THE FOURTEENTH INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF CHAMBER ARTISTS AND ENSEMBLES

The First International Festival of Chamber Music "Silver Lyre" took place in November 2010. It had a great success and, on the whole, accomplished its task of promotion and popularization of the inexhaustible "mine" of chamber instrumental and vocal music of Europe that appeared in the last four centuries.

The Second International festival of chamber music, concerts of concerts were carried out in November 5 - 12 in the Small and Grand Halls of the Saint Petersburg Philharmonia named after D.D. Shostakovich, had now the same task.

The specific objective of the eight festival concerts was two-fold:
- To present the best European chamber ensembles, occupying top positions in the ratings and top lists of the leading concert agencies, to the Petersburg public;

- To return to the repertory of Saint Petersburg the masterpieces of chamber music art, which we hear so seldom in recent years and also "to bring into general use" the works of masters of the twentieth century with sporadic inclusion of works of modern authors to the program, including Russian composers.

The widest range of repertoire of the festival - from Baroque music to the works of the XXI century - was intended for the disclosure to the audience of a vast panorama of the development of chamber music genres, reflecting national manner and performing styles of musicians from different countries, represented by invited ensembles.

Programs of all of the eight concerts of the Second International Festival of Chamber Music "Silver Lyre" consisted of music, created in XVII - XXI centuries. Pieces of music by Beethoven and Schubert, Schumann and Saint-Saens, Tchaikovsky and Brahms, Faure and Mahler, Rihm, Kurtag and Huber, Law and Bernstein, as well as Piazzolla and Jobim will be performed by the leading European and Russian top-class ensembles.

Among them where George Sand Trio from France, Faure Quartet from Germany, the Studio of New Music from Moscow and St.Petersburg Chamber Soloists, as well as two virtuoso duos - piano duo of Richard Hyung-Ki Joo and Yu Horiuchi, and a duet of violin and piano consisting of Mayuko Kamio and Miroslav Kultyshev.

In honor of the Year of Italy in Russia, the Festival "Silver Lyre" have been opened with the concert of Venice Baroque Consort, famous for the authentic tradition of performance of the works by Vivaldi. The festival have been closed by the concert of a famous Austrian ensemble Amarcord Wien, performing in the popular genre of "crossover".

Presentation of the top ensembles, performing masterpieces of chamber music and representing national performing schools, fully responded to the basic concept of the festival. And the noble aspiration for music education is its ideological basis. Which was very natural, because of from the moment of its foundation in 1802 the Philharmonic Society of Saint Petersburg aimed to educate and popularize the classical music heritage.

Nowadays, the Philharmonic Society traditionally carries high the banner of the enlightenment. That is why it was the founder of a new chamber music festival, which has the task of returning of the vast layer of undeservingly forgotten or rarely performed pieces of chamber music to concert life and cultivating the public taste for perception of fine and exquisite ancient and modern chamber music opus.