The cycle of concert programs "The Living Echo of Past Battles" started in the Kremlin

On February 11, the State Kremlin Palace with the support of the Presidential Foundation for Cultural Initiatives hosted the first concert of the program series "The Living Echo of Past Battles" dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the Great Victory with a full house. The key themes of the evening "And the 1812th came..." were the heroism of the defenders of the Fatherland during the Napoleonic invasion, the triumph of Russian arms and Russian patriotism, fully reflected in the solemn overture "1812" by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

The concert on February 11 in the State Kremlin Palace was attended by more than 5000 spectators.

The concert featured exclusively the music of Pyotr I. Tchaikovsky, the most famous and performed Russian composer in the world, without whose work it is impossible to imagine Russian culture today. In addition to the solemn overture "1812", the concert of two sections also included the cantata "Moscow" and Concerto No. 1 for piano and orchestra. As is well known, the cantata "Moscow" was written by Tchaikovsky in 1883 to words by Apollo Maikov for the coronation of Emperor Alexander III. The composer admitted in his letters that he was inspired by Maikov's text, and he quickly got to grips with the work. As a result, we have the opportunity to enjoy a powerful, full of inner drama and at the same time deeply poetic vocal and instrumental work that tells the story of the birth of the Grand Duchy of Moscow, the inseparability of its destiny from the history of Russia, the courageous opposition of our ancestors to foreign invaders, the gathering of the Russian land and the further establishment of statehood in Russia. Thus, within the framework of the concept of the evening, the cantata "Moscow" actually created an emotional and semantic prerequisite for the solemn overture "1812", which was performed after it, because in these works the continuity of the theme of love for the native land and readiness in any situation to fight until victory for the freedom and independence of the Fatherland was clearly traced.

The performance of outstanding musical works was complemented by an artistic word from the People's Artist of Russia Evgeny Knyazev, who was the host of the evening. Evgeny Vladimirovich preceded each of the six parts of the cantata "Moscow", which opened the concert, with poetic works, historical documents, fragments of letters of famous people, which history has preserved for us and which speak about love for the Russian land and readiness to defend it at any price, including the price of one's own life.

Before the solemn overture "1812" sounded Evgeny Knyazev read excerpts from the Manifesto of Emperor Alexander I, issued on the occasion of the end of the war with Napoleon.

The cantata "Moscow" and the solemn overture "1812" in the first section were performed by the State Academic Tchaikovsky Grand Symphony Orchestra (Artistic Director - People's Artist of the USSR Vladimir Fedoseyev), the State Academic Choral Chapel of Russia named after A.A. Yurlov (Artistic Director - People's Artist of the Russian Federation Gennady Dmitriak), the Central Military Orchestra of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (Head of the Orchestra - Honored Artist of Russia Sergey Durygin). Conductor - Gennady Dmitriak.

The solo parts in the cantata "Moscow" were performed by opera singers Yulia Mennibayeva (mezzo-soprano) and Alexander Sukhanov (baritone).

Throughout the concert program, paintings and Russian landscapes "came to life" on a large screen behind the stage, helping to create the necessary atmosphere and complementing the musical works with emotional video sequences.

General Director and Artistic Director of the State Kremlin Palace Pyotr Shaboltai: "We are not only happy, but also really proud that the most important project for the domestic audience - a series of concert programs "The Living Echo of Past Battles", dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the Great Victory, is being realized in our place, in the State Kremlin Palace. The State Kremlin Palace has all the technical and creative resources to realize this project at the highest level, and the success of the first concert of the cycle "And the 1812th began", which took place on February 11, clearly demonstrated this".