Concert International Earlymusic Festival. Pratum Integrum Orchestra St. Petersburg Small Philharmonic "Engelgardt" Hall (established 1828)
Schedule for International Earlymusic Festival. Pratum Integrum Orchestra 2022
Orchestra: Pratum Integrum Orchestra
International Earlymusic Festival
Pratum
Integrum Orchestra (Moscow) “Friedrich and
Ekaterina”
About
Pratum Integrum Orchestra
Pratum Integrum (“unmown
meadow” in Latin) – is an orchestra dedicated to Early Music. It is the only
Russian orchestra, comprising all the groups of historical
instruments.
Early Music is still not
perfectly studied and Pratum Integrum selects the repertoire, containing
compositions totally new for the international audience.
Pratum Integrum instruments
are either authentic (of XVIII-XIX centuries), or modern copies of those.
Authentic performances, widely popular in Western Europe, were almost unknown in
Russia up to 1990s. This style radically changes Early Music compositions – like
after restoration, a musical picture appears cleaned from later
layers.
In order to bring back to
concert halls the brilliant compositions of XVIII century Pratum Integrum
carries out an active research programme . The results of these activities are
unique: the first Russian symphony – Sinfonia in C major by Maxim Berezovsky -
was discovered; the first opera by Dmitry Bortnyansky (“Creonte”; considered
vanished) was returned from obscurity. A number of pieces by Russian and
European composers were reconstructed, music by foreign composers who lived in
Russia back in XVIII century was performed. Pratum Integrum recorded a premiere
monographic album of Anton Ferdinand Tietz – an outstanding violinist virtuoso
who gained a glory at the Court of Catherine The Great.
The orchestra’s history
began in 1993 when the Ancient Music Ensemble was created in Moscow
Conservatory. In this Ensemble headed by a world-known pianist and
harpsichordist Alexei Lyubimov, almost all the Pratum Integrum musicians played
in a due course. In 2001 they separated in a group and performed a series of
Early Music concerts in Moscow and St. Petersburg under the name of “Musica
Antiqua Sankt-Petersburg”. Success of that project had two important
consequences – first, the musicians felt themselves as an intact orchestra ready
for regular concert activities and second – they attracted public attention and
started collaboration with Essential Music Company. With a support from
Essential Music in 2003 a new professional orchestra Pratum Integrum was
established (Artistic Director – Pavel Serbin).
Pratum Integrum leading
performers also continue their solo careers in authentic ensembles – A la Russe,
Musica Petropolitana.
“The young Moscow orchestra
Pratum Integrum is rapidly becoming a leader in authentic performances.
Musicians of this orchestra are real masters. Especially those, playing strings
– they sound extremely fresh and daring. Pratum Integrum performs in hurricane
tempos and emotional concentration, far exceeding the academic mainstream
limits” – Pyotr Pospelov, “Vedomosti” newspaper.
Pratum Integrum performs
without a conductor or under direction of invited Maestros. In the season
2003/2004 the orchestra (as well as Moscow public) got a great pleasure and
valuable experience giving concerts with world famous musicians – Sigizwald Kuijken (Belgium), Trevor Pinnock (UK), soloists of the Early Music
ensembles "Bergen
Barokk"(Norway) and "Il
Gardellino" (Belgium).
Since 2003 Pratum
Integrum has been recording monographic albums of the composers of XVIII century
exclusively on Caro Mitis label.
Schedule for International Earlymusic Festival. Pratum Integrum Orchestra 2022
|