Philharmonic Society of St. Petersburg Филармоническое общество Санкт-Петербурга Philharmonic Society of St. Petersburg По-русски

The Philharmonic Society Of Saint Petersburg
History from 1992

In 1992, the Philharmonic Society was revived by efforts of some notable public figures of Saint Petersburg, including the academician Dmitry Likhachov, the art director of the Saint Petersburg Academic Philharmonic Hall Yuri Temirkanov, musicologist M.G. Bialik, the chairman of the Board of the Bank Saint Petersburg Y. Lvov, and the chairman of the Union of Composers of Saint Petersburg A.P. Petrov, who is the head of the revived Society.

The principle directions of the work of the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Society is to organize and carry out symphonic, chamber, and choral concerts and various festivals and holidays, to publish books and manuals devoted to current issues concerning music, and also to support young musicians studying at musical schools in Saint Petersburg.

Since 1995, under the program 'Classics and the Future', which was started by the Philharmonic Society together with the Committee of Culture of Saint Petersburg and Bank Saint Petersburg, the Society annually establishes 15 grants which are paid monthly to the most talented young musicians. In the last 12 years fast 100 students of the city musical schools were the holders of the Society and Bank grants. The names of some scholarship holders, like I. Gringolts, M. Kultyshev, E. Frolov, A. Korobkina, A. Dmitriev, A. Grigoriev, and S. Klimashevsky are well known not only in Russia but also abroad.

During the 18 years of its new existence, the Society has organized 240 symphonic, choral, and chamber concerts, at which the compositions of more than a hundred Russian and foreign composers have been performed. In this time the Society has also organized a variety of musical cycles and festivals, which were notable events in St Petersburg musical life. Among them there were: a cycle of concerts "Honorary members of St Petersburg Philharmonic Society" (1993/1994), festival "Schuman Days in St Petersburg" (1994/1995), cycle "A Wreath for Vienna" (1997/1998), a cycle "A Joy for Those Who Stay" (2000/2001), festival "Andrey Petrov in a Circle of Friends" (2000), Festival of S.M. Slonimsky' Music (2000). As of 2001, the Society began taking an active part in organizing and carrying out the festival of the Saint Petersburg Union of Composers 'Saint Petersburg Musical Spring', and since 2004, it has been carrying out the festival 'The Earth of Children'.

To its 200th anniversary the Society has published the capital work devoted to its history and a current state of the Society. This work answers practically to all the questions connected with its activity. Besides, in the days of celebrating its anniversary the Society has held a special festival Classics and the Future, awarded by the Diploma for the best international musical project of the year in St Petersburg.

In 2008, to its 205th anniversary from the date of the establishment and to the 15th anniversary from the date of the Society's revival, the Society published An Essay on the Activities of the Philharmonic Society of Saint Petersburg, describing the most important events in the history of the Society which have occurred in five years between 2002 and 2007.

The most important events of the past years are a festival of Andrey Petrov's music 'World Creation Proceeds' (2005), the All-Russia competition of composers named after A.P. Petrov (2007 and 2008), the festival devoted to 205th anniversary of the Philharmonic Society of Saint Petersburg, a number of monographic cycles: 'All Rachmaninoff's Concerts for a Piano and Orchestra' (2004), 'All Liszt's Works for a Piano and Orchestra', 'All Mozart's Concerts for a Violin and Orchestra' (2005), 'All Beethoven's Sonatas for a Piano and Violin' (2006), a cycle of concerts in Vienna, Prague, and Bratislava entitled 'Saint Petersburg Seasons in European Capitals' (2006), a cycle of concerts for D. Shostakovich's 100th anniversary (2006), a cycle 'Three Centuries of a Piano Sonata' (2008 - 2009), a cycle 'Musical Anniversaries - 2008', a cycle 'Silver Light' (devoted to 200th anniversary of J. Haydn's death) (2009), a cycle 'David Goloshekin's Jazz Academies' (2009 - 2010), a cycle 'Life, Tears, and Love' (Sergey Rachmaninoff's chamber lyrics) (2009 - 2010).

Till February 2006 the prominent St Petersburg composer Andrey Pavlovich Petrov was the President of the St Petersburg Philharmonic Society. After his sudden death, the Society has been headed by Boris Leonidovich Berezovsky, who was an executive secretary of the Society since the day of its revival.