Saint-Petersburg and music

Venues, Orchestras & Festivals

History

Saint Petersburg is and has always been a major European centre for classical music. When Peter the Great moved to Moscow in 1703, he took with him the Pridvorny khor (the Court Chapel), the oldest and most venerable institution of Russian music and musical education. Traditionally specialised in church music, it was put in charge of opera as well.

In 1762 Catherine II acceded to the throne and immediately began to pursue a cultural policy designed to turn Saint Petersburg into a cultural centre of European rank. She summoned to the capital internationally renowned Italian composers, such as T. Traettea, G. Paisiello or D. Cimarosa, whose works were included in Saint Petersburg's repertoire. At the same time, Russian composers such as M. Bortnyansky, M. Berezovsky or Y. Fomin, had been sent to Italy for training to perform later at the Russian court.

In the late 18th century, composers based in Saint Petersburg and Moscow had begun to collect folk songs and to publish numerous editions. From the early 19th century, music written by Russian composers increasingly use types of expression provided by folk song.

The premiere of Mikhail Glinka's first opera, Zhizn' za Carya (A Life for the Tsar), in November 1826 at Saint Petersburg's newly-opened Bolshoy Theatre, received an enthusiastic press. Vladimir Odoyevsky celebrated the work as the birth of Russian opera and Russian music, the beginning of a new era in cultural history.

The venue for Russian opera was the Mariinsky Theatre, which was opened solemnly in the autumn of 1860 with Glinka's A Life for the Tsar. In this theatre, a Russian ensemble staged foreign works in Russian translation as well as, increasingly, operas by Russian composers.

The court's disinterest in Russian music, as manifested in the low pay for Russian musicians, and the endeavours to create a Russian music publicly asserted in the 1860s by a young generation, predetermined a conflict over cultural policies. Anton Rubinstein, who had been trained as a pianist and composer in Western Europe, perceived the shortcomings of the Russian education system. He therefore pleaded for the creation of a conservatory in St. Petersburg.

In 1859 he founded a Russian Musical Society (Russkoe muzykal'noe obshchestvo) which gave regular public concert performances. The benefits were used to establish courses for students of music from 1860 onwards, spawning the first Russian conservatory, which was solemnly opened in 1862.

Around the same time the “Mighty Handful”, a circle of young music enthusiasts formed in Saint Petersburg. The self-educated Miliy Balakirev was the group's only music specialist; all the others had engaged in military careers: Alexander Borodin, Modest Mussorgsky and César Cui. The circle's intellectual spearhead, its mastermind and ideologue, was Vladimir Stasov. It was to be created by the circle of composers around Balakirev.

For Stasov and the “Mighty Handful”, the creation of a conservatory represented an anachronism and an obstacle to the development of a national culture. As early as March 1862 they therefore established a Free Music School (Bezplatanaya muzykal'naya shkola); it was financed by concerts and over the years established itself primarily as a singing school. The conflict visibly ended in 1872, when Rimsky-Korsakov agreed to take up a professorship at the Conservatory. This laid the foundations for a Russian "school of composers" reaching well into the 20th century. Under the tutelage of Rimsky-Korsakov, a new generation of composers gained recognition. The most prominent of these were Aleksandr Glazunov and Anatol Liadov.

The early years after the Bolshevik Revolution were marked by a spirit of artistic innovation.
The establishment of the government-sponsored Union of Soviet Composers, and the concomitant rise of the doctrine of socialist realism signalled the end of the permissive period in Soviet music.

Dmitry Shostakovich, who lived in St. Petersburg, was the first to face the explicit application of the doctrine. His opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District (1932) as well as his other works received official denunciation. The doctrine called for music with a musical language that ordinary people could understand. The formula banned all the modernistic directions and fostered conservative and readily accessible styles.

The rehabilitation of the country's leading composers and the resurrection of many suppressed compositions were accomplished only after Stalin's death, in 1953. Soviet composers then began to show a renewed interest in modern compositional developments from the West-including serialism and aleatory and electronic music.

In the mid-1980s the music of the most original contemporary composers rapidly gained international recognition. The rebirth of religious faith ushered in a sweeping revival of the long-suppressed legacy of Russian sacred music, from Bortniansky to Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff, as well as an explosion of new sacred compositions and choral ensembles.

The Mariinsky Theatre - www.mariinsky.ru
The theatre, named "Mariinsky" after the Empress Maria Alexandrovna - wife of Alexander II - opened triumphantly on the 2nd of October 1860 with a performance of Glinka's opera "A Life for the Tsar". Throughout the years, the theatre has held several names. In 1919, it was renamed the Kirov Theatre. In 1992 the name changed officially once again, back to the original name of Mariinsky Theatre. The theatre’s splendid and elegant auditorium is richly decorated and is one of the most beautiful in the world. The performances here featured such world famous artists as E. Lavrovskaya, F. Stravinsky, F. Shaliapin, M. Kshesinskaya, A. Pavlova, T. Karsavina, V. Nizhinsky, M. Fokin, and G. Ulanova.
In 1980, Valery Gergiev was appointed Artistic Director of the Opera Company and, from 1996, has been Artistic and General Director of the Mariinsky Theatre.

Stars of the White Nights Festival - (June) - www.mariinsky.ru
Illuminated by the opalescent white nights of summer, when the sun hardly leaves the skies over St. Petersburg, the city comes alive for the Festival of the White Nights. Since 1994, under the instigation of the conductor and director of the Mariinsky Theatre, Valery Gergiev, the Stars of the White Nights festival is hosted by the Mariinsky Theatre. Concerts of symphonic and chamber music featuring world famous soloists from different countries.

The St. Petersburg Philharmonia - www.philharmonia.spb.ru
The St. Petersburg Philharmonia, the oldest Philharmonia in Russia, is almost two hundred years old. Its history goes back to 1802 when the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Society, the first one in Europe, was created. Nowadays the philharmonic concerts are held in two halls: the Grand Hall and the Small Hall.
Two main orchestras perform in the St. Petersburg’s Philharmonia: the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra and the St. Petersburg Academic Symphonic Orchestra.

St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra
The St.Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra is the oldest orchestra in Russia. Its official birthday was in 1882 when the Tsar Alexander III issued a decree establishing the country's first symphony and brass orchestra, the Court Choir of Musicians.
The Russian first State Philharmonic was founded in 1921, incorporating the former Court Orchestra. The first chief of the orchestra was Serge Koussevitzky. After that the orchestra was headed be Emil Cooper and Nikolai Malko in the 1920s, and Alexander Gauk and Fritz Stiedry in the 1930s.
In 1938, Yevgeny Mravinsky was appointed Principal Conductor of the Orchestra. He remained with the Philharmonic for half a century, until his death in January 1988. Mravinsky's name is synonymous with premiers of the Russian symphony works, especially - symphonies of Dmitry Schostakovich. In 1988 Yuri Temirkanov became the Principal Conductor and Music Director of the Orchestra.

The St. Petersburg Academic Symphonic Orchestra
It was formed in 1931, when radio was experiencing its boom, as the Leningrad Radio Orchestra. Its activities culminated in the performance of Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony on the 9-th of August 1942 - the day the Nazis planned to enter the captured city. After WW II, the orchestra became part of the Leningrad Philharmonia.
In 1968 Yuri Temirkanov was appointed its Chief Conductor. He enlarged the repertoire and the orchestra started touring abroad. In 1977, when Temirkanov left the Orchestra for the Mariinsky Theater, the post of Chief Conductor was assumed by Alexander Dmitriev.

The Arts Square International Winter Festival - (December - January) www.artsquarewinterfest.ru
The Festival brings together the world-renown musicians and offers an art exhibition at the State Russian Museum. There is the legendary New Year's Eve Ball hosted by Maestro Yuri Temirkanov in the exquisite Yusupov Palace.

The Musical Spring in St. Petersburg (May) - www.philharmonia.spb.ru
The festival is dedicated to contemporary music of leading Russian and international composers.

The St Petersburg International Early Music Festival (Sept-Oct) - www.earlymusic.ru
Founded in 1998, the festival has become an annual event. It draws on the musical traditions of Western Europe, Russia and of the East, and presents one of the leading tendencies of the music world in recent years: that of authentic performance, which strives for the greatest possible degree of historical accuracy and faithfulness.

St. Petersburg Mussorgsky State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre - Mikhailovsky Theatre - www.mikhailovsky.ru
The theatre is famous by being the first to stage the works of modern composers. The building that houses the theatre is called Mikhailovsky to honour the brother of Emperor Nicolas I. It was built in 1831-33 to the design of the architect A. Brullov. The works of S. Prokofyev, D. Kabalevsky, D. Shostakovitch, A. Khachaturyan, and R. Shchedrin were put on the theatre’s stage for the first time.

The Opera Hall of the Conservatorium - www.conservatory.ru
In this Hall that was established in 1923 a lot of eminent singers, musicians and conductors revealed their gifts. V. Nickol built the opera house in 1891-96, as a part of the conservatorium Complex.

The State Academic Capella
The Capella is the oldest professional musical institution in Russia. Created in 1479 by the tsar Ioann III, it was brought along into Saint Petersburg by Peter the Great. The Capella is famous as a centre of performance of the best works of Russian and West European composers of the 15th - 20th centuries written for choir.

Peter's immediate successors moved the capital back to Moscow but Empress Anna Ivanovna (1730-40) returned to St Petersburg. Between 1741 and 1825 under Empress Elizabeth, Catherine the Great and Alexander I it became a cosmopolitan city with a royal court.

Saint Petersburg has witnessed some of the most dramatic political events in Russia’s history. In 1825 a group of Russian military officers called the Decembrists tried to instigate a rebellion in the city to prevent the accession to the throne of Nicholas I, favouring Nicholas’s brother Constantine instead.

St Petersburg became a hotbed of strikes and political violence and was the hub of the 1905 revolution, sparked by Bloody Sunday - 9 January 1905 - when a strikers' march to petition the tsar in the Winter Palace was fired on by troops.
By 1914, the city's name was changed to the Russian-style Petrograd, it housed 2 millions people.

Continued opposition to imperial rule led to the Russian Revolution of 1917, which began with a spontaneous uprising by workers and soldiers in the city. The revolution culminated in a seizure of power by the Bolsheviks and the establishment of a new Soviet government headed by V. Lenin. With World War I still underway and the image of the city linked to imperial rule, the Bolsheviks made Moscow the capital of the new Soviet state. After Lenin’s death in 1924, Petrograd was renamed Leningrad in his honour.

When the Germans attacked the USSR in June 1941 it took them only 2,5 months to reach Leningrad. As it was the birthplace of Bolshevism, Hitler swore to wipe it from the face of the earth. His troops besieged the city until late January 1944, between 500,000 and a million people died from shelling, starvation and disease.

After the war, Leningrad was reconstructed and reborn little by little. In 1991 with the end of the Soviet Union, residents of Leningrad voted to rename the city St Petersburg. Foreign investment gave the city a boost to re-establish itself as Russia's window on the West.
In 2003, Saint Petersburg celebrated the 300th anniversary of its foundation, restoring the historical centre of the city.

Architecture

Some Highlights

Gardens & In the surrounding area

Almost all basic trends in world and Russian architecture of the 18th-20th centuries are represented in St Petersburg. That's why the city called "A Museum in the Open Air".

The early 18th century architectural ensembles were mainly constructed in the style known as the Petrine Baroque. The small buildings of the period are characterized by laconic architectural forms and festive colourfulness.
See: Peter the Great's Cottage

In 1740-1750-s the reassessed forms and techniques of the Western baroque and national architectural traditions combined in the distinctive national style - Russian baroque were applied in the architecture. This style was fully realized in the works of the architect V.V.Rastrelli, it included, grandiose dimensions, rich fantasy, complexity and at the same time clarity of the structure.
See: the Winter Palace (1754-1764), the Palaces of Vorontsov (1749-1757) and Stroganov (1752-1754), and the Ensemble of the Smolny Monastery (1748-1764 , completed in 1831-1836-s by V.I.Stasov).

The baroque was replaced with the Russian classicism, that fully met the new esthetical tastes of the educated people of that time, it was illustrated by simple and strict architectural forms. The founders of the style were the great Russian architect V.I.Bazhenov, his project was used by the architect V.F.Brenna, who constructed Mikhailovsky (Engineer's) Castle (1797-1800), and I.Ye.Starov, the architect of Taurida Palace (1783-1789 ) and Troitsky Cathedral of Alexander Nevsky Laura (Monastery) (1778-1790).

The Art Nouveau is also very represented in St. Petersburg over 10,000 structures, but the diversity of those buildings is fascinating. Different currents of Art Nouveau,- from its Muscovite Russian branch to the Northern "national" revival to transplanted stylised specimens from Paris and Berlin are represented within boundaries of pre-1914 St. Petersburg.
See: Astoria Hotel, the Singer Building and the Guards Economic Society Building, bridges

Peter & Paul Fortress
Founded in 1703, the Peter & Paul Fortress is the oldest building in St. Petersburg. Its main use up to 1917 was as a political prison. Famous residents include Dostoevsky, Gorky, Trotsky and Lenin's older brother, Alexander.

Palace Square
The heart of St. Petersburg, the Palace Square, where the Winter Palace, the General Staff Building, the Building of the Ministries and centred on the impressive, 155 foot-tall Alexander Column. The Winter Palace served as the tsarist residence, which building nowadays belongs to the State Hermitage museum.

St Isaac’s Square
This Square got its name from the magnificent St. Isaac's Cathedral, located in its centre and one of the finest architectural monuments of the 19th century. The Cathedral is the fourth greatest cupola cathedral in the world. St. Isaac's Cathedral was the main cathedral of the Russian Orthodox Church until 1917.

Decembrists Square
This Square named after the first revolutionists in Russian history (1825). In the middle of the Square there is a Monument of Peter the Great, founder of St. Petersburg.

Church on Spilled Blood
The church was created on the exact site where a terrorist Grinevsky mortally wounded Tsar Alexander II, despite his reforms, on March 1, 1881, by tossing a bomb at his feet. The church was modelled after the St.Basil's in Moscow's Red Square and its flamboyant Russian style by the architect Parland's project. It has boggling 7000 square meters of mosaics.

Nevskiy Prospect
The main avenue of St.Petersburg, the centre of business, trade activities, cultural life, shopping, entertainment and nightlife.

Yusupov Palace
The Palace, build by Vallin de la Mothe in the Early Russian Classical style, was a residence of the wealthy and respected Yusupov family. The Palace is outstanding for its architectural merits and famous as Rasputin was murdered there, in December 1916.

Smolny Ensemble
At the time of Peter I in the territory now occupied by the convent there was a tar yard. In the buildings of the convent was the first school for ladies known in Russia as the Smolny Institute for Ladies of Noble Birth.

Bridges
The Venice of the North wins the leading position in Russia in the quantity of bridges. Situated on more than 45 islands, St. Petersburg boasts over 500 bridges ranging from the very narrow pedestrian Lions and Bank chain bridges to the unique Medieval and Modern styled Bolshoi Okhtinsky Bridge and the giant drawbridges, which span the wide Neva River

The Alexander Garden
The Alexander Garden is located in the very centre of St. Petersburg, behind the Admiralty. Designed by the landscape gardener Eduard Regel, the Garden was formally opened in 1874 in the presence of Alexander II .

The Summer Garden
Founded in 1704 by order of Peter the Great, the garden is laid out according to strict geometrical principles. The Summer Garden is home to marble statues acquired from Europe especially for Russia's new capital and the location of Peter the Great's first Summer Palace, built by the Italian architect Domenico Trezzini.

In the surrounding area

Peterhof - www.peterhof.org
The Palace-and-Park Ensemble is a jewel of the Russian art, often called the Baltic Versailles. In the past it used to be an exquisite summer residence of Russian tsars. Verkhniy (Upper) Garden and Nizhniy (Lower) Park, genuine masterpieces of landscape design, number lots of fountains and cascades.

Pushkin (Tsarskoe Selo) - www.pushkin-town.net
This former country residence of Russian emperors, is a fascinating monument of the world's architectural and gardening arts of the XVIII-XIX centuries. Its parks and palaces occupy the area of 600 ha .
To see: Catherine Palace’s Amber Room, one of the most interesting in art relation's rooms

Pavlovsk - www.pavlovskart.spb.ru
One of the most interesting suburban palaces in St.Petersburg, which belonged to Paul I and his family. The Pavlovsk Palace and Park Ensemble is a magnificent example of Russian classicism of the end of the XVIII and beginning of the XIX centuries. The landscape park, one of the largest in Europe.

Gatchina - www.alexanderpalace.org/gatchina
The Gatchina Palace had many owners, but the last was Paul I. The Palace Park is the first landscape park in the history of Russia (architect Rinaldi). An underground passage led from the Grand Palace to the Lake.

Food & Drink

Festivals, Traditional customs

Soups
- Borshch: beetroot soup with vegetables and meat
- Okroshka: cold soup made from cucumbers, sour cream, potatoes, meat, egg and kvas (a beer-like drink)
- Solianka: thick meat or fish soup with salted cucumbers and other vegetables
- Ukha: fish soup with potatoes and onion
- Shchi: soup with cabbage or sauerkraut with other vegetables

Main course
- Kotlety: usually a croquette of ground meat
- Pelmeni: Siberian dumplings, stuffed with a mix of pork, beef and lamb.
- Golubtsy: cabbage leaves stuffed with a mix of chopped pork, beef, lamb and vegetables.
- Beef Stroganov: Beef slices in a rich sauce
- Zharkoye: meat or poultry stewed in a clay pot with mushrooms, potatoes and vegetables
- Tsyplyonok tabaka: grilled chicken
- Osetrina s gribami: sturgeon with mushrooms

Desserts
- Tvorog: sort of sweet cottage cheese, often served with sour cream or jam.
- Blini: pancakes with jam or other sweet filling
- Pirog: this can be a small pastry or a larger cake. Pastries are usually filled with apple, tvorog, jam, or cabbage.
- Pirozhnoe: pastries
- Kisel: fruit jelly

Drinks

Pivo – Russian people drink a lot of beer. New brewers are starting up all over the country, and bringing quality and taste up to Western norms. The most famous St. Petersburg brands are Nevskoye, Petergof and Baltika.

Vodka is distilled from wheat or rye. The word comes from “voda” (water), and means something like “a wee drop”. Its flavour comes from what’s added after distillation. Two common “plain” vodkas are Stolichnaya, which is slightly sweetened with sugar, and Moskovskaya with a touch of sodium bicarbonate. Taster, more colourful are Zolotoe Koltso (Golden Ring), Partsovka (pepper vodka), Starka (with apple and pear leaves), Limonnaya (lemon vodka). The local brand is Pyotr Veliky.

Kvas is fermented rye bread water, dispensed on the street from big wheeled tanks with “kvas” printed on the side. It’s mildly alcoholic, tastes not unlike ginger beer, and is cool and refreshing in summer.

Mead: brewed from honey, is a great winter warmer.

Tea: the traditional Russian tea-making method is to brew an extremely strong pot, pour small shots of it into glasses and fill the glasses with hot water from the samovar, an urn with an electric element inside. The pot is kept warm on the top of the samovar.

Kefir: liquid yoghurt served as a breakfast drink

Things to Do

Hotels

Restaurants  

The Hermitage Museum - www.hermitagemuseum.org
A world-class museum founded in 1764 by Empress Catherine II, but was only opened to the public in the 19th century. The museum boasts more than 3 million works with paintings of such great masters as Leonard da Vinci, Titian, Raphael, Rembrandt, Poussain, Manet, Renoir owned by the Hermitage. The museum is also famous for its collection of Scythian golden articles.

The Russian Museum www.rusmuseum.ru/eng
Founded in 1898, this is the largest and most complete museum of Russian art. The museum's collection of art is housed in the Mikhailovsky Palace. It houses works by great Russian artists including painters Pavel Fedotov, Isaac Levitan, Orest Kiprensky, Ilya Repin.

The Marble Palace www.rusmuseum.ru/eng
The palace houses a permanent exhibition of European artists of the 18th and first half of the 19th centuries who lived and worked in Russia.

The Museum of the History of St. Petersburg
www.stpetemuseumofhistory.org
Formed in 1918, the museum holds about 840 thousand items, a unique collection of maps of St. Petersburg, genuine drawings of famous architects, household articles of the 18th - 20th centuries.

The House of Peter the Great
Constructed in 1703. The museum exhibits the items related to victory of Russia in the Northern War of 1700-21, as well as items about foundation of St. Petersburg. The interiors show household items of the 18th century, and objects that belonged to Peter the Great.

Cruiser Aurora www.aurora.org.ru
Famous for firing the first shot in the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, the cruiser has been turned into a floating museum containing documents related to the Revolution.

Dostoyevsky Memorial Museum www.md.spb.ru
The museum opened in 1971 to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the birth of the great Russian novelist. He spent the last years of his life here and writing one of his greatest novels, "The Brothers Karamazov".

Astoria Hotel (5*)
Ul Bolshaya Morskaya 39
reserv@astoria.spb.ru - www.astoria.spb.ru
Tel: +7 812 313 5757, Fax: +7 812 313 5133
The Hotel Astoria is proud to support the exceptional highlights of the St. Petersburg cultural season. Originally opened in 1912, the Astoria is ideally located in the city centre, overlooking the landmark St. Isaac's cathedral and within easy walking distance of the Hermitage Museum and Mariinsky Theater.

Grand Hotel Europe ( 5*)
Tel: +7 812 329 6000, Fax: +7 812 329 6001
The Hotel, located in the heart of Saint Petersburg, offers a superb combination of historical ambience and modern facilities after an extensive renovation between 1989-1991. The building itself has been classified as a national and cultural landmark and is to be preserved as a historical monument.

Angleterre Hotel (4*)
www.angleterrehotel.com
Tel.: +7 812 313 56 66, Fax: +7 812 313 5118
One of the oldest hotels in Saint Petersburg, the hotel is wonderfully set in the heart of the city, on Isaac Square. It is located just a few minutes walk from the Hermitage, the Admiralty, and other attractions.

Helvetia Hotel (4*)
www.helvetia-suites.ru
Tel: +7 812 117 9597, Fax: +7 812 110 6546
The hotel is housed in a mansion designed by the Swiss architect Augusto Lange in 1828 right in the city centre, just off the main street, Nevsky Prospect. Proximity to key landmarks and transportation routes combined with the unperturbed tranquillity of a secluded inner courtyard and convenient parking will make for a comfortable stay in this otherwise tumultuous metropolis.

The Guyot Hotel (4*)
The hotel is located in one of the most prestigious districts of Saint Petersburg. The nearest metro station, Petrogradskaya, is within walking distance from the hotel. Also it takes a short walk to get to such famous landmarks as the Hermitage, Summer Garden, Peter and Paul Fortress.

Mechta Molokhovets
www.molohovec.ru
Tel.: +7 812 279-2247
Authentic Russian cuisine is prepared by a talented and experienced chef to old recipes and served in an elegant dining room. The restaurant's menu specializes in fish dishes and in kulebyaka - a type of Russian pie (filled with fish, meats or classic potatoes and cabbage).

Count Suvorov Bar Restaurant
Tel.: +7 812 315 4328
Russian and European cuisine of high standard, with incomparable dishes from the Court of Her Imperial Majesty. Situated near the Gostiny Dvor metro station.

Dvorianskoe Gnezdo
Tel.: +7 812 312 0911
The restaurant is located in the tea pavilion of the Yusupovsky Palace, formerly the home of one of the city's richest families. The restaurant is exquisitely decorated and serves wonderful food. Near the Mariinsky Theatre.

Taleon Restaurant
www.taleon.ru
Tel.: +7 812 324 9911
Situated near the Nevsky Prospect metro station, One of the best luxury restaurant in Saint Petersburg, it offers superb renditions of European and Russian cuisine.

Vienna
Tel.: +7 812 117 3227
Serves a menu of sophisticated and traditional Austrian, European and Russian cuisine and an extended list of wines in an elegant atmosphere where city’s pre-Revolutionary literary elite frequented. Situated near the Nevsky Prospect metro station.

Web Sites

Official portal of the St. Petersburg government
http://eng.gov.spb.ru/

City guides :
www.saint-petersburg.com
www.inyourpocket.com/russia/st_petersburg/en
http://home.comset.net/freshspb/
www.travel.spb.ru
www.visitrussia.com/citiesguide/spb/spb.htm
http://spb.tourarena.com
www.300.spb.ru

Photos
www.visitrussia.com/guide/gallery-spb.htm

Map
http://petersburgcity.com/map/