Personalities of Saint-Petersburg - The Concert Choir of the Saint-Petersburg M. Moussorgsky National Opera (Ballet)

The Concert Choir
of the Saint-Petersburg M. Moussorgsky National Opera (Ballet).

The Concert Choir of the Saint-Petersburg M. Moussorgsky National Opera (Ballet) is one of the leading choirs in North-Western of Russia. The world-famous conductors Yory Temirkanov, Mstislav Rostropovich, also singers Nikolai Gedda, Elena Obraztsova, Irina Bogatcheva, Lubov Kazarnovskaya, Katia Richarelli, who performed with the company mentioned in their interviews the high professional level of the Choir, the original vocal sound and the excellent ensemble.

The Choir often performs in the best concert halls: the Great and Small State Philarmonic Hall, the Capella, Mariinsky Theatre and other concert halls and cathedrals of St.-Petersburg and other cities of Russia. Work on musical compositions and recording for the radio and television are an essential part of the company's occupation.

This Choir was founded in 1934 as Choir of Leningrad Radio and Television. It took an active part in propaganda of the best examples of the world musical culture. The period of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 was rather hard for the company.

The Choir was besieged city for all 900 days. In 1954 G. Sandler became the artistic director of the Choir. He was at the head of the company for 32 years.

Since 1986 the Choir has been led a gifted choir master Vladimir Stolpovskikh. Quite a number of interesting programs has been prepared by the company during this period - about 400 works in different janres.

These are works of contemporary composers, operas, symphonies of Russian and foreign composers. Works by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Verdi are constantly in the repertoire. The Choir was the first performer in Russia of Mozart cantata "Davide Penitente" and also Schumann's opera "Genoveva". About 200 records were made during that period (including 16 CD).

Concerts of Russian sacred music with the participation of the Choir became traditional. These concerts gather a large audience because they offer sacred musical compositions by Rakhmaninov, Arkhangelsky, Vedel, Bortniansky, Chesnokov, and other composers. Since 1990 the Choir has performed in different countries: Danmark, Holland, Italy, Germany, France, England, Belgium, Luxembourg, Estonia.

In 1998 this Choir was invited in the Saint-Petersburg M. Moussorgsky National Opera (Ballet) special as the Concert Choir (it was the first in World! ). With the participation of the Choir was performed "Requiem" by Verdi in theatre's version (2000).