Last weekend the Saratov Conservatory welcomed celebrated musicians from the Bolshoi Theatre’s woodwind quintet.
The ensemble’s history began in the mid-twentieth century with distinguished orchestral soloists including Yevgeny Ignatenko, Mikhail Orudzhev, Ivan Butyrsky, Pavel Savelyev and Alexander Ryabinin. Its membership changed over time, always drawing on the Bolshoi’s finest wind players. In 2013 the theatre’s management decided to revive the quintet. Its members today are international competition prizewinners Nikolai Popov, Sergei Lysenko, Sergei Petrov, Andrei Rudometkin and Alexei Raev.
The visit began with simultaneous masterclasses for wind students, during which the Bolshoi musicians shared their experience with young performers. That evening the quintet gave a concert in the conservatory’s Great Hall.
The ensemble was introduced by Mikhail Bryzgalov, director of the Russian National Museum of Music and president of the Valery Khalilov Wind Society.
The programme included works by Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev and Briccialdi. A special treat was music written by the members themselves: Sergei Lysenko’s recollections of The Queen of Spades, and Nikolai Popov’s Rodolfo’s Memoirs after Puccini’s La bohème and Carnival of Animals and Insects, in which each musician and instrument has a role of its own. Especially for Saratov, the ensemble arranged and performed Kirill Molchanov’s There Are So Many Golden Lights, a song closely associated with the city.
The quintet’s soloists proved to be excellent speakers as well as first-rate performers. Before each work, Sergei Lysenko and Nikolai Popov offered detailed introductions.
The audience was delighted by the musicians’ artistry and charisma, rewarding them with prolonged applause.
Source: Saratov Conservatory website.
