On July 3, 2022 the Small Hall of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Hall hosted a concert "A Window on the Baroque: from the XXI to the XVIII Century".
At the concert program "A Window to the Baroque: from the 21st Century to the 18th Century" the audience had the opportunity to follow the cultural threads that connect contemporary music with the past through a fascinating musical journey of four centuries: from a work written these days by a Russian composer on the themes of Johann Sebastian Bach to the ballet "Apollo Musaget" by Igor Stravinsky, composed in 1928 in neo-baroque style.
The excursion on the musical time machine opened with Anton Vladimirovich Lubchenko's own composition "Souvenir de Bach" (Little Variations on a Theme of Johann Sebastian Bach) for strings, written in 2010.
The violin solo was soulfully performed by Christian Artamonov, soloist of the Mariinsky Theater Symphony Orchestra.
Anton Lubchenko's tribute to the great Johann Sebastian Bach served as a cultural bridge to Igor Stravinsky's neoclassical opus Apollo Musaget: the orchestra's musicians performed the three movements of the ballet - Prologue, Apollo Variations and Apotheosis - in an unusually fresh and sensitive way, demonstrating the lightness and gracefulness of the exquisite score.
Echoes of Romanticism were echoed in the wonderful affertorium Salve Regina, by Franz Schubert - in this rarely heard work the vocal cantilena is framed by the canons of old church-Catholic music.
The ringing timbre of the voice of the Russian soprano Julia Kucina-Patricelli, a student of the Italian vocal school at the Conservatory "Luisa D'Annunzio" in Pescara, framed the edges of this amazing miniature, full of serenity and peace, in an unusually subtle way.
A famous viola aria "Erbarme dich" ("Have mercy") from "Passion According to Matthew" by Johann Sebastian Bach, performed by Azerbaijani singer, contralto Fidan Damirova, was a contrasting addition.
The final point of the tour was the Italian era of the XVIII century - "Stabat Mater" cantata by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi - a true treasure of italian baroque music, a grandiose work, which each time has the deepest impact on the audience, thanks to its spiritual power, insightful content and religious character of the sound.
The project is an original program by Anton Vladimirovich Lubchenko, a Russian conductor and composer and recipient of the St. Petersburg Government Prize.
The concert is his first performance in Russia after six months of work in Germany on the production of his opera We.
"Our program underscores the commonalities between Western and Russian music, showing how the German-Italian baroque tradition has 'sprouted' in Russia," said Russian conductor and composer and recipient of the St. Petersburg Government Prize Anton Vladimirovich Lubchenko.
Young opera singers (soloists) took part in the concert: Fidan Damirova (contralto), Julia Kuchina-Patricelli (soprano), as well as the chamber choir "FESTINO" known in St. Petersburg and the chamber orchestra "NFT-orchestra".
The project was realized with the support of the Bridge of Arts Foundation.
