladkovsky was Principal Conductor of the St. Petersburg Capella. From 2006 to 2010 Maestro Sladkovsky conducted the Novaya Rossiya State Symphony Orchestra under Yuri Bashmet.

Presently, Alexander Sladkovsky is Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Tatarstan National Symphony Orchestra (Kazan, Russia). Orchestras under Alexander Sladkovsky took part in several important national and international projects and festivals such as the Musical Olympus and Musical Spring festivals in St. Petersburg, the International Yuri Temirkanov Winter Arts Square Festival, the Cheresnevy Les open art-festival, the All-Russia Bogacheva Competition for opera singers, Alexander Tchaikovsky Foundation’s Youth Academies of Russia programme, Rodion Shchedrin—A Self-Portrait, the Young Euro Classics Festival in Berlin, the Days of St. Petersburg Culture in Almaty with the stars of the Mariinsky Opera and Ballet Theatre, the Honorary Citizens of St. Petersburg Festival, the XII and XIII Easter Festival, the Crescendo Festival in St. Petersburg, the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, the Kunstfest-Weimar, the Budapest Spring Festival-2006, the V Festival of the World’s Symphony Orchestras, and the XI Worthersee Classics Festival (Klagenfurt, Austria)……see more here.

Concert Pianist: Boris Berezovsky

Boris Berezovsky has enjoyed a glittering international career since winning the gold medal at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1990.

Born in Moscow, Berezovsky trained at the city’s legendary Conservatoire. Described by The Guardian as ‘technically electrifying and searchingly assertive in expression’, he has achieved an enviable worldwide reputation as a first-flight virtuoso See more here.

Here a short clip sharing a bit about this years event. It’s in Russian so only a few will be able to understand it. But let me tell you the whole affair was a delight to have been part of.