A press conference dedicated to the revival of the traditions of Lenten concerts in St. Petersburg was held on April 11 at the Journalist's House.
Ekaterina Smirnova, head of the Department of Ancient Russian Singing at the Conservatory, said that Lenten concerts are a native Russian phenomenon, there is no such tradition in the West. The first concerts took place in the XVIII century in St. Petersburg, and they began to take place regularly from the middle of the XIX century in the former hall of the Noble Assembly. Alexey Lvov, director of the Imperial Court Singing Chapel, contributed to the formation of the tradition. At first, the soul-uplifting music of Western European composers was played at concerts, and with the accumulation of the repertoire of Russian composers, the programs included their works. In 1917, the tradition was interrupted. In 2010, the concerts were revived on the historical site - the stage of the Great Hall of the Philharmonic Society by the Society for the Revival of Artistic Russia in 1915 and took place until 2016, then the tradition was interrupted and is now being resumed again.
On April 14 and 15, concerts by Divna Ljubojevic and the Melodi Choir from Serbia will take place. Their speech will be accompanied by words revealing the meaning of important days in the life of every Christian. On April 26, the male choir "Old Russian Chant" (Moscow) and the ensemble of Old Russian sacred music "The Sign" of the St. Petersburg Conservatory will take the stage. Ancient chants will be heard. On April 28, the Optina Deserts male Choir (St. Petersburg) will perform with a new program "Treasures of Russian Choral Music of the Classical period". The performances of the performers will be accompanied by historical and semantic comments.
Natalia Orlova, head of the "Society for the Revival of Artistic Russia 1915", noted that the idea to revive concerts arose after reading a book about the history of the "Society for the Revival of Artistic Russia", founded in 1915 and uniting cultural figures, intellectuals, aristocracy and major industrialists who advocated the study, preservation and development of traditional Russian culture.
The head of the Melody choir, Divna Ljubojevic, said that she would present old pre-revolutionary Serbian songs in her own arrangement.
"Performing spiritual chants at concerts is a kind of mission," she said. - Thanks to this, people who rarely go to the temple or do not go at all get acquainted with this music, it penetrates their soul. This can lead them to the temple, there is such evidence."
The artistic director of the Optina Deserts Choir, Alexander Semenov, noted that music unusual for worship would be performed at the concert. "These chants can be compared to spiritual painting. This is a religious painting in music. Especially for the concert, I wrote an arrangement for the male choir of Vladimir Martynov's work "Apocalypse" - set to music the full text of the Revelation of John the Theologian."
Based on the materials of IA "Living Water",