Monday, October 15, 2007

Russia

We were in Russia for almost two weeks with my wife - actually we were on honeymoon. We were in St. Petersburg as well as in Moscow. We were saw an excellent performance of the legendary Kirov Ballet in Mariinsky Theatre. St. Petersburg is an old cultural centre of Russia and has a great ambient

In Moscow we were on a concert of the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra in the Great Hall of (Bolsoj Zal) the Tchaikovsky Conservatory which is a
legendary place as well. Sviatoslav Richter, David Oistrakh all the great Russian (CCCP) artists used to study there. Lots of old poster and pictures on the walls give you a feeling that time does not go by, they will train and "manufacture" the best musicians, composers for the world every time. They played Igor Stravinksy: Petruska, S.Prokofjev Violin Concerto No 1 in before the break and then Alexander Borodin: Symphony No. 2.

We haven't seen any kind of classical guitar concerts and we did not meet local guitarists at all. It is interesting when I have couple of days somewhere in the world I neve meet classical guitarists I prefer other instruments as well as other arts such as literature, paintings etc.

We were in Dostojevski museum but it was not that great. It was good to see his manuscripts, plans and drawings of his characters. He was a very talented draughtsman as well. I have read a lot of his works and planned to go through all the Fjodor Mihajlovic's books.