On December 14-25, St. Petersburg hosts its 13th Art Square wintertime classical-music festival. Alongside the music performances the festival includes theater productions and art exhibitions.
The festival was named after one of the central squares in St. Petersburg. This square is the location of several artistic institutions in a row – St. Petersburg’s Philharmonic Hall, the legendary Russian museum, the Mikhailovsky Theater and the Music Comedy Theater. All the four are involved in the festival.
The festival was initiated by outstanding Russian conductor Yury Temirkanov, who decided to revive the tradition of winter seasons Russia’s Northern capital was famous for.
"I thought that it was important for St. Petersburg to have a winter music festival because in summer many residents leave the city. Traditionally all cultural events in St Petersburg took place only in winter. I think it is very important for the city to revive this tradition, which is fabulous in my opinion."
Yury Temirkanov succeeded in it. The festival gathers music celebrities from all over the world. The current festival is being held “under the sign” of Russia-Germany cross-cultural year. That is why the festival is dominated by German music. In particular the program includes “German Baroque masterpieces interpreted by the Berlin Academy for Early Music” as well as the full version of Beethoven music to Goethe’s tragedy “Egmont”. The presence of a big team of American musicians is reminiscent of the recent American seasons which were held in St. Petersburg in spring. Joshua Bella, a Grammy and Oscar winning violinists is one of the American guests at the festival. The program “Written in America” presents works by Russian composers who ended their lives in the US and by American composers of Russian origin– Igor Stravinsky, Sergey Rachmaninoff and George Gershwin.
The Russian museum, is the largest depository of Russian fine art in St Petersburg, has timed several exhibitions for the Art Square Festival. One of them is called “Faces of Russia”, a gallery of portraits and sculptures of people of different social rank who lived in Russia between 18 and 20 centuries. The museum offers one more exhibition called “The Sounding Substance” representing experiments on music visualization.
The Mikhailovsky Theatre’s contribution to the festival is the first-night performance of “Romeo and Juliet” ballet with the music by Sergey Prokofiev staged by a renowned Spanish chorographer Nacho Duato. Here is what Nacho Duato says about the images of his production

News source: Voice of Russia
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