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Sashadroogie

Just come home from a night at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall. A splendid performance by the Russian National Orchestra of the Leningrad Symphony. Was famously broadcast from Leningrad in 1942 during the Blockade. Ah, how lucky we are to be living and working in Russia and able to attend such cultural events!

Спасибо, Дмитрий! Даже 70 лет спустя твоя музыка затрагивает самые глубокие струны русской души!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maOgxgyFljE&feature=related

expatella_girl · Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2012 10:13 am Post subject:

So true!

But I must say that the Tchaikovsky is my least favorite concert hall in Moscow. Stark, open, bare, of dreadful acustics....

But the Moscow Conservatory may be my favorite place on earth. I heard Beethoven's 9th Symphony there on the very day before I left Russia--snowing, winter, late on a Sunday afternoon--and I think I can never watch Beethoven's 9th again. That performance on that day in that place can never be surpassed.

It was the experience of a lifetime.

I love the Conservatory from the very bottom of my heart. There is nothing about Russia that I miss more....nothing.... Crying or Very sad

I will miss it forever and ever.

Sashadroogie · Posted: Sun Sep 09, 2012 11:22 am Post subject:

I'm no expert on acoustics, though I think you are right about the Tchaikovsky Hall. However, for the Seventh it didn't really matter. Heard every quiet note, felt in my chest every symbol crash and drum beat. I doubt the local audience cared much either, judging by the quiet tears of grief remembered rolling down their cheeks.

The point, which seemed lost on some of my foreign friends in the audience, was that we are, every one of us, lucky that there is any cultural life left at all, and that that this music can still be heard today is a lasting testament to Russia's determination to survive and triumph for all humanity.

In any case, glad to see I am not the only one who thinks these matters are important, or should be, to teachers based here. I am also quite envious of your concert-going experience : )

expatella_girl · Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 7:20 am Post subject:

I know! I was always completely confuddled as to how so many expats could live in Moscow, see nothing but bars and strip clubs and expat diners, whinge endlessly about the lack of *western* amenities, and utterly miss all the amazing, beautiful, and uniquely Russian things all around them. I was one of the only concert goers I knew in 5 years in Moscow.

I hit them all. The Bolshoi (pre-renovation), The Conservatory as often as possible, The Kremlin palace theatre, another gem the Stanislavski, the very dear Gnessin Hall, the Helikon.

How_can_you_be_in_Moscow and ignore the brilliant legacy of the Russian performing arts all around you? World class stuff and dear god the tickets are cheap! (when you can persuade the curmudgeonly kacca babushki to sell them Rolling Eyes

)

NO ONE can play the Russian composers like the Russians can. I now have a lifelong love affair with Tchaikovsky, I am smitten. I have just chosen season symphony tickets in my American city and it's all Tchaikovsky all the time. But a poor substitute for the glorious Moscow concert season....my heart aches for it.

You are very lucky indeed Sashadroogie. I am all envy.

Sashadroogie · Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 8:05 am Post subject:

At last! I've met another who sees the truth! Couldn't agree more with every one of your sentiments. However, I'd have to say that there are plenty of excellent American orchestras out there. True, not as good as the Motherland's, hee hee, but I think far from being just a poor substitute.

For so long I thought I was the only one! Most go and play a Glazunov symphony to celebrate. Or maybe an Emil Gilels recording...

Sashadroogie · Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 8:07 am Post subject:

PS

Maybe you've seen this already, but if not, here's the Melodiya website:

http://www.melody.su/eng/

Listen to some of the best Russian recordings going. Enjoy!

expatella_girl · Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 8:34 am Post subject:

To say " there are plenty of excellent American orchestras out there" is a plea of poverty covering thousands of square miles and dozens of American cities when--JUST Moscow--exceeds everything in America combined.

The arts in Russia are uber fabulous. Not just the classical composers, but performance theatre, street theatre, dance, street musicians, painters, sculptors, monuments, museums, fairgrounds, architecture, parks and palaces.....

The Arts in Moscow are a treat and a delight and cheap and available and top quality everywhere you look. Better cannot be found anywhere in the world in such dense quantity and quality.

The bars and hookers and clubs are for expat suckers who cannot recognize quality and value when they see it, and throw their lives and money away on cheap thrills. Tragedy.

Sashadroogie · Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 10:20 am Post subject:

No argument from me about how special Moscow is - and how the sheer range and depth of talent can leave you intoxicated. Just that I do not think American arts can be written off so easily. Admittedly, I'm basing this on opera DVDs and CDs that I have, and from my Russian musician friends who have played with American symphony orchestras. All extremely impressive too. True, the concentration in Moscow, and St Petersburg for that matter, is higher than the States generally. But this is probably true of most of the Russian heartlands also. Surely New York, visual arts capital of the world, boasts an orchestra to compare?

Sashadroogie · Posted: Mon Sep 10, 2012 10:42 am Post subject:

Anyway, though I'm sure you have heard this before, here's the god-like Gilels playing Tchaikovsky's Concerto No 1. In New York, as it happens. Sound isn't great, but he is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiPoXh57IAM

Enjoy!