News

10.03.2023

Theatre presents symphony concert

The masterworks of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky hold a special place among the operas and ballets that form the core of the Mikhailovsky Theatre’s repertoire.

The Nutcracker, The Sleeping Beauty, and Swan Lake in Nacho Duato’s choreography offer audiences fresh insight into these classic ballets. Eugene Onegin is a production that has garnered three Golden Mask awards for the Theatre and sparked controversy over the boundaries of director-led opera. The Mikhailovsky’s legendary Queen of Spades has been performed for 40 years and Iolanta for 20, proving that classical interpretations of a musical score can enjoy an equally illustrious history. The magnificent Oprichnik was one of the most talked-about premieres in recent years. The conductor’s unique interpretation of this early opera by Tchaikovsky, which is rarely performed in Russia, at the Mikhailovsky Theatre was hailed as exemplary by critics.

The symphony music concert is a chance to look at this much-loved composer’s work from a different angle. On 11 April, the Mikhailovsky Theatre Orchestra will perform well-known symphonic works by Tchaikovsky, conducted by Alexander Soloviev, the theatre’s Principal Conductor and Musical Director, who devised the programme. The violin solo will be performed by Olga Volkova, winner of several international competitions.

“The Violin Concerto (1878) and the Fifth Symphony (1888) are opposites in some ways,” says the conductor. "The first was composed at a time of creative growth for Tchaikovsky, the second when he was stricken with self-doubt and uncertainty about the path he had chosen. The first bristles with life force, youthful energy, and joy; the second looks beyond the unknowable outermost reaches of existence, seeking answers to the most essential questions of being.

The Violin Concerto was written in just one month. It brims over with good humour, beauty, and vitality. There is very little in the way of thematic contrast: the musical images merely complement each other. There is none of the drama and tragedy so characteristic of Tchaikovsky; instead, harmony and joy reign supreme.

The Fifth Symphony was, in a way, a test for Tchaikovsky. More than a decade had passed since he finished his Fourth Symphony, and the composer was trying to re-examine the theme of Fate and its influence on the Individual, reflecting on attempts to endure and emerge victorious from the struggle with fate. To this day, this music compels performers and listeners to address the conundrum associated with the finale every time. Who will win: Good or Evil; the Individual or Fate? Eminent conductors have interpreted the finale in their own way, sometimes radically differently. Serge Koussevitzky’s 1943 rendition, for example, was perceived by his contemporaries as a triumph of the forces of light. Yevgeny Mravinsky’s interpretation, by contrast, was tragic: the great conductor insisted that the end of the symphony should sound genuinely terrifying. For me, one of the most artistically convincing renditions of the Fifth Symphony was by the remarkable conductor Arnold Kats. His vision has largely shaped my own approach to this work. In my view, the Fifth Symphony is above all a dramatic retelling of the life of an individual seeking his own path, struggling with temptations, and building a relationship with Providence. Yet all the narrator’s efforts seem to be doomed: an almost-won victory ends in defeat; behind the mask of love lurks betrayal. At the most tragic and pivotal moment, when it seems that the hero must surely surrender and perish, he accepts his fate and is ready to bear his cross. And it is then that the miracle happens. The impending defeat is transformed into a true victory and triumph of humanity. What should have been a tragedy becomes an anthem to the Individual."