Brief history of the festival

Before providing traditional description of the current, to some extent, anniversary festival, we will allow ourselves a brief overview of the memorable events that took place previous years.

I am talking about unforgettable meetings with outstanding chamber performers not only from our country, but also from near and far abroad. Fully justifying the status of an international festival, the Silver Lyre has managed to introduce listeners to outstanding representatives of 21 countries over fourteen years – Austria, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Belgium, Great Britain, Hungary, Germany, Georgia, Israel, Spain, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Serbia, Slovakia, the USA, Turkey, France, the Czech Republic and Japan. Moreover, many of the foreign artists have been our guests more than once.

Meetings with the Berlin Philharmonic Ensemble and the Frankfurt Chamber Orchestra, the Czech and Slovak Chamber Orchestras, the German baroque ensemble L’Arte del Mondo and baroque orchestras from Italy and Azerbaijan will forever remain in the memory of connoisseurs of chamber genres. Such world-famous ensembles as the Czech piano trio "Guarneri Trio Prague", the American "Pacific Trio" and the German "Bamberg Trio" left unforgettable impressions on the listeners, along with the string quartets "Faure" (Germany), "Modigliani" (France) and "Hugo Wolf" (Austria); the Austrian ensemble "Amarcord" and the English vocal sextet "King Singers", the American jazz string "Turtle Island Quartet" and the Austrian quartet "Alban Berg". Forever in our memory are the meetings with solo pianists - the Fazil Say (Turkey), the David Fray and the Mariam Batsashvili (Georgia); the American cellist Amit Peled, his colleagues - Marc Copp?e (France) and Laszlo Fenyo; (Hungary), violinists – Frederieke Saeijs (Netherlands), Julian Rachlin (Israel) and Gaik Kazaryan (Armenia); French harpist Xavier de Maistre and Italian singer Roberta Mamelli.

But the main mission that "Silver Lyre" managed to accomplish is to reawaken the interest in chamber music-making that had faded at the turn of the century, and consequently, to advance the chamber works of Russian and foreign composers. Undoubtedly, today’s Philharmonic playbill promoting chamber genres meets the highest demands of the enlightened St. Petersburg public.

About the festival

Now in its seventeenth edition, the International Festival of Chamber Artists and Ensembles "Silver Lyre" once again presents eight concerts by a diverse range of chamber ensembles and soloists. Alongside distinguished Russian performers, the festival features artists from Serbia, Turkey, and Belarus. The opening and closing evenings will be held in the Grand Philharmonic Hall, with the remaining six concerts taking place in the Small Hall named after M. I. Glinka.

The festival opens with a performance by the New Chamber St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Yaroslav Zaboyarkin, featuring pianist Ilya Papoyan as soloist. Together they will present six harpsichord concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach.

The series of concerts in the Small Hall will open with an evening featuring a most unusual program. Pianist Evgeny Izotov will perform both Chopin concertos for piano and orchestra – but on this occasion, the role of the orchestra will be taken by a string quintet comprising members of the Academic Symphony Orchestra of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic: violinists Alexander Shustin and Yulia Tomilova, violist Daniil Meerovich, cellist Semyon Kovarsky, and double bassist Ilya Pliskin.

The following evening will be dedicated to the renowned Turkish flautist Bülent Evcil. In the first half of the concert, he will perform in a duo with pianist Ksenia Gavrilova; in the second half, he will be accompanied by the recently formed chamber orchestra "Infinitum" conducted by St. Petersburg pianist and conductor Alexander Kashpurin. They will perform works by Vivaldi, Salieri, Briccaldi, Morlacchi, Say, and other composers.

The fourth concert of the festival will allow listeners to appreciate the artistry of the young Serbian violinist Robert Lakatos, who will perform in a duo with pianist Petr Laul, well known to St. Petersburg audiences. Their program includes works by Debussy, Prokofiev, Franck, and Ravel. Of particular interest is the fact that Robert Lakatos performs on an authentic Antonio Stradivari violin.

The festival's fifth concert focuses on the cello and piano duo repertoire. Celebrated Belarusian cellist Mikael Samsonov joins St. Petersburg pianist Inga Dzektser for works by Rossini, Beethoven, Grieg, and Piazzolla.

The sixth festival concert is a crossover event dedicated to jazz arrangements of classical and popular music. The quartet of guitarist and vocalist Gasan Bagirov, featuring pianist Nikolai Sizov, bassist Vadim Mikhailov, and drummer Andrei Ivanov, will present to the audience arrangements of works by Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich, Dunaevsky, Frenkel, Basner, and other composers.

The festival's seventh concert offers lovers of classical chamber music a chance to discover the Serbian ensemble Corda Piano Trio –violinist Una Stanić, cellist Nemanja Stanković, and pianist Vladimir Milošević. They will perform Mendelssohn's Piano Trio, a work by contemporary Serbian composer Aleksandar Sedlar, and Tchaikovsky's Trio, written in memory of Anton Rubinstein.

The festival finale is a vocal evening featuring the superb mezzo soprano Olesya Petrova. She will be joined by pianist Anastasia Rogaleva and the State Russian Concert Orchestra of St. Petersburg under the baton of Dmitry Kalinin for celebrated arias and romances from the Russian and international repertoire.