Showcasing the versatility of the guitar

On 5 November, as part of the Mikhailovsky Theatre at the Hermitage season, there will be a concert featuring music for flute, guitar, and violin from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. For the first time, our artists will perform in the museum space, filling the Large Italian Skylight Room, the New Hermitage’s magnificent grand hall, with enchanting melodies.

The programme of concert music from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries was inspired by the interior of the Italian Skylight Room, its high arches decorated with Renaissance motifs, and paintings by Tiepolo, Giordano, Crespi, Canaletto, and Guardi. Musicians, paying tribute to the Baroque and Neoclassical era, will perform compositions by Scarlatti, Bach, Handel, Paganini, Boccherini, and Gluck. The guitar will be the main instrument of the evening.

The guitar’s heyday was not confined to the 1960s when The Beatles conquered the world; it first peaked in popularity at the turn of the nineteenth century. This easily portable instrument, capable of producing such sensuous music, quickly won the hearts of music fans across Europe. The guitar was suitable as an accompaniment, as an ensemble instrument, and for solo parts. It is well-known that Hector Berlioz composed his works on the guitar.

"The guitar involves the entire orchestra", explains guitarist Alexander Barsukov. "It’s a serious classical instrument which lends itself to absolutely any style of music. Furthermore, the guitar touches the soul. Perhaps that’s why it goes so well with vocals."

The musical evening will see the guitar represented in all its forms, in combination with the flute, violin, and vocals, and, of course, in a solo performance.