Dear friends,
2007 has been a vibrant 125th birthday year for the St Petersburg Philharmonic, with many celebrations focussed on the rich history of our orchestra and the re-opening of our splendidly renovated home in the Great Hall in St Petersburg. As this year of festivities of the past and present draws to a close for us, we turn to the future to launch our own recording project through the most forward-looking medium available to music – the internet. A little under a month ago we gave three concerts in Paris at the Theatre des Champs Elysees. These three concerts, centred on Tchaikovsky’s Symphonies 4,5 and 6, can be downloaded from today, Dec 25 2007, direct from this new website. We shall be documenting strategic events in the orchestra’s calendar in this way from now on, recording concerts both in St Petersburg and on tour, and making them available first and foremost as downloads.
In taking the heritage of the St Petersburg Philharmonic into our own hands in this way, our aim is to make our recorded legacy, past, present and future, available to the widest audience possible and for all time. We shall establish links with existing recording catalogues alongside building our own, and we shall sell CD products as well as downloads from our shop.
It is with pride and pleasure that I formally open the 8th International Arts Square Winter Festival 2007 not only, this year, in our opening concert, but also by welcoming you here to a new chapter in the life of the St Petersburg Philharmonic through our recording label.
All of us at the Philharmonia wish you a wonderful year ahead in 2008.
Sincerely,
Yuri Temirkanov
