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To have time to record, you should set up too fast 

The genre of end of year summing up, just like that of funeral oration, presupposes concentrating on the positive. It is more difficult to do it for the past year than for the previous one but (if one is to believe the gloomy forecasts) easier than it is going to be for the next. So I will try. The rise in popularity of vinyl records against the background of the demise of the compact disc and the defeats of legal Internet content in a battle with torrents pleases for three reasons: firstly, producers can now hope to receive at least some income. Transmitting this hope to musicians generates in the latter a burst of not entirely reasoned out creative activity from which everyone benefits; secondly, the procedure of listening to vinyl records itself presupposes more attentive and thoughtful attitude to musical material which was so sadly lacking during the time of unconditional dominance of digital media; and finally, a vinyl record is just more beautiful than a CD, not to mention flash drives, phones and tablets. The search for reasons to be optimistic about studio life recalls the somewhat overused word “stability” which to me means a full load of long-term projects. The undisputed leader among them is a recording of ALL Russian choral music which we have been attempting with the Nikolai Kornev Choir already for over two years. An unusual and limitless international project which can be called “karaoke for academic musicians” has brought not only moral satisfaction but also a bit of money. And not only for the studio but for the musicians as well which is doubly pleasing. The curious can find out more at weezic.com This pleasant picture of full studio occupancy schedules is completed by old friends Marina Kapuro’s “Yabloko” and Vadim Kurylev’s “Electricheskie Partizany”. In recent years they have recorded so many albums with us that, I believe, must have lost track of their titles themselves. My positive party-concert impressions of the year start chronologically with the fun of the “Bomba-Piter” anniversary party at the “Zal Ozhidaniya”. The spring brought us the Avishai Cohen concert and the Kurekhin memorial festival with Aleksey Aygi. In summer there were the long “Aquarium” concert at the “More” club and the invariably varied “Usadba Jazz”. Autumn started with the 50th anniversary of the “Saigon” at the “Zal Ozhidaniya”, organized by tireless Kat and slightly darkened by the prices at the bar and tobacco control innovations, and ended with pop music concert masterpiece “Two Cellos” at the end of November. The latter proved that the combination of skill, enthusiasm and ingenuity can not only touch a gentle soul of an insurance company manager but also penetrate the thick skin of a musical snob with orange ribbons in his beard. And finally, winter began promisingly with a comeback of the group “Igry” in the intimate “VinyllaSky”. It is hoped that there is more to come.

Igor Delgado

 

The winners of this traditional competition, one of the organizers of which is our Studio, were awarded on the 18th of March 2013 in a festive concert setting at the Griboedov Club. 33 sound engineers from St.Petersburg, Minsk, Perm, Krasnodar, Novosibirsk, Orel, Kostroma, Tver and Moscow took part. The winners are:

1. Ksenia Besserebrenikova (St.Petersburg). “Scent of a Woman”. Barabash Brothers 2. Artem Klimenko (Moscow). “Absurdities”. Aloevera 3. Vladimir Nuzhdin (Orel). “Mother” Kevin Reeves

The bands 2Fingers and Music of Kings Blues took part in the concert.

The work on the first part of the Anthology of Russian Choral Miniature is now complete. Artistic director and conductor of the St.Petersburg Chamber Choir Nikolay Kornev set himself and his team a great task – to record more than 30 CDs covering secular choral works by Russian composers. We hope that the inherent purity and freshness of the Choir’s sound, emotion and precision of their interpretation of choral scores will not leave even the most demanding lovers of choral music indifferent. Sound engineer Viktor Dinov

Recitals by the composer Oleg Karavaychuk at the Great Hall of the Russian Geographical Society and at the Small Hall of the St.Petersburg Philharmonic took place in October and December 2012 with the active participation of our Studio. Full houses and warm applause rewarded not only our great compatriot but the Studio staff as well

Orchestral versions of the legendary songs of Viktor Tsoy and the band KINO were written by Igor Vdovin in 2010 for the 20 Years Without KINO festival. The compositions were very warmly received by the public and soon Igor had the idea to develop a solo programme by adding the iconic Yury Kasparian‘s guitar. And so was born Sympho-Kino – a project that has no parallel in the history of Russian rock. After a great performance at the Oktyabrsky Concert Hall on the 21st of June 2012 at a concert dedicated to Viktor Tsoy’s 50th anniversary it was decided to record at our Studio the symphonic interpretation of the songs known to every adult in this country. Sound engineer Aleksey Barashkin

A great programme dedicated to the 25th anniversary of a popular St.Petersburg Opera company was recorded at the Studio in June-July 2012. The company’s orchestra and soloists took part in the recording of opera arias. Conductor Aleksandr Goikhman. Sound engineer Aleksey Barashkin

One of the most outstanding representatives of contemporary musical culture of St.Petersburg, Aleksandr Knaifel, well known not only at home, recorded at our Studio a  for the German label ECM Records. The music is inspired by texts by Aleksandr Pushkin, Lewis Carroll and the Gospel according to Luke. Oleg Malov, Tatiana Melentieva, Petr Migunov and the Chamber Choir Lege Artis took part. Sound engineer Viktor Dinov

The awards of the Fifth Sound Engineers Competition were presented to the winners on the 12th of March 2012 at the Aurora Concert Hall. Our studio is one of the organizers of this competition, along with the Audioformat magazine, Bomba-Piter company and FontankaFM radio. 35 recordings by sound engineers from St.Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Moscow, Krasnoyarsk, Nizhny Novgorod, Volgograd, Minsk and Helsinki participated in the competition. The names of the winners:

1. Egor Ubel (St.Petersburg). “Lover’s Tragedy”. Techtonical Illumination. 2. Alex Repyev (Nizhny Novgorod). “In the kingdom of snow lions”. Rastyapino Brothers. 3. Kira Malevskaya (St.Petersburg). “The young ladies of the northern capital”. Non Cadenza.

The occasion was marked by a big concert with the participation of:

Strannye Igry L’eto project with Sergey Rogozhin, Vasya Vasin, Aleksandr Lushin, Aleksandr Lyapin, Sergey (Yefr) Yefremenko Marina Kapuro and the Yabloko Group Bumazhnoe Solntse Vadim Kurylev and Kat The Papirosy Ensemble FeedBack Cherny Yashchik

The Elektricheskie Partizany punk band has finished work on a new album which, according to its leader Vadim Kurylev, is going to be the most radical in the work of the band in recent years. “This is already the fifth album of Elektricheskie Partizany recorded at the Petersburg Recording Studio. Over the years I have recorded all sorts of music here, from Russian classic rock to psychedelic noise avant-guard. Unfortunately, I have no musical training and cannot record classical music – this is the only thing I regret every time I come back here…” Sound engineers Kira Malevskaya and Vladimir Nosyrev.

The Studio congratulates director Aleksandr Sokurov as well as our long-standing partner composer and producer Andrey Sigle and the entire crew of the film “Faust” with a victory at the 68th Venice Film Festival. We are doubly pleased with this victory because the Petersburg Recording Studio worked on the soundtrack to this film. Sound engineer Aleksey Barashkin recorded music by Andrey Sigle performed by the Academic Symphony Orchestra of the St Petersburg Philharmonic conducted by Nikolai Alekseev. According to Valery Kichin of “Rossiyskaya Gazeta”, “�I would include the sound recording for this film in film-making textbooks“.

Nearing the end is the work on an interesting ethno-jazz program “Roots of Armenian Jazz” which unites the elements of Nu and traditional jazz with Armenian folk hymns. The author of the project and the performer of all the songs is Franz Bdoyan – an original singer with his own recognisable style. Other well-known St Petersburg musicians: Lera Gertsenova, Garik Bagdasaryan, Gregory Voskoboynik and Andrey Blinchevsky also participated. Sound engineer Viktor Dinov.

On March 31 one of the leading composers of music for computer games Hideki Sakamoto from Japan recorded in our Studio 22 musical compositions from well-known games “No Heroes Allowed” and “Echochrome“. The Maestro himself conducted the St Petersburg State Academic Symphony Orchestra. Sound engineer Aleksey Barashkin

The work on a Beatles tribute album “Abbey Road” is nearing its end. We hope that just as our last work of this kind (the album “Russian Revolver”) it will bring listeners a lot of pleasant surprises. Producer Alexey Lyamin. A young, attractive and the increasingly popular group “Angel of Heaven” is finishing the recording of their debut album. Sound engineer Kira Malevskaya. The inexhaustible, unexpected and always striking Oleg Karavaychuk never ceases to record his new compositions.

For over a year we at the studio have been working on a cycle of programs to familiarize listeners with symphonic music written in the Soviet Union in the 1940s. The listener will be able to discover such composers as Lev Knipper, Gavriil Popov, Mechislav Vainberg, Yuri Kochurov, Leonid Polovinkin, Yuri Shaporin, Alexander Mosolov. Forgotten, but for this very reason so interesting, music. The State Symphony Orchestra of St. Petersburg. Conductor Alexandr Titov. Producer Yuri Serov. Sound engineer Victor Dinov. Also, very interesting music of contemporary Spanish composer Jordi Cervello performed and recorded by the string quartet “Atrium”.

A striking and unexpected disc was recorded by the St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic. Seven composers from Russia, USA and France (Isabelle Abulker, Lev Zhurbin, Michael Shell, Andrey Rubtsov, Jay Greenberg, Ivan Barbotin and James Demars) presented their new works based on poems by Brodsky, Nabokov, Pushkin, Lermontov and Tyutchev. Soloist Julia Kogan (soprano). Conducted by Jeffrey Meyer. Sound engineer Alex Barashkin.

Before a concert in St. Petersburg Demis Roussos recorded at our studio another version of his famous song “From souvenir to souvenir” in the new Moscow arrangement. Sound engineer Victor Dinov. Julia Kornacheva (soprano) and Alexey Goribol (piano) recorded a song cycle by Leonid Desyatnikov “Love and Life of a Poet” based on the poetry of Daniil Kharms and Nikolay Oleynikov. Sound engineer Alex Barashkin. Actor Viktor Sukhorukov for three days recited poems of the recently deceased St. Petersburg poet Gennady Grigoriev. Recordings will be published as an audiobook. Sound engineer Kira Malevskaya. Pinches-Tiranitos (ethnik-hooligans, esoteric rock, Mexican chanson) just finished recording their album work on which lasted almost a year. Sound engineer Kira Malevskaya

We extend our heartfelt congratulations to the prize winners of the XIII International Tchaikovsky Competition. We are especially pleased to do this as in spring of 2007 three (!) of the future prize winners recorded albums at our Studio:

• Mayuko Kamio, violin, First Prize (sound engineer Alex Barashkin, April 2007)
• Miroslav Kultishev, piano, Second Prize (sound engineer Alex Barashkin, March 2007)
• Alexander Lubjantsev, piano, Third Prize (sound engineer Gerhardt Tses, May 2007)

Such a coincidence cannot but mean that recording at our Studio guarantees success in the Competition. Future winners are welcome!

Dmitry Kouzov (cello) and Petr Laul (piano, clavichord) have recorded an album of C.P.E. Bach’s sonatas (Petersburg Recording Studio, 2007. Sound engineer Alex Barashkin).

On the 3d of April the results of the “Soundstudio 2006” sound recording competition, jointly organized by the ISPA Company and the “Peterburg’s Musician” magazine, were announced at the Griboedov Club. Ten prizes were awarded. First, Second and Third Prize winners in the “Best Recording” category received vouchers for purchase of equipment at the ISPA North Company valued at 40000, 25000 and 15000 roubles respectively. Other winners received vouchers for placing free advertisements in the “Peterburg’s Musician”. We are happy to report that our Studio received three out of seven prizes for professional studios:

• First Prize for best recording
• Prize for best recording of musical instruments
• Prize for best mixing

All three prizes were awarded for the recording of the Sinfonia Concertante by W.A. Mozart (K364) at the Great Hall of the St Petersburg Philharmonic in March 2006. Soloists: Lev Klichkov (violin), Vladimir Stopichev (viola). Baltiysky Chamber Orchestra conducted by Emmanuel Leduc-Barom. Sound engineer Alex Barashkin.

Dutch violinist Zinovy Vinnikov has recorded another programme at the Petersburg Recording Studio. His brilliant career began at the St Petersburg Conservatorium where he was taught by Mikhail Vaiman and Benjamin Shere – a student of the legendary founder of the St Petersburg violin school Leopold Auer. While still a student Vinnikov won the USSR violin competition and later won prizes at the Tchaikovsky competition in Moscow and at the most prestigious Queen Elizabeth competition in Brussels. Now a Dutch citizen, the musician takes part in numerous international projects. We are pleased that it has become a tradition for this great artist whose sound according to Yehudi Menuhin “Descended to us from the heavens” to record at our studio with a well known sound engineer Gerhardt Tses.

At the Petersburg Recording Studio sound engineer Semyon Shugal has completed recording of “Bliss” by Knayfel is one of the most published abroad Russian composers. “Lege Artis” choir, the Hermitage Academy of Music Orchestra and soloists Tatiana Melentieva and Pyotr Migunov took part in the recording. It was conducted by the internationally acknowledged authority in modern music performance Ivan Monighetti who also performed the cello solo. The work was recorded for the well known German label ECM. A previous recording of Knayfel Amicta Sole for the same label received the German music critics award for sound recording in 2005 (read review).

A renown violin teacher Zahar Bron together with his Japanese student Mayuko Kamio and the Hermitage Academy of Music Chamber Orchestra (artistic director Saulus Sondetskis) recorded a programme of pieces for one or two violins and orchestra. Many Bron�s students, such as V. Repin and M. Vengerov , belong to the world’s performing elite. The career of the young violinist Mayuko Kamio has also been rather successul to date  she has won prestigious competitions and played with well known orchestras and conductors such as Spivakov and Mehta. The works were performed on splendid instruments by Stradivari (1727) and Guarneri del Jesu (1742). (Sound engineer Alex Barashkin, Petersburg Recording Studio).

The eternally beautiful music of Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony was recorded by St Petersburg Festival Orchestra and its founder and conductor Kristofer Valander. The young Swedish maestro studied at the St Petersburg Conservatorium and in his interpretation of Tchaikovsky one senses not only the intellectual and philosophical principle characterstic of the Western European performance but also emotional openness more typical of the Russian school. (Sound engineer Alex Barashkin, Petersburg Recording Studio).