Events

International Antiquarium Music Festival

With concerts and festivals galore in Moscow, it is getting harder to attract a finicky public. Music gourmets can still expect a veritable feast later this month. The Antiquarium Festival on April 29-May 1 is dedicated to ancient music and authentic performances. It offers more than 30 concerts performed by the best musicians from 12 countries. It may seem impossible to hold this many concerts in only 3 days, but the organizers – The Moscow Region Production Center and Moscow International Performing Arts Center – are getting round this by running the festival non-stop, with concerts starting in the morning and finishing late in the afternoon at the three venues simultaneously: The Moscow International Performing Arts Center, The Moscow Conservatory, and the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. According to Olga Filippova, the festival’s art director, this schedule will compel audiences not to run after the big names and instead to really concentrate on their preferences.

The festival is impressive not only with its size but also by the quality of the performers taking part. On the Russian side there will be orchestras that have already won themselves a reputation in this type of music – Pratum Integrum, Le Ton Sensible, Moscow Baroque, Musica Petropolitana, Catherine the Great Orchestra and others. Notably, the latter was formed in the course of a different ancient music festival – Earlymusic, based in St Petersburg. As for the list of European musicians, it is enough to make any ancient music festival green with envy. To open the festival the Gabrieli Consort and Players have prepared more than just a concert – a restored coronation ceremony of Venetian doge Marino Grimani of 1595 which will be shown in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. Coranto Early Dance and Music, dressed in the restored costumes of the era, will demonstrate dances of the 16th-18th centuries. Another piece de resistance is the theatrical performance by the Red Priest Ensemble that combines music by Vivaldi with the latest sound and light technologies, video and animation.

The list of exceptional performances is endless, but each one of them is sure to make the audience accede to the authenticity served up on stage. And hopefully, they will help audiences imbibe what the organizers are aspiring for – a keener taste for the pageantry of the real world.

For more information see www.passportmagazine.ru and www.antiquariumfestival.com.