Text: Ivan BARKOV
Author’s photo
YAKUTIA.INFO. Yakutian Philharmonic’s Chorus “has taken a ride” over the world. The program performed on the concert consisted of different cultures’ songs: from “Tundra” to the hottest sides of the planet, from African American spirituals to Georgian “Doluri”, from Jewish “Hava Nagila” to Greek “Dari dari”.
And still Southern colouring prevailed in the program and everything or almost everything was of positive energy. “Libertango” by Astor Piazzolla, which is usually performed by Philharmonic’s “Arco ARTico” string ensemble, was sung by the chorus by imitating string instruments.
“Every song has it’s own charisma, which is connected with this or that culture. We were interested in diving into other cultures different intonations. And these emotions on rehearsals give us definite courage in our job. I’m mention this moment, because besides the High Classical Period’s compositions we show people that our chorus is multisided. Quality is the most important thing music must have”, - says choirmaster and director Lyudmila Shumilova.
And this music is of high quality and recognizable. In addition to this, it is quite noticeable that the collective sets free singing such light songs. Sometimes the singers dance or put thematical costumes on according to songs they perform. In this way national Russian song “Barynya” (“Mistress”) must be mentioned. After Saint-Petersburg’s tour the song became the collective’s stock-in-trade. There is Lyudmila Shumilova’s opinion about the tour to “Neva Chorus Assemblies” and about the performance in Music Hall as the first travelling experience of the Philharmonic’s Chorus.
About the festival
“We’ve gotten much experience there and I think that the chorus got the next stage of professionalism. That week we’ve been to Saint-Petersburg, something changed in our young “voices”. There in Capella the chorists took a look at ensembles of our category, our age, and, what is more important, they listened to Capella’s chorus singing conducted by Vladislav Chernushenko. They saw the maestro and the way he works with the collective. We attended their rehearsals and some of our singers even cried for admiration, for voices timbre, for high degree of performance. Everybody knows that piano is the most complicated moment, and 3 pianos is even more complicated, especially when it is a big chorus. When the chorus sings 3 piano it is just incomparable. And this experience is invaluable for us. Of course, it was also important for us to listen to other choruses singing – compare us with them, analyze”.
About performance in Capella and Music Hall
“In Capella on our performance the concert hall was full. When listeners screamed “bravo” it was sincere. Of course, we still do not do everything properly, but that time it was really important for us to show everything we learnt. But we sang there better than here. Partly it was because of the hall’s acoustics. In general, we managed to do that, we did our best. And the audience was satisfied by our performance. We could not even imagine such reaction. Yes, there were people from our republic, who supported us, but the majority was locals. When we were asked to sing the most difficult thing in the program for encore – “Strange Christmas” by Sviridov – for us it was the most significant award. And you know, someone told: “Yakut people, you have clear souls”, meaning the way we performed. And the listener here is sophisticated, I might say”.
The program we performed was really difficult one. Many people noticed that. Taking into account this fact, we can say that we as well as other collectives. Moreover, the program contained works of composers and adapters from Saint-Petersburg. In Music Hall we had to perform worthy too. And we did it. The chorists learnt a very hard work by Rachmaninov – “The Bells”, by heart. It was very difficult. But there, on the scene, the chorus felt self-assured. Before the concert we were at Fabio Mastrangelo’s master-class and it helped us for sure.
“Of course, the most Important thing is that the chorus had an opportunity to listen to the real culture of sound performed by Saint-Petersburg chorus of Capella. They got a motivation for further development. It was like a good incitement for them. The chorists’s self-trust after that experience was restored. And there is one more important moment – we were invited there once again”.