Events

«Acoustic Baroque»

Sergei Evtushenko, composer, initiator and director of the Festival: «"The courtyard of the Hermitage was created for very strong emotional experiences, but relaxing music - is more for private occasions, for more of an enclosed event. Music is soothing, it creates comfort, but when you listen to music here and look around, at the set, the statues, the trees, you understand that this place doesn't go very well with such music, as was the case with the "Terem Quartet" and "The Virtuosos of Moscow", although they're also, of course, very accomplished musicians...

But when you listen to Mozart's "Lacrimosa" and the entire hall is wiping tears from their eyes...that's what it should be like! And precisely here, in the Hermitage, when Yury's voice rings out, there's that kind of paradox...I start to get goosebumps! There's a harmony between this place and his voice, I really can't understand it....It wasn't coincidental-that he half-jokingly dedicated the concert today to the builders of the Winter Palace, i.e., simple Russians - not to the Italians who designed it, not to the Germans who lived in it, but to simple Russian builders.

I think what we call "classic" is that which continues to live. And when I was walking in the courtyard of the Cappella and heard some guy playing one of Shevchuk's songs on the guitar, it made me want to give him these meager 10 rubles because he's continuing the tradition, he's upholding it. We heard here today what's alive, an enduring tradition, an enduring classic...We're creating a new classical tradition!"»

Mikhail Borisovich Piotrovsky, Director of the State Hermitage Museum, Artistic Advisor to the Festival: «"Here one should be able to hear any kind of music, presented by normal people for normal people in a normal environment, but it doesn't have to be hysterical music. This place isn't suitable for disco, which drives so many to ecstasy! Shevchuk appeared here a couple of years ago, and read poetry...He's an excellent musician, and he does what's right for this place. And he performs what's right for the "Ice Palace" when he plays there. You've got to work with intelligent people, then everything's in order! This is what we're struggling to do for Palace Square, which is one of the holiest places in Russia (excluding the churches, of course) - to do what should be done. The criteria of it lies in the spirit of the Hermitage: that which corresponds to the spirit of the Hermitage is also the case for Palace Square. We're against forcing something onto Palace Square, but we're in favor of that which treats it with respect. Whether it's DDT or the Bolshoi Dramatic Theater - we want the Hermitage to dictate the taste of what happens here!"»

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