University Concerts

Categories / Art/Music, Theatre/Theaters, Concert Organizations
UNIVERSITY CONCERTS, musical experience for students of the Imperial University, arranged in the assembly hall of the university from 1842 to the late 1850s on the initiative of court musician, violoncellist and conductor K.B. Schubert, who also directed concerts for the Philharmonic Society. The orchestra consisted of amateur and professional musicians who gave ten concerts per season on Sunday afternoons starting in November; a season ticket cost 5 Roubles, a single ticket 1 rouble, and students entered free of charge. The repertoire included classic Viennese symphonies, modern Russian and German music (M.I. Glinka, F.Mendelson, M.A. Balakirev), and compositions by Petersburg Germans (L.W. Maurer, Schubert). Celebrated soloists often took part in university concerts, including Italian opera singers A. Bozio, P. Viardot-Garcia and L. Lablache. The concerts were most often played to a full capacity audience. In the late 1850s, they concerts replaced by the symphonic gatherings of the Russian Musical Society.

References: Петровская И. Ф. Концертная жизнь Петербурга, музыка в общественном и домашнем быту, 1801-1859 гг. СПб., 2000.

A. L. Porfiryeva. Balakirev Mily Alexeevich
Bosio Angela
Glinka Mikhail Ivanovich
Lablache Luigi
Maurer Ludwig Wilhelm
Mendelssohn Felix
Schubert Karl Bogdanovich
Viardot-Garcia Michele Pauline Fernanda
Петровская И. Ф. Концертная жизнь Петербурга, музыка в общественном и домашнем быту, 1801–1859 гг. СПб., 2000 State University, St. Petersburg
Philharmonic Society
Musical Society, The Russian