"Blown Away From The Chair"
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| The choir "Melodika" from Saint-Petersburg is a guest of the city church of Ohligs.
The youth choir "Melodika" got the admiration of the audience in the city church of Ohligs by performance of the compositions by P.Chaikovsky, F.Mendelsohn, G.Gerschwin and several others. The repertoire also included some Russian folk songs.
The ensemble of 35 persons proved to be strong-voiced and almost ideally concordant team. Such performance after the exhausting trip means the high level of mastery of the performers, who are, generally, girls, but there are also 2 boys.
Monday morning they got the bus in Saint-Petersburg, so that they could arrive to Ohligs on Wednesday afternoon. In the evening of the same day they were giving the concert.
"The very first sounds of the prelude have blown me away from the chair",- admires the church musician Birgit Rohde. She got into the contact with the Russians via her father, who is also a church |
musician. The great efforts were made by Svetlana Semenova. She guides this choir, which consists of 12-19 years old students of the children's art school named after Mravinsky. The education in this school is incomparable to the German musical school; it is more like the conservatoire. In order to enter instrumental or choir department of this school, the young people have to pass the entrance examinations.
The performers obviously had musical ambition but they weren't self contained. And even when the accompanying piano-player Albina Simonova lost the thread, the young talents took it with humor (during the performance of the piece of G.Gerschwin "I got Rhythm").
The joy of singing reached the public and the singers could leave the church only after playing two encores.
The next day the tourist bus was awaiting the youth. The further plans of the tour include the concerts in Berlin and Paris. |
Musical Tour Around The Europe
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| By MARIA PALLASCH |
On Wednesday evening, in spite of the heavy shower, the Evangelical Church of Ohligs was visited by the numerous curious people. Their "wet" jorney was rewarded by the music The youth choir "Melodika" from the art school named after Mravinsky from Saint-Petersburg appeared in front of the audience. The public was rapturously listening to the voices as clear as a bell. The specialized school for the musically gifted children has been existing since 1937, where the students are obliged to go in for choir singing besides the individual lessons in the orchestra. From 4 years old after the entrance examinations the children may attend this school, which not only is comparable to the musical school of European level, but, which is more like the conservatoire. This time, 26 boys and girls of more than a thousand students were the guests of Solingen..
Multilingual Programme
The diversified and, above all, multilingual programme of the choir consists of the folk songs of Russia, clerical music as well as of the music from the operas and movies of various continents. Svetlana Semenova is confidently guides the choir during the concert. Her conduction is so cautious and unobtrusive, that the performance flows without any nervousness. The childrens choir "Melodika" is a women's choir; the team includes just two boys of the average school age. And it was even more astonishing to hear how |
wide was the tonal spectrum. This became apparent distinctly in the Russian folk song ("In The Open Field The Oak Stands") by Alexander Grechaninov. When the Russian text couldn't contribute to the understanding, the musical interpretation was coming into force, especially in the folk songs. The anxious rhythm of the song "Little Mosquito" would allow to easily recognize the buzzing of mosquito. The song "Volga, Volga" would remind of the peacefully flowing river..
Clear And Lucid Tone
Only a few pieces were performed to the accompaniment of the grand piano (Albina Simonova). In general, the choir represented itself on its own. However, it wasn't noticeable that a'capella singing was difficult fof the singers. Difficult passages were overpassed effortlessly. First - tense hardness, then - weaknessof the voices didn't allow to hear separate voices. The choir was uninterraptedly integral sound device, which enraptured the well-known and recognizable compositions of Leonard Berstein "Tonight" and George Gerschwin "The Rhythm". It seemed that the sparks were running throughout the hall during the vigorous and brisk performance. The ceaseless storm of applause and full donation purse were the reward to the young musicians from Saint-Petersburg.
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