May 20, 2022 | Svetlanov Hall of the Moscow International Performing Arts Center
Subscription Series “Two Centuries of Russian Classics”
“A Love Story”
Conductor – Arsenty Tkachenko
Prokofiev. Fragments from the “Romeo and Juliet”
Artemyev. Fragments “The Barber of Siberia” soundtrack
The National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia will give its last current season concert in its main venue, i.e. the Svetlanov Hall of the Moscow Performing Arts Center, on May 20. The closing program of the “Two Centuries of Russian Classics” subscription series includes two orchestral suites – one from the music to Sergei Prokofiev's ballet “Romeo and Juliet” and the other from Eduard Artemyev's soundtrack to the film “The Barber of Siberia” (“Il Barbiere di Siberia”). The conductor will be Arsenty Tkachenko, the NPR's assistant artistic director. Artemyev's music will be combined with video clips from the legendary film by Nikita Mikhalkov.
Eduard Artemyev is a classic of contemporary Russian music. A major part of the audience know him as the author of soundtracks to such films as “Solaris”, “Mirror”, “Stalker”, “At Home Among Strangers” and many others. He is duly compared to Ennio Morricone, John Williams and other giants of the film industry: his melodies are heard in more than 200 films half of which are part of the golden fund of the Russian and world cinematography.
Nikita Mikhalkov's film “The Barber of Siberia” was widely distributed in 1998, becoming one of the biggest and costliest projects in the history of Russian film-making, not inferior to Hollywood blockbusters in terms of picture quality and stereo sound and in its range of crowd scenes and spectacular richness. Eduard Artemyev confessed that he had been enticed by the grandiosity of the idea. 'Slightest details and intonation are most important for Mikhalkov.' - says the composer. 'The question of the basic theme is of utmost significance for him. And the matter is not that it should be memorable. The main thing is a kind of “kernel” that immediately catches the audience's attention, which is not easy to achieve.'
In his turn, Mikhalkov remarked: 'For an artist like Artemyev music is everything that we hear in the world, embracing voice, water, wind... He is a great composer who is living his life fully by music. He is music himself! What is it working with Artemyev? It is not work but life in its essence!'
The music of Prokofiev's ballet about the two Verona lovers is recognizable from the very first bars. It beguiles by “the distinctive symphonic portrayals of the principal characters, Prokofiev's trademark instrumental inventiveness and overall tone of discreet and noble lyricism” as wrote the eminent musicologist Ivan Sollertinsky. The fragments from the ballet chosen carefully by Arsenty Tkachenko for NPR's May program will be presented in the first part of the concert.