St. Petersburg Revelations Festival In London

St. Petersburg Revelations, a music festival staged on the banks of the Thames, has turned out a huge success. For the first time in history, the British public had a chance to familiarize itself with music composed by St. Petersburg composers of past and present in an event timed to coincide with the 300th anniversary of the former capital of the Russian Empire. The program of the festival, which rounded off this weekend, included three concerts featuring classic compositions by Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev plus modern Russian music by Andrei Petrov, Vladislav Uspensky and Georgy Firtich. Although surfeited with premieres and performances of world-famed musicians and singers, Londoners were strongly impressed by the skills of violinist Yury Zhizlin, British mezzo soprano Susan Collen /who, according to her own words, "adores melodic Russian songs" and could study the Russian language just to learn more about Russian music/, pianist Yevgenia Terentyeva and the rest of the set. Yet another fact proving the prominence of the event was that two of the concerts were staged in the Grosvenor Cathedral, where acoustics of the hall added to the expressiveness of the music. The presence of composers, who travelled all the way from St. Petersburg to appear both as performers and members of the audience, made the performances even more inspiring. According to the festival organiser and participant Yevgenia Terentyeva, it is expected that the festival will be held in London every year. Russians, on their part, will have a chance to visit a music festival called British Revelations, which St. Petersburg will host next year.