The Year of Rembrandt in the Hermitage

The series of concerts in the Hermitage Theatre dedicated to the 400th anniversary of the birth of Rembrandt and telling us about the artist's life through his work may be called symphonic installations. On 25 October 2006, this history opened up based on works of classical and contemporary experimental music as performed by the State Hermitage Orchestra, with vocalists from the Mariinsky Theatre's Academy of Young Soloists, as well as piano improvisations by the composer Sergei Yevtushenko. Video art projected on a large screen consisted of a visual collage of paintings by the famous Dutchman and rare films about him.

The Holy Family with Angels was a concert held on 22 November 2006 in the framework of the Rembrandt Project series celebrating the artist's birth. The State Hermitage Orchestra and the Children's Chorus of Radio and Television performed under the direction of Mikhail Sinkevich. The soloists were Orest Severin (flute), Olga Yarkina (harp), Alexander Stepanov (piano) and Sergei Yevtushenko (piano). The program consisted of Bach/Gounod's Ave Maria, the Bach Concerto for Two Violins in D Minor, Mozart's Concerto for Flute and Harp, A. Piart's Introductory Prayers, G. Caccini's Ave Maria, Mozart's Ave Verum, Prokofiev's Piano Sonata, Britten's Simple Symphony op. 4, S. Yevtushenko's Annunciation for a Children's Chorus, and Bach's Inventions, transposed for a chorus.

The Year of Rembrandt in the Hermitage, which included the concert series Rembrandt. Symphonic Installations, was awarded a special prize in a competition in the field of public relations - PROBA-IPRA GWA 2006. The final concert took place on 16 December 2006 in the Hermitage Theatre. The program included: Rembrandt. Pictures in Music - piano improvisations by Sergei Yevtushenko and a video work by Artem Gridnev; the Unfinished Symphony N 8 in B Minor (composed in 1822) by Schubert (1797 - 1828) performed by the State Hermitage Theatre under the baton of Artistic Director and Chief Conductor Saulius Sondeckis; and a presentation of the film Kneht about a musical project dedicated to Rembrandt, made by film director Dmitry Kazakov on the basis of a scenario by Natalya Kozhevnikova.