6th International Early Music Festival opens in St. Petersburg

The 6th International Early Music Festival opens in St. Petersburg on Thursday.

Music by Russian and foreign composers who served at the Russian imperial court in the 18th century, music which was popular at the Italian and Spanish courts in the 17th century and other masterpiece of the European baroque period will be performed as part of eleven concerts, the festival's organising committee said.

The concerts will be held in St. Petersburg's best music halls.

Two concerts will also take place in the Gonsago Theatre in Arkhangelskoye, the Moscow region.

Famous European and Russian ensembles and soloists, including Russia's first baroque Orchestra of Catherine the Great participate in the festival.

The Early Music Festival was founded in 1998 in honour of the 300th anniversary of Peter I's Great Embassy to England and has been held annually since then.

It is entitles the Early Music Festival because it not only opens the way to the sources of music traditions of Western Europe, Russia and East but also represent the modern trend in art - authentism (historically authentic performance of old music on the instruments and in the style of past epochs).