A MESSAGE FROM THE CREATIVE DIRECTOR OF PUSHKIN HOUSE’S INAUGURAL FESTIVAL OF RUSSIAN MUSIC

Pushkin House is very excited to announce our first ever Festival of Russian Music, which will be running for five days across multiple venues from 28 January to 2 February. Alexander Karpeyev, the festival’s Creative Director and our own in-house Music Curator, shares with us his motivations for this new adventure in Russian classical music and talks about what he hopes the festival will bring to its audiences.

MESSAGE FROM THE CREATIVE DIRECTOR

The idea of a festival devoted to forgotten Russian music has taken some time to materialise. A decade ago I discovered the music of late-Romantic pianist Nikolay Medtner. I was thrilled by the rich complexity of his music and genuinely taken aback by my ignorance of him. Celebrated in pre-revolutionary Russia then forgotten when he emigrated, he is slowly but surely reclaiming his place among his better-known contemporaries. 

Medtner is hardly alone in this regard. We all know the names of Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Stravinsky, and take for granted the greatness of their music. Yet for every one of them, there are many others like Laskovsky, Golovanov, Grechaninov and Roslavets whose music awaits new audiences. This is especially true of their chamber music and even that of better-known composers such as Balakirev, Rimsky-Korsakov and Glazunov. 

For me, one of the best things about organising this festival was discovering that I am not alone in my passionate advocacy of this repertoire. Musicians from all corners of the world are beginning to seek out, study and perform this music. For our 2020 Festival we have invited 20 soloists to perform, each of them a specialist in Russian music, so for me it will be with enormous pride and pleasure to welcome them to Pushkin House. 

Please join us on January 30th as we rediscover and savour the delights of Russian chamber music at London’s oldest Russian cultural centre. 

Alexander Karpeyev