G.P. - Tag - Nordic Music

St Petersburg update - pics and a review

Sasha Mäkilä — Wed, 27 Jun 2007 16:08:00 +0200

I received today two photos of my concert in St Petersburg last month (thanks Anna!), as well as a link to a review (in Russian). I did not have time yet to read the review, but in case it says any nice things about the concert I might translate a couple of lines into English!

I put the photos in the entry I wrote in SP. Enjoy!

Rehearsing

Sasha Mäkilä — Tue, 15 May 2007 19:03:00 +0200

Second day of rehearsals with the State Hermitage orchestra. Tomorrow comes the soloist, and let's see what happens to the modern concert piece, Jukka Tiensuu's "Puro" clarinet concerto. It has been quite a challenge to rehearse it without the soloist!

I did not remember how tired St Petersburg can make you. After both rehearsals I just had to nap for a couple of hours! Maybe the warm and humid weather has something to do with it as well... But I remember the same feeling from my student days here - always feeling somehow tired and out of tune.

P.S. I add below the photos of the concert on the May 18th which I received a couple of weeks after the concert.

Conducting the Krause overture

Me and soloist Kari Kriikku after performing Jukka Tiensuu's clarinet concerto "Puro"

In St Petersburg

Sasha Mäkilä — Sat, 12 May 2007 10:53:00 +0000

I arrived yesterday to St Petersburg by train, and last night I already took a conducting lesson from my old conducting teacher Leonid Korchmar in the St Petersburg Conservatory. I have to prepare Rachmaninov's 2nd symphony for the Evgeny Svetlanov Conducting Competition in Luxemburg, and I really have had no time to study the score, so I really need "professional help" to make the most of my time. I had a great lesson on the first movement, and this morning I had another one on the second movement. Tonight I will try a little bit of the third as well, if there is time after the official conservatory students have had their lessons.

I should have taken a camera with me, by the way. On the way back to my place (thanks Serjozha for accommodating me for this week!!!) i saw a huge poster of my concert in the metro. There was a big picture of my soloist, Kari Kriikku, and his name on dog-size letters and after that a text "the most famous clarinetist of Finland". My name was there also, in small print after the program on the bottom right corner of the poster.

The big poster with Kari Kriikku

P.S. The following day I met briefly with one of the festival organizers. She told me that the poster at the Philharmonic Hall has my name on the top and the soloist below - because I am more well known in St Petersburg! She had even met some people who remember my first concert in SP four years ago! Here is the poster of the St Petersburg Philharmonic...

This poster was on the wall of the Philharmonic