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Moscow International Cello Festival Vivacello was held with a great success in Moscow from October 25 to November 12. For the fourth time Moscow best venues featured artists from all over the world performing for Moscow grateful audience. Each concert was unique and appealing to diverse audiences. However, whichever the concept of the concerts was, the festival was filled with a particular atmosphere and exquisite taste making a conquest of the audience, which is proved by full house and standing ovations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The famous Japanese musician Masahiro Izaki was at the conductor’s desk, this was his debut in Russia. The stage of one of the best concert halls in Moscow welcomed artists who are well known far beyond Russia. The highlight of the concert was a popular Saint-Saens’ concerto for cello accompanied by the orchestra with the soloing cellist Boris Andrianov. As the cello was not the only instrument at the festival, there were also soloing violinists Alyona Baeva and Boris Brovtsyn. They performed works by Dvorak and Schuman accompanied by the Russian National Orchestra. The violinist Sergey Nakaryakov performed a composition by Pyotr Tchaikovsky.

The opening VIVACELLO concert was held with a great success at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall on October 25. The festival opened with the program “Around the Cello” – the stars of classical music performed transpositions of famous cello works for other instruments.

The second concert of the festival occurred at the Tchaikovsky Cultural Center on October 30. The cellist Alexander Chaushian, violinist Andrey Baranov and pianist Vadim Kholodenko performed Borodin’s Sonata in B minor for Cello and Piano, Ysaye’s Sonata N3 and two works by Brahms – Trio N1 in B major and Sonata N2 in F major for Cello and Piano.

 

One of the most unconventional concerts of the festival took place on November 2. The composition performed at the Moscow House of Music was based on Joseph Brodsky’s poem “Homage to Yalta” (Story of a Murder) and Alfred Schnittke’s Cello Sonata. The text was narrated by actors Yevgenia Bric and Arthur Smoliyaninov accompanied by the performance of famous artists.

The world was conquered with the grandeur of opera, the spectacularity of operetta, musical and rock opera long ago. The chamber hall of the House of Music is a popular venue for diverse experimental presentations which are often related to subtle mental spheres or psychology. The new musical and theatrical project is presented by young talented and already well-known artists: winners of international contests – the cellist Boris Andrianov and pianist Andrey Gugnin, actress Yevgenia Bric, famous for her role in Valery Todorovsky’s smashing hit “Stilyagi” and the top-liner of Sovremennik Theatre – the popular film and theatre actor Arthur Smoliyaninov.

Joseph Brodsky’s poem “Homage to Yalta” is dedicated to a story of a murder that was committed in winter Yalta. In fact, this is a detective narration with elements of melodrama. Schnittke’s psychological and utterly expressive music makes it philosophic. As the story has it, no one of the three suspects who had reasons to wish death of the victim was guilty. However, any chance event is logical. The person who acted as an involuntary instrument of fate implementing secret wishes of the others confirmed that thoughts are material and therefore as dangerous as actions. This is expressed in Bach’s postscript – enlightened and mysterious in its transparent simplicity Siciliana from the violin sonata.

Next VIVACELLO concert was held at the Moscow Conservatory on November 7. Fantastic capabilities of the “four cords” were demonstrated by Moscow cellists Boris Andrianov and Alexander Buzlov and visiting soloists – winners of the International Violin Competition Premio Paganini Ilya Gringolts and Natalia Lomeiko, and the professor of violin at the Royal College of Music in London Yuri Zhislin.

 

A recital held at the concert hall on Mokhovaya Street on November 9 offered not only classical works but also popular mixed music. The experimental repertoire “From rock to baroque” was performed by an equally unconventional band of artists: a string quartet, an accordion and percussives.

The closing concert of the one-of-a-kind Moscow cello festival was held at the Great Hall of the Conservatory on November 12. The famous violinist Yulian Rakhlin and cellists Boris Andrianov and Alexander Rudin performed works by Mozart, Haydn and Brahms accompanied by a chamber orchestra.

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