The new concert from the Meetings at the Piano series will take place on December 16 and be dedicated to the works of Nikolai Alexandrovich Rimsky-Korsakov. This event is called Musical Painting.

“We’ll talk about the musical painting of Rimsky-Korsakov. This composer is known to have phonopsia or colour hearing; for him, each musical tone was coloured in a certain tint. Psychologists call this phenomenon synaesthesia, which means simultaneous sensation, mix of feelings. Nikolai Alexandrovich saw major keys in bright colours, while minor keys were dimmed for him as if covered with frost. At our concert, we’ll try to trace these colourful meanings, to understand what influence this vision had on his works, on him as a musician. Spectators will find out which tonality was the lightest for the composer, associated with love, and which one was gloomy and reflecting tragic experiences,” said concert director Anastasia Kasatkina.

The concert programme includes romance songs based on poems by Alexei Tolstoy, Alexander Pushkin, Afanasy Fet, vocal and instrumental fragments from the operas Sadko, May Night, The Night Before Christmas, The Tale of Tsar Saltan, The Snow Maiden. They’ll be performed by the opera company soloists Inna Spodina, Aliona Babivskaya, Denis Grechishkin, Alexander Mikhaliov, Davit Yesayan. Natalia Sobinkova and Svetlana Mikhaliova will accompany them at the piano. The music accompaniment will be complemented by a violin (Yulia Sabitova) and harp (Kira Lagozinskaya).