Long Live the Hermitage! Concert in the St. George Hall of the Winter Palace

On 3 July, 2002, the St. George Hall of the Winter Palace hosted the first concert of the festival opening the Music of the Greater Hermitage Project. The project is part of the large-scale long-term Greater Hermitage Reconstruction and Development Program which has no precedents in the museum's history. The opening festival includes 3 concerts. The first of them took place on 3 July, 2002, in the St. George Hall. Ludwig van Beethoven's overture Die Weihe des Hauses and Mass C major were performed by the State Hermitage Orchestra, Bach Chorus of Bad Homburg and German soloists Silke Burt (soprano), Katherine Hildebrandt (alto), Ralf Petrausch (tenor) and Markus Fleig (bass). Saulus Sondetskis (Lithuania) conducted. Great Beethoven's music consecrated the grandiose cultural initiative launched by the Hermitage.

Bach Chorus and State Hermitage Orchestra

Conductor Saulus Sondetskis

The concert