Concert in Moscow on 7 September, 2006

Concert at Royal Albert Hall (London) on May 9, 2005

Concerts in Great Britain, November 2004

Prague (Prague Autumn Festival), 29 September 2003

Germany, October, 30 - November, 15 2002


Concert in Moscow on 7 September, 2006.

THE "NATIVE LAND REMEMBERS"

In the Moscow philharmonic society started the festival to the 100- anniversary from the birthday of Dmitriy Shostakovic....

In more than twenty concerts will sound the symphonies, the quartets, the concerts for the violin and fortepiano with the orchestra, music to the theatrical productions and the motion pictures in execution of the renowned associations and venerable executors, in number of whom large symphonic orchestra, the state academic symphonic orchestra of Russia, Russian national orchestra, conductors Mistislav rostropovich, Vladimir Fedoseev, Mark gorenshteyn, Maxim Shostakovic, Mikhail pletnev.

On 7 September in the concert hall im. Tschaikovsky festival was opened without the excess pump.

The introduction of the minister of culture and mass communications of Aleksandr Sokolov was brief: after reading salutatory telegram from the President of Russia Vladimir Putin, minister added from himself literally two words. Thus excessive the semiofficial publication, which is so alien and hateful was hateful in its time to Shostakovic, not to the instant tightened the sincere atmosphere holiday event in no one not necessary velerechivyy enthusiasm. The honor of opening festival rightfully belonged to the legendary academic symphonic orchestra of the St. Petersburg philharmonic society, which bears today Dmitriy dmitriyevich's name. Specifically, this association on 9 August, 1942, - during the day, which German troops they outlined for the solemn entrance into devastated Leningrad, carried out under conductor eliasberg's management in the large hall of Leningrad philharmonic society the seventh ("Leningrad") symphony of Shostakovic.

Orchestra under conductor Aleksandr Dmitriev's management, which celebrates its 75- anniversary, the last time in this year appeared in the capital twenty one year ago.

Having lustrously carried out the gimnicheskuyu "holiday overture" of celebrant - one of the most popular compositions of the Soviet celebrations of the middle of past century, whose entrance even became the musical emblem of Moscow Olympiad -80, orchestra slightly did not arrange in the partnership with pianist Nikolai luganskiy, who correctly carried out the second concert for fortepiano with the orchestra Of s.Rakhmaninova.

But the present squall of applause attacked the Petersburg musicians after performance in the second department of the concert Tenth symphony of Shostakovic.

From the first and to the last note symphony- confession, where with the distinct clarity composer carries out his monogram (encoded initials D.SH. - motive DSCH - right through pierces musical score), orchestra to the perfection personified in the reverberating musical score entire pain, violence and lyric acknowledgement of the covered with wounds heart of the crushed person and hunted down composer. In its time the musical section of committee on Stalin rewards, according to Shostakovic's himself expression, "lay kost'mi" and transferred the advancement of the tenth symphony for following yr, instead of to other opuies - cantata "above the native land of our the sun shines" even 24 preludes and seam.

The sun and now as before shines, but the main thing, that the native land not only "hears and he knows" (as it rehearses in the known similar song of Shostakovic), but also it remembers.

Independent newspaper (Moscow)
11.09.2006
Helen lozhkina

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Concert at Royal Albert Hall (London) on May 9, 2005

Maxim Shostakovich: 'It's in my blood'

When Maxim Shostakovich conducts his father's 'Leningrad' here next week, with accompanying film of the siege, emotions will be high, he tells Sarah Shannon

In the late summer of 1942, a group of starving Leningrad musicians gave a performance that became a legend. Nazi forces encircled the city, slowly starving its citizens to death in a siege that would cost almost a million Soviet lives. Some musicians were so weakened by hunger that they could barely lift their instruments. But they roused themselves to perform a new symphony by their compatriot Dmitri Shostakovich.

The score for Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony, Leningrad, had been smuggled into the city past the Nazis. It was a rallying cry to Shostakovich's countrymen, telling the story of the siege and dwelling on patriotic themes before vividly imagining the German armies being routed from Russia. The Leningrad orchestra performed it on 9 August, the day Hitler had predicted their city would fall to his troops. Loudspeakers outside the hall relayed the music to those without tickets, and it blared from more speakers at the edge of the city - a musical two fingers to the Nazis entrenched there.

Next Monday, the symphony will be performed to mark the VE Day anniversary at the Royal Albert Hall. The concert is being presented by the Russian news agency Novosti, and will be performed by the St Petersburg Academic Symphonic Orchestra. The conductor will be Shostakovich's son Maxim. The event will also be the international premiere of the symphony's new incarnation, Cinemaphonia. Using rare and sometimes shocking newsreel from German and Soviet archives, the director Georgy Paradzhanov has created a powerful film that will be shown on a giant screen behind the orchestra. Its narrative of the siege, of bloodshed and starvation in a frozen city, and the eventual triumph of the Soviet forces, is intended to help the audience to understand the horrors that drove Shostakovich's composition. It doesn't shy from Stalinism's darker side, either, with stark images of the Ukrainian famine. There's footage of exquisite icons being taken down from church walls before men throw them on to fires and bomb the churches into oblivion.

Maxim Shostakovich gave the Russian premiere of Cinemaphonia earlier this year in St Petersburg (formerly Leningrad), where he now lives with his family. At the end of a dramatic performance, watched by veterans of the siege, Maxim lifted the score and kissed it before holding it out to the audience. He expects to feel similar emotions at its London performance. "For me, this music is something in my blood," he explains in an accent still weighted with Russian inflection despite years spent in the States. "This comes directly from my father, so I feel it very close to my soul. Through his music I can recognise all his anger and all his tenderness. It's like hearing his different phrases as he spoke; through his music I can hear his voice. He never dies for me, because of this."

Maxim was a boy when war broke out. His father tried to enlist in the army but, as an already revered composer, he was evacuated from the threatened city, eventually settling in Kuibyshev (now Samara), on the Volga. He wrote his Seventh Symphony remarkably quickly. "I completed the first movement of this piece on 3 September, the second one on 17 September, and the third on the 29th. Now I'm nearly through with the fourth and final movement. I have never composed as fast before," he said.

Maxim, 66, can just recall the symphony's premiere in Kuibyshev. "I remember the standing ovation, my father and mother and sister being there. And this theme in the symphony with a small drum that gave me a feeling, even as a small boy, that something evil was approaching."

A handful of the musicians who played in Leningrad during the siege took part in the first Cinemaphonia. "It was truly touching," says Maxim. "The original performance was a great event. People were living under constant bombardment, but they still came to hear the music."

Maxim grew up to be a talented pianist and conductor, but, inevitably, he often has the "son of" tag. Has his father's genius eclipsed his own career? "I feel that people expect a lot of me because of my father, but I just do my best." He evidently adored his father: "If I did something bad [musically] he would explain it to me; if I did something good, he was pleased for me. He helped me a lot as a musician and gave me priceless advice when I prepared to conduct each symphony. He was a good father and a great teacher."

It is refreshing to hear the composer spoken of in such simple and glowing terms. Shostakovich was a controversial figure during his lifetime. Some accused him of being pro-Stalinist, others of anti-Communist tendencies. In the West, he was reviled by some for pandering to Stalin's regime. It is a subject that Maxim feels passionately about: "He hated the Communist philosophy but was forced by the rules of the game." Those rules meant that Shostakovich had to make compromises, such as accepting government commissions. "This was normal," Maxim declares. "Not collaboration. It's hard to understand now, but for the safety of his wife and children he had to do some things. Others who were not so careful were shot."

Hitler for one would have liked to see Shostakovich permanently silenced. According to Maxim, Hitler declared that the composer would be among the first to be executed when the Germans reached Moscow.

Once word of the Leningrad symphony reached the outside world in 1942, arrangements were made to smuggle the score out of the country on microfilm. The London Proms put on a performance, and in the US, rival conductors battled to give the symphony its American debut (Toscanini won). Shostakovich was even featured on the front of Time magazine. Maxim believes the symphony has stood the test of time. "It's not just about the Second World War but about the endless battle between good and evil. It is certainly one of the greatest symphonies."

The Independent
03.05.2005


St Petersburg Academic Symphonic Orchestra:
Cinemaphonia, Royal Albert Hall, London

Shostakovich's inscrutability will always tease historians. Just as they can never agree on whether his music is full of coded opposition to the Soviets, so they will never establish his intentions with his Leningrad Symphony. Three weeks before its premiere, he wrote in Pravda that it was dedicated to "our struggle with Fascism and our coming victory"; later he said its focus was much wider than the Nazi menace.

Before composing it, he'd written about what its first movement portended. After an exposition reflecting pre-war contentment, it would convey the impact of war, the legions of the dead, "simple people honouring the memory of their heroes", "a mother's tears", and "distant thunder reminding us that the war continues". And his music is full of the stock images of war. But he also stressed he was not aiming for the naturalistic depiction of war - "the clatter of arms, the explosion of shells" - but rather "the image of war emotionally".

Perhaps director Georgi Paradzhanov did not notice that proviso: at all events, his film flies brazenly in the face of it. Moreover, it's not quite "his" film: there were, we're told, no fewer than five parallel "scripts", with something called "the objective script" being the net result, which he pretentiously dubs "cinemaphonia". While an orchestra played, his collage of contemporary newsreel footage would unroll above them.

And yes, we got the most literal visual representation of the clatter of arms and the explosion of shells (in the percussion passages), and falling buildings coinciding with massed tubas. The repetitive Bolero-style build-up was rendered by columns of helmeted Nazis. Lyrical violin solos became flocks of wheeling birds. But Paradzhanov's massed scriptwriters evidently couldn't agree on anything so banal as a coherent visual narrative.

The 1,125-day siege of Leningrad was a time of epic suffering: this film, for all its horrors, fails to reflect that. But what it does do is reduce this great symphony to the status of "film music".

Shostakovich's son Maxim was on the podium, and the band acquitted themselves well - as far as I could discern. Because the images were, despite their chaotic organisation, both riveting and profoundly shocking, they were what we were forced to focus on.

To see how this kind of job should be done, consider Carl Davis's orchestral accompaniment to Abel Gance's Napoleon.

11.05.05
The Independent
Michael Church

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Concerts in Great Britain, November 2004

St.Petersburg Symphony Orchestra Fairfield, Croydon

In this more-than-welcome return by this orchestra, people filled the hall expecting a good concert and felt more than satisfied. The orchestra is quite extraordinary in the hands of Alexander Dmitriev.

Marche Salve and Capriccio Italien are often potboilers and undoubtedly they were included because we were expected to want Tchaikovsky of a Russian band. These pieces certainly didn’t just «play themselves». Dmitriev drew form the works more detail than most had ever heard before, and then some!

To present two concertos (in different halves) as well performed as were Chopin’s 1st for piano and Kchachaturian’s for violin was really and embarrassment of riches. Igor Tchetuev’s virtuosity in the former was amazing, with never anything less than magnificent support from the orchestra. Nana Yashvili’s violin playing was certainly equal to her pianist colleague’s level and she gave the sort of performance of this less inevitable and superbly-scored welcome concerto that made one want to rush straight to the CD shops. The outer movements were brilliant, but the immense surge of orchestral power in the middle one must have threatened Croydon’s local resources.

Throughout, the formidable Dmitriev encouraged his players with economical gestures, never of the «Look-I’m-a-great-conductor» kind. But he clearly is a very great conductor.

Croydon Advertiser
(Fairfield, Croydon)
Howard Thomas


St.Petersburg Symphony Orchestra

In a display of inspiring orchestral power and consummate polish, this huge orchestra – conducted by supremely sensitive Alexander Dmitriev – totally bewitched their large audience!

Stravinsky’s fabulous collection of tone poems for the ballet, Petroushka opened the programme. The varied contrasting moods, lyrical, comic, panic and even flirtations were subtly delineated under Dmitriev’s imaginative control.

Then, after the interval, Ukrainian, prize winning pianist, Igor Tchetuev won the hearts of the audience with his memorable interpretation of Chopin’s piano Concerto in E Minor. He gave a bravura opening with lyrical cadences, a tear-jerking Larghetto of the almost beauty and an exuberant, effervescent finale of-sheer excitement, to set the Hexagon alight with the cheers of the admiring audience!

To finish, the Orchestra displayed all their superb elan and magical audience appeal in a joyfully humorous playing of Tchaikovsky’s Capriccio Italian, which received prolonged applause.

November 18, 2004
“Reading Chronicle”
The Hexagon
Bert Gonnella


Symphony season is worth savouring

It was an evening for concertgoers to savour. Seldom will many of those in the Saturday audience experience again the sheer wealth of sound and musical joy brought to Bradford by one of the world’s leading concert orchestras.

The concert begun with Tchaikovsky’s lilting evocation of Iitaly in carnival time, Capriccio Italien, in which conductor Vladimir Altschuler brought out the very best from his orchestra numbering a hundred of more.

The audience, which had packed the city’s premier concert hall to the brim, responded with an applause, which must have lasted ten minutes.

There was even better to follow from solo pianist Igor Tchetuev who showed masterful keyboard technique in Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.3.

The young soloist, who received countless minutes of applause, may not have known that the great composer and pianist himself may have been watching over him, for he had played his work on the same spot a hundred years earlier.

The concert ended with a dazzling performance of Rimsky-Korsakov’s symphonic suite Scheherazade.

Certainly a concert evening to remember.
November 22, 2004
“Telegraph & Argus”, St. George’s Hall
Bernard Parry


A perfect mix of Russian and Roman

ROME, midday. The blazing heat drives everyone into pavement cafes in search of shade and cool liquid refreshment. The air is clear and the music is magical – summing up the mood of the city.

Although we’re not lucky enough to really be in Rome, Tchaikovsky’s Capriccio Italien is a colourful masterpiece that easily transports you there.

This work was created at a time of crisis for the composer, and Rome was his escape. Picking up ideas right across the city, from trumpet fanfares that echoed out of the barracks near his hotel to colorful folk music and the fiery tarantella dance, he wove everything together to create this piece.

This was the second International Concert at the Sands, and the St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra were just superb.

The next piece, Chopin’s Piano Concerto No 1, featured International Young Pianist winner Igor Tchetuev. His style and grace at the keyboard were really something to watch as his hands flew from note to note.

Finally, Rachmaninov Symphony No 2. Big, bold melodies played with style by this superb orchestra, perfectly matched to the music of this illustrious Russian composer. A fantastic finish to a great night.

Published on 26/11/2004
“Cumberland News”, Sands Centre, Carlisle
Chris Ford


St.Petersburg Symphony Orchestra

No-one plays Russian music like the Russians, so we are told. It comes from the soul, as Igor Tchetuev, fourth prize winner in last year’s Leeds Piano Competition, told a keen audience before last night’s Usher Hall debut of the St.Petersburg Symphony Orchestra.

Opening with Capriccio Italien, the St.Petersburg wrung every last bit of soul out of the mournful opening bars, rising to an almost jazzy brass over the rolling amiable carthorse of Tchiakovsky’s cello and bass.

… and so on to the Rachmaninov Second Symphony, a soup of soul-searching. There is something of the vast steppes in this fairytale epic, particularly in the opening Largo, as the clarinet pokes through the expansive stringwork with its well-known melody.

The sweetness of this light-dark vision is contained with n easy genius by Dmitriev’s baton, as a responsive orchestra hails string and brass into the rousing finale.

November 19, 2004
“Scotsman”, “Usher Hall”, Edinburgh
Sarah Jones


THRILLS AND SPILLS OF RUSSIAN MIGHT 11:40 - 12 November 2004

…We heard the orchestra at its very best in this evening of musical delights during the lovely rich, romantic themes of the third movement of the Rachmaninov's Symphony No.2.

www.thisisbristol.co.uk


ST PETERSBURG SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, USHER HALL, EDINBURGH

…Tchaikovsky's Italian Caprice, at the start of the programme, was orchestrally nearer the mark, and gave the large audience - large, anyway, by the standards of Edinburgh's International Classics series - something for their money.

… Under the guidance of the veteran Alexander Dmitriev, … the nerve-ends of the music were touched upon. The woodwind solos did not lack expressiveness…

19.11.2004
The Herald (Glasgow)
Conrad Wilson

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The Academic Symphony Orchestra of The St.Petersburg Philharmonia

29 September 2003, Prague (Prague Autumn Festival)

RACHMANINOV. Piano concerto No.1
SHOSTAKOVICH. Symphony No.7 «Leningrad»
Conductor – Alexander DMITRIEV
Soloist – Mikhail RUDY

St.Petersburg Symphony Enthuses Prague

[…] But the climax of the Prague Autumn festival, and a real musical feast, came already on Monday with the concert by the St.Petersburg Symphony. The opening Concerto in F sharp minor by Rachmaninoff showed all the nuances of the Russian late Romantic style. The pianist Mikhail Rudy performed it with virtuosity and with great feeling.

[…] During this time, under the leadership of Alexander Dmitriev, the orchestra has become a perfectly-sounding musical instrument. Dmitriev conducted in a very restrained fashion, without a single gesture of pathos. However, this restraint allowed him to build the work in broad sections and let all the instrumental voices stand out. He did not rely on massive outward effectiveness but on capturing every detail musically. The performance was magnificent and inward at the same time. As an encore we heard the well-known Air form Bach’s Orchestra Suite. After the grandiose conclusion of the Leningrad Symphony nobody would have expected this, but the result was surprisingly beautiful.

Lidove noviny
October 1, 2003
Jindrich Balek


Not Even the Proverbial Number Thirteen Tarnished the Lustre of the Prague Autumn Festival

[…] For example the performance by the famous St.Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, when gave the premiere of Shostakovich’s famous Leningrad Symphony during the wartime siege of that city, was of star quality. The orchestra rid the work of the robustness of sound that once characterized Soviet orchestras not uncommonly, and emphasized rather the score’s inward quality. We have heard the famous Leningrad Symphony in Prague many times, but this year it was especially well interpreted – with perfect drama, but also capturing the work’s philosophical substance and structural contrast, conductor Alexander Dmitriev kept the audience’s concentrated attention to the very end.

Halo noviny
October 10, 2003
Tomas Hejzlar

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October, 30 - November, 15 2002

Germany
(Dusseldorf, Dortmund, Hamburg, Nuernberg, Regensburg, Muenchen, Augusburg, Ulm, Stuttgart)

Artistic director and chief conductor - Alexander DMITRIEV
Soloists: Igor CHETUEV, piano
Sunsuke SATO, violin
Brahms. Violin concerto "Hungary dances"
Schostakovich. Symphony No.10
Lyadov. 8 Russian folk songs
Rachmaninov. Rhapsody on Paganini theme Symphony No.3
Tchaikovsky. Orchestral suite No.3

ConcertoWinderstein
Munich GmbH

Masters of Musical Narration
The "Pro Musica" guests from St. Petersburg, in the Ostkerhall

It is marvelous, when an orchestra performs with such force, intensity and in such an impressive manner, as did the St. Petersburg Symphonic Orchestra in the Ostkerhall, participating in the Pro Musica series.

Akkard Britsh
Bilefeld, The Westphal New Newspaper, 1-2 of November, 2002


Subtle Sensation
The St. Petersburg Symphonic Orchestra musicians
Without the Russian melancholy

Such ease, such clarity of intonation and synchronism of the eight contrabasses are rarely heard, not often do the percussions exhibit such filigree precision, the strings - such togetherness, and the winds - such subtle harmony, that is the highest orchestra standard!

Ulrich Ostermayer
The Augsburg Common Newspaper, 14 of November 2002.


THE MIGHTY SOUND

A Russian program in the highly attended Einstein Hall.

The matchlessly convincing performance of Rachmaninoff by the St. Petersburg Symphonic Orchestra was by no means shallow, but delicately lyrical, the winds were in perfect unity with the strings and there was no room for insincere pathos.

Urgen Kanold
THE SOUTH-WEST PRESS, November 15th, 2002


Piano Wonders

The St. Petersburg Symphonic Orchestra and the pianist Chetuev

The concert given by the St. Petersburg musicians, under the direction of Alexander Dmitriev, at the first symphonic concert of the Vurtemberg-Bavaria concert direction, held in the Congress-Center, caused a storm of applause.

Both the performance and the choice of the program, were the cause of such clear delight of the audience.

In Germany, the three Rachmaninoff symphonies are almost solely known through records. The third symphony, composed in 1940, with its worldly-sensual coloring, a blend of sad melodies with a gloomy spirit of hymnal buildup was performed here by the St. Petersburg musicians so perfectly, that it will, undoubtedly, give this audience a model, for future encounters with this piece.

Barbara Perkovak
Ulm
The New Ulm Newspaper, 16th November, 2002.


Simply astonished by the stormy finale in C-major

A wonderful union: the St. Petersburg musicians and Igor Chetuev delighted the audience in the City Concert Hall in Osnabruk

…Alexander Dmitriev - since 1977 he is the conductor of the orchestra - has formed a praiseworthy, absolutely disciplined company. The sound of instrumental groups is gentle and solid, their reaction to one another is of chamber precision.

Anzelm Cybinsky
The New Osnabruk Newspaper, 16.11.2002

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