December 14,  2016 | Svetlanov Hall of the MIPAC "Masterpieces for All Times" Series  No.1 The Great Academic Choir “Masters of Choral Singing” Artistic Director – Lev Kontorovich Soloist– Аlexandra Stychkina, piano Conductor – Ken-David Masur Brahms. Variations on a Theme by Haydn, B-flat major, Op. 56a Brahms. «Nänie», Op. 82, set to F. Schiller's poem Haydn. Piano Concerto in D major  Reger. Variations and Fugue on a theme by Mozart, Op. 132 BUY TICKET The NPR's December programme in the "Masterpieces for All Times" Series covers almost a century and a half of Austro-German music, building a symbolic bridge from Viennese Classicism of the end of  the 18^th century to Neoclassicism of the 20^th century. The author of the idea and the main face of the forthcoming concert is Maestro Ken-David Masur, the only Guest Conductor with whom the NPR gives several concerts each season. On December, 9 Masur and the NPR performed music by Mendelssohn in the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall with great success. The son of famous conductor Kurt Masur, Ken-David Masur holds the positions of Principal Guest Conductor at the Munich Symphony Orchestra and of Assistant Conductor at the Boston Symphony Orchestra. He cooperates with many leading orchestras in Europe and North America. Masur's first performance  with the NPR in 2011 was his  Russian debut, and since then the conductor has performed with the Orchestra  in Moscow and  in Colmar (France) many a time. Under Masur's direction  there will be played  symphonic works by Brahms and Reger, based on themes of  Viennese classics. Reger's Variations and Fugue is written on a theme of the  A-major Piano Sonata by Mozart. In his turn Brahms masterly developed in his work a theme of "Chorale St Antoni", a  divertimento for a wind ensemble, at that time attributed to Haydn, and completed the cycle with a monumental Passacaglia. Along with  Brahms' well-known Variations the audience will hear - perhaps for the first time - his little 'secular cantata" "Nänie" set to the poem by Friedrich Schiller (neniæ  –  funeral laments of ancient Romans). Alexandra Stychkina, a pupil of the Central Music School, a grant-recipient of the Vladimir Spivakov Foundation, will be the soloist in Haydn's Concerto, written in a charming gallant style, with a playful Rondo in the Hungarian spirit. By her 12 years, Alexandra has become a winner of several competitions, including the Piano Passion in Astana, and in the spring of 2015 was among the finalists of the First V. Krainev Moscow Contest. "She is a personality of an amazing inner and outer charm, – says Vladimir Spivakov of Alexandra. – She is particularly fine in feeling musical phrasing and playing it with an exceptional naturalness.”