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By Matthew Westphal
08 Aug 2007

Those of us who listened to classical LPs back in the day will probably remember the Leningrad Philharmonic, which developed a towering reputation with its recordings of the Russian orchestral repertory under conductor Yevgeny Mravinsky on the old Soviet label Melodiya.

The near-legendary Mravinsky, who was at the Philharmonic's helm for 50 years, has passed on, as has the Soviet Union, but his orchestra — now the St. Petersburg Philharmonic — remains formidable. Last year a consortium of critics from ten European media outlets voted the ensemble one of the top ten in Europe.

Yuri Temirkanov, artistic director of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic.

Happily, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic visits the U.S. every few years, and it has announced a coast-to-coast, 20-city tour of this country this fall, beginning at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. on October 23 and ending at Benaroya Hall in Seattle on November 20.

Seventeen of the 23 concerts on the tour will be conducted by Yuri Temirkanov, the Philharmonic's artistic director, with the remaining six led by associate conductor Nikolai Alexeev.

Repertoire for the tour includes Beethoven's Violin Concerto, with Julia Fischer as soloist; Schumann's Piano Concerto, featuring Nelson Freire; the overture to Mozart's Marriage of Figaro; the third entr'acte from Schubert's Rosamunde; Prokofiev's Fifth Symphony; and a suite arranged by Temirkanov from Prokofiev's score for the ballet Romeo and Juliet.

In addition, on November 1, for the second program of a three-concert run at New York's Carnegie Hall, the Russian Chamber Chorus of New York, the Dessoff Choirs and mezzo-soprano Larissa Diadkova join Temirkanov and the Philharmonic for Gyorgy Sviridov's Miniature Triptych, Mussorgsky's Songs and Dances of Death and Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky.

For more information about the orchestra, visit www.philharmonia.spb.ru (and click on "English").

St. Petersburg Philharmonic
U.S. Tour, Fall 2007

23 Oct 07 - Washington, D.C. - Temirkanov/Fischer -
     Mozart; Beethoven; Prokofiev
25 Oct 07 - Newport, VA - Temirkanov/Fischer -
     Mozart; Beethoven; Prokofiev
26 Oct 07 - Chapel Hill, NC - Temirkanov/Freire -
     Schubert; Schumann; Prokofiev
28 Oct 07 - Newark, NJ - Temirkanov/Freire -
     Schubert; Schumann; Prokofiev
30 Oct 07 - New York, NY - Temirkanov/Fischer -
     Mozart; Beethoven; Prokofiev
31 Oct 07 - New York, NY - Temirkanov/Freire -
     Schubert; Schumann; Prokofiev
01 Nov 07 - New York, NY - Temirkanov/Diadkova -
     Sviridov; Mussorgsky; Prokofiev
02 Nov 07 - Purchase, NY - Alexeev/Freire -
     Schubert; Schumann; Prokofiev
03 Nov 07 - Greenvale, NY - Temirkanov/Fischer -
     Mozart; Beethoven; Prokofiev
04 Nov 07 - Ann Arbor, MI - Temirkanov/Fischer -
     Mozart; Beethoven; Prokofiev
06 Nov 07 - Chicago, IL - Temirkanov/Fischer -
     Mozart; Beethoven; Prokofiev
07 Nov 07 - Urbana, IL - Temirkanov/Freire -
     Schubert; Schumann; Prokofiev
08 Nov 07 - Iowa City, IA - Alexeev/Freire -
     Schubert; Schumann; Prokofiev
09 Nov 07 - Lincoln, NE - Alexeev/Fischer -
     Mozart; Beethoven; Prokofiev
10 Nov 07 - Overland Park, KS - Alexeev -
     Prokofiev
12 Nov 07 - La Jolla, CA - Temirkanov/Freire -
     Schubert; Schumann; Prokofiev
13 Nov 07 - Santa Barbara, CA - Alexeev/Freire -
     Schubert; Schumann; Prokofiev
14 Nov 07 - Costa Mesa, CA - Temirkanov -
     Prokofiev
15 Nov 07 - Los Angeles, CA - Temirkanov/Freire -
     Schubert; Schumann; Prokofiev
17 Nov 07 - Davis, CA - Alexeev -
     Prokofiev
18 Nov 07 - San Francisco, CA - Temirkanov/Freire -
     Schubert; Schumann; Prokofiev
19 Nov 07 - San Francisco, CA - Temirkanov/Fischer -
     Mozart; Beethoven; Prokofiev
20 Nov 07 - Seattle, WA - Temirkanov/Freire -
     Schubert; Schumann; Prokofiev

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