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3 lveagh Road
Guildford
Surrey GU2 7PU
01483 570602
e-mail: ludmilla@rowlor freeserve.co.uk
24th May 2004
The Editor
The Surrey Advertiser
Guildford
Dear Sir,
As someone who was brought up in Russia and spent most of her life there, may | use
your letter facility to express my admiration and gratitude for the concert "A Russian
Spectacular" which | had the privilege of attending last Saturday evening.
| have often listened to performances in Moscow at the Bolshoi and other well known
theatres in the days when tickets were subsidised by the state, and | had not expected to be so
moved by a performance in a fairly small English town quite far from the capital.
Everything seemed to be so beautifully planned, from the choice of venue in that
particular cathedral with its relatively simple but noble interior to the content of the
programme which contained such different elements of Russian music but combined them
so cleverly: pre-revolutionary Borodin, Rachmaninov who died in Beverly Hills and
Prokofiev drawn irresistibly back to Russia despite the restraints he was to suffer under
Stalin.
The Guildford Philharmonic Choir with its chorus of over 100 singers did marvellous
justice to the lyrics, and in Russian(!) and | cannot understand how so much taient and
virtuosity could be found in the supporting, largely amateur Forest Philharmonic Orchestra,
especially when | have heard frequently about the under-funding of the arts in this country. No
wonder they can command the services of conductors so inspiring as Jeremy Backhouse and
soloists such as the pianist Jeremy Filsell and Mezzo Soprano Teresa Shaw.
So | do ask you to publish this letter which is a tribute | believe all those in the large
audience would also like to make. | shall never forget how, soon after the solo of the young
woman mourning the dead of the victorious battle against the Teutonic knights, the
performance ended and we all left that lovely building with the rose-tinted evening sun falling
on the white stone pillars at the western end of the cathedral. | think God was putting his seal
on the evening.
Thank you, Guildford.
Yours sincerely,
Ludmilla Presniakova
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freud ol ouss