From 1 to 6 October, Russian Spiritual Culture Days will be held in the Hungarian capital ‒ Budapest.
The Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation Olga Lyubimova noted: “Russia and Hungary do not decrease the intensity of interaction in the sphere of culture. A clear example of this is the Russian Spiritual Culture Days, which will be held in Budapest in early October. Hungarian audiences will enjoy performances by the companies which play an important role in Russian spiritual culture: the Sretensky Monastery Choir, the State Academic Russian Folk Ensemble “Rossiya” named after Liudmila Zykina. The program will also include a concert by young musicians from the Valentin Berlinsky Quartet and two photo exhibitions: ‘Kizhi: A Reborn Masterpiece of Russia’ and ‘Cultural Heritage of Russia’ by the Russian Geographical Society. “
On 1 October, the Russian Cultural Center will host the grand opening of the photo exhibition Cultural Heritage of Russia, organized by the Russian Geographical Society. The exhibition is dedicated to unique historical and architectural monuments from across the country. The exhibition features 13 best works by finalists and winners of the photo contest The Most Beautiful Country held by the Russian Geographical Society”.
A photo exhibition Kizhi: A Reborn Masterpiece of Russia by the Kizhi State Historical, Architectural, and Ethnographic Museum-Reserve will also be on display. The exhibition celebrates the completion of the restoration of the Church of the Transfiguration of Our Lord on Kizhi Island—the largest, most complex, and most harmonious traditional wooden building in the world. The photos were taken by a renowned photographer Igor Georgievskiy.
On the same day, the Russian Cultural Center will host a creative meeting with soloists of the State Academic Russian Folk Ensemble “Rossiya” named after Liudmila Zykina. The theme of the meeting will be Russian Folk Instruments As A Unique Phenomenon of World Musical Culture. The musicians will perform true musical masterpieces of national art, and the ensemble’s artistic director, Honored Artist of Russia Dmitry Dmitrienko, will tell guests about the origins and development of the art of playing Russian folk instruments.
On 2 October, soloists of the State Academic Russian Folk Ensemble “Rossiya” named after Liudmila Zykina, winners of international competitions Timur Galinurov, Vladimir Dunayev, and Luiza Nuriyeva, along with guest soloists Daria Sikalskaya and Ilya Khardikov, will perform at one of Budapest’s largest and most renowned concert halls Vigadó. The concert program will feature works by Soviet and foreign classics, Russian folk songs, and some compositions which will surprise the audience.
On 4 October, the Sretensky Monastery Choir will give a concert at St. Stephen’s Basilica, the largest Catholic cathedral in Hungary. The program will include iconic works of Russian sacred music (Pavel Chesnokov’s God Is With Us, Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Having Seen the Resurrection of Christ from the Vespers, and Alexander Grechaninov’s The Symbol of Faith) as well as music by secular composers (Grape Seed by Bulat Okudzhava, Call Me Quietly by Name by Igor Matvienko, etc.)
On 5 October, the Sretensky Monastery Choir will take part in the Divine Liturgy at the Assumption Cathedral, the metropolitan cathedral of the Budapest and Hungarian Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The program of Russian Spiritual Culture Days in Hungary will culminate with a performance by the Valentin Berlinsky Quartet at Budapest’s leading music educational institution, the Franz Liszt Academy of Music, on 6 October.
The participants of the ensemble are talented young musicians, the graduates of the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory: Denis Gasanov (first violin), Pavel Romanenko (viola), Mikhail Kalashnikov (cello), and a graduate of the M.M. Ippolitov-Ivanov State Music and Pedagogical Institute Fyodor Kalashnikov (second violin). The quartet’s repertoire includes works from the Classical and Romantic periods, as well as by contemporary composers.
The program of the concert in Budapest will feature Russian and Hungarian music. It will include Alexander Borodin’s String Quartet No. 2, Op. 22, Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s String Quartet No. 1, Op. 11, and Zoltán Kodály’s Serenade for Two Violins and Viola, Op. 12.
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Russian Spiritual Culture Days is a unique multi-genre project of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, aimed at promoting the spiritual and moral values of the Russian people and the treasures of Russian culture and art in foreign countries. The project is implemented by the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation in close collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation and the Russian Orthodox Church. The project organizer is the Autonomous Non-profit Organization “Russian Seasons.”
Since 2008, events of Russian Spiritual Culture Days have been held in nearly 50 countries.
