St Petersburg, Concert Hall

Viktorova. Mother Russia (world premiere)


I International Chorus Festival Maslenitsa in Song

PERFORMERS:
The Mariinsky Women's Chorus

The Children’s Chorus of St Petersburg TV and Radio
Principal Chorus Master: Stanislav Gribkov

The Mariinsky Orchestra
Conductor: Andrei Petrenko


PROGRAMME:
Olga Viktorova
Mother Russia (world premiere)
cantata for soloists, children's chorus and symphony orchestra

About the Concert

Olga Viktorova’s cantata Mother Russia for soloists, children’s chorus and symphony orchestra was written with the aim of presenting Russian folk music in all its genres and geographic variety.
“At the basis of my cantata lie songs from the Smolensk Region, Transbaikalia and the south of Russia. These songs were recorded by folklorist Feodosy Rubtsov by ear, and so it may be said that they had already passed through an initial ‘check’ by a composer.
“The idea of creating the cantata developed gradually. It all began while I was still a student at the St Petersburg Conservatoire, when I spent a great deal of time in the folkloric laboratory of Anatoly Mekhnetsov. Almost all the holidays, both summer and winter, we spent ‘in the field’ – we sought out, listened to and recorded songs by female folk song-writers. “This relationship with ‘mother Russia’ to a great degree has had an effect on all my subsequent work.
“One direct impulse for producing this work was meeting Andrei Petrenko, a wonderful musician and Chorus Master of the Mariinsky Theatre. We met at the Yekaterinburg premiere of my work Sancta Maria for chorus and cello.
“When the work finished we felt a mutual understanding, and Petrenko suggested that I write a work for children’s chorus and orchestra.
“Then I turned to Rubtsov’s anthology. I was immediately gripped by the variety of intonations and melodies in the material – the purity and freshness of the Smolensk refrains, the sources of the music of eastern Slavs that had been preserved in remarkable purity, the Cossack lyricism of Transbaikalia and the vibrant colours of Russia’s south that were a record of the utter power and beauty of pagan dance.”
Olga Viktorova

About the performers

The St Petersburg Radio and TV Children’s Chorus was founded in 1955 and was the first children’s chorus to feature in the USSR’s broadcasting system. The ensemble has collaborated with such outstanding musicians as Yuri Slavnitsky and Isaak Dunayevsky. Currently the chorus takes part in choral and symphony music concerts, operas, plays and other official events. The ensemble tours throughout Russia and to Japan, the USA and Europe.
The chorus’ repertoire includes works from various eras and styles, such as Britten’s War Requiem and the cantata Ceremony of Carols, Mahler’s Third and Eighth Symphonies and Orff’s Carmina Burana.
The St Petersburg Radio and TV Children’s Chorus is a regular participant in Mariinsky Theatre performances of A Midsummer Night’s Dream (choreography by George Balanchine), The Nutcracker (production by Mihail Chemiakin), А True Story about Cinderella (directed by Arkady Gevondov) and The Queen of Spades.

Age category 6+

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