CLASSICAL MUSIC

Petersburg is and has always been a major European center for classical music. Big shots like Rachmaninov, Glinka (the father of Russian classical music), Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Prokofiev, Rimsky- Korsakov, and Shostakovich all lived and composed here. Some of them even decomposed here and are buried in the Tikhvin Cemetery in the Alexander Nevsky Monastery. Special music schools set Russian kids on the musical path at a young age (four or five years old). Students from all over the world flock to the Conservatorium, and a diploma from here is considered quite prestigious amongst classical music wonks. Every June during the White Nights Festival orchestras, chamber ensembles, and soloists come to Petersburg to perform.

Tickets to classical performances are easier to obtain than ballet or opera tickets as they are less in demand, though if there is a special performance you may need to buy them in advance or resort to paying outrageous agency prices.

Shostakovich Philharmonic Hall (also called the Bolshoi Zal, or Big Hall). The St. Petersburg Academic Symphonic Philarmonic Orchestra, which due to emigration is a shadow of its former greatness, performs here as do various other groups and soloists. Every now and then a touring orchestra will perform here too, and tickets for these need to be purchased in advance. Before the Revolution this building was a meeting place for the Dvoryanskoye Sobraniye (council of leading aristocratic families) and thus the acoustics, though adequate, are not ideal. In addition to evening concerts, there are 16:00 performances on Sundays. Mikhailovskaya Ulitsa 2. Metro: Nevsky Prospekt. Tel: 311 7333.

The cozier Glinka Maly Zal (Small Hall), as part of the philharmonic complex, also has fine concerts and the acoustics here are better than in the Bolshoi Zal as it was designed specifically for performances. Nevsky Prospekt 30. Metro: Nevsky Prospekt. Tel: 312 4585.

Concerts are also held in the Conservatorium, just across the square from the Mariinsky Theater. Student ballets and operas are performed in the Opera Hall, and they have a Maly Zal of their own where student concerts and open rehearsals are held. Teatralnaya Ploshchad 3. Metro: Sadovaya then a 15 minute walk. Tel: 312 2125.

The Capella houses a small concert hall where one can hear recitals, small orchestras, choirs, and solo performances. The house soloists sing at the Sunday services in the Preobrazhensky Cathedral. Naberezhnaya Reki Moika 20. Metro: Nevsky Prospekt. Tel: 314 1058, 314 1048.

It has also become quite trendy to hold evenings of chamber music in various museums and palaces around town such as in Dvorets Kompozitorov at Ulitsa Bolshaya Morskaya 45 and in the Kshesinskoi, Beloselsky-Belozersky, and Yusupovsky palaces. These are advertised at the actual palaces themselves, and entry is usually for a symbolic sum.