Andrey Reshetin, Fatimat Lafinsheva: violin
Andrey Penyugin: viola
Alexander Listratov: cello
Maria Uspenslaya: harpsichord
Denis Penyugin: balalaika

Andrey Reshetin: artistic director
 

Programme:

Джованни Паизиелло (Giovanni Paisiello, 1740 – 1816):
Первая аллегро для клавесина и струнных

Игнат Дубровский (Ignat Dubrovski, ? - ?):
Русская народная песня в вариациях (ca. 1800)

Антон Фердинанд Тиц (Anton Ferdinand Tietz, 1742 – 1810):
квартет посвященный Сенатору Теплову:
Romance.allegro

Иван Евстафиевич Хандошкин (Ivan Evstafievitch Khandoshkin, 1747 – 1804):
2 русские народные песня для скрипки и альта

Chevalier de Saint-George (1745 – 1799):
Le Concert de Monsieur de Saint-Georges:
Quartuor V:
Allegro/rondeau

Johann Heinrich Facius (fl 1800)
концерт для виолончел и струнных
1st movement

Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683 – 1764):
Пьеса курица – перекликание птиц

Chevalier de Saint-George (1745 – 1799)
Le Concert de Monsieur de Saint-Georges:
Quartuor IV
Allegro/ moderato

About the Programme:
"The Russian Estate: Gallantry and nationality"
In 1762 Tsar Peter III ordered the “decree of the liberty of the gentry”. Thereby he released the gentry from compulsory state service and they were free to live on their own land estates. The result was one of the most significant phenomena in Russian culture – the world of the estates. The world of the Russian estates was the planet of individual personalities. The world of the Russian estates was harmonious and tragic, it was poetic and day-to-day, it was aristocratic and close to the people. It was everything at once. At the gentry estates from St Petersburg to the Urals one could listen to the same music as in the European capitals of Paris, Vienna and St Petersburg, sometimes this music was performed by brilliantly trained serf-peasants. The serfs often painted pictures, built houses, maintained parcs etc., they were trained in Europe or by invited European masters, yet, they remained representatives of their own local culture. This incredible coming together of local national colour and gallantry became the idea of our concert.
Dmitriy Bortnyanskiy – the pupil of Galuppi. He became his pupil already during Galuppi’s stay in St Petersburg, and after that for ten years in Venice. In many ways he should have been called an Italian composer.
Henri Facius – a virtuosi of the cello and the violin, who served for over more than 20 years Count Nikolay Petrovich Sheremetev, composing, giving concerts and teaching serfs who would make up the Count’s great orchestra. The villa of the Sheremetev court was initially located in Moscow, but at the end of the 18th century Nikolay Petrovich moved to St Petersburg taking also his musicians along. They moved into the building on the Fontanka river – a brilliant example of Russian Baroque style (architect: Sava Chevainskiy). Nowadays this palace hosts the State Museum of Musical Instruments.
Chevalier de Saint-Georges – a great violinist and composer at the court of Louis XI. One of Europe’s best fencing masters. This bearer of elegant European traditions is united with Russia by his skin colour: Similar to the symbol of Russian culture Pushkin, he inherited from his mother African blood.
Ivan Khandoshkin – an extraordinary Russian violinist and composer. The legend goes that he was the pupil of Tartini. At the moment we cannot prove or deny it. But it is clear that he trained with Italian violinists who worked in St Petersburg. He had an incredible technique and created his own style on the basis of Russian folk traditions. One can say about Khandoshkin’s music that in form it is the classicism of elegant proportions, harmonious and balanced, by content it is an emotional explosion. Khandoshkin’s portrait has not been preserved, but here some words which paint a picture of him: “He was not a drunkard, of medium height with a strong physique, he had short think fingers, until the end of his life he played with a short Tartini bow, he wore wigs.”
Ignat Dubrovskiy – about this violinist and composer we do not know anything for a fact, apart from him being an evident follower of I. Khandoshkin. The theme of the present song can be found on the top of the piano-organise which belonged to Maria Federovna (the wife of Tsar Pavel I). Nowadays this instrument stands in the palace of Pavlovsk.
A.F. Tietz – he was the violin teacher of Tsar Alexandre I and the founder of Russian quartets. In his person in St Petersburg appeared the elegant and classicist spirit of the Viennese Court. He lived in Russia for almost 40 years. He was thought to be crazy because of his love to a certain person of distinction. Her social position was so high that his love could only be unrequited, as a result of which he fell ill and silent. For many years he kept silent, but continued composing and playing many concerts.
J.-P. Rameau – there is nothing i need to add to everything which has been already written and said. But i would like to add that sometimes European music which arrived in Russia acquired a strange form and became very folksy. In the 1830s the Tsarina Anna Ioannovna sent the Pandora-player Timothy Belogradskiy to Dresden. He returned as a great lute player but did not forget the folk instruments completely. There is a legend that Ivan Khandoshkin himself played the balalaika. A bright example that at the end of the 18th century specifically Russian folk instruments were used in European music was the premiere of “The Creation” by J. Haydn, where instead of trombones played a horn orchestra.
Andrey Reshetin

Bio:
The ensemble «Soloists of Catherine the Great» (Saint-Petersburg) is a unique project of the Foundation for the Revival of Early Music, which aims to discover and return into the contemporary cultural context the rich heritage of 18th century music in Russia. The ensemble has been specifically formed for the performance of chamber music (duos, trios, quartets and quintets) and presents the core of the Catherine the Great Orchestra – Russia’s first professional baroque orchestra founded in 2001. In collaboration with a number of leading experts and musicologists, the ensemble musicians have undertaken research in the Russian archives in order to bring to light and present to the public the previously forgotten masterpieces by the Russian Court composers like Khandoshkin, Jarnovich, Tietz, Facius and others. The ensemble’s other major point of interest is music which was played at the Russian noble estates in the 18th and early 19th centuries and which still retains the unique atmosphere of this by-gone world.