Label : Private
Pieces done often in Concerts mostly by famous composers in various catagories. Includes readings of Pushkin works. Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (1799-1837) Probably the No. 1 Literary figure of Russia, possibly along with Leo Tolstoy. His great poems form the basis of the most well known Russian Operas. His works and life could be called Byronic, being intensly fatalistic and Romantic. Even his death was such, being killed in a duel cause by a woman (his flirtacious wife). He had revolutionary tendancies, and was barely tolerated by Tsar Nicholas I. There is a story that he had set out to join the Decembrist uprising of 1825 but turned back home by what he considered an omen when a rabbit crossed his path. Had he not done so he probably would have been executed as were the others in the group. His maternal Great Grandfather, a page raised by Peter the Great was Abram Petrovich Gannibal, who was born in Logone-Birni, Cameroon, Africa and was General-en-Chef for the building of sea forts and canals in Russia. Thus Pushkin was not only 1/8th black but had a family connection with the construction of St. Petersburg on banks of the marshy Neva estuary by Peter the Great. Pushkin's poem invokes the statue as a symbol of the iron, roughshod, will of Peter, seen as powerful and indifferent as Nature itself against the hapless individual. The equestrian statue of Peter the Great is the work of Étienne Maurice Falconet. It is situated in the formerly Decembrists Square, in Saint Petersburg. Catherine the Great, a German princess who married into the Romanov line, was anxious to connect herself to Peter the Great to gain legitimacy in the eyes of the people. She ordered its construction, and had it inscribed with the phrase Petro Primo Catharina Secunda MDCCLXXXII in Latin and Петру первому Екатерина вторая, лето 1782 in Russian, both meaning 'Catherine the Second to Peter the First, 1782 The stone on which it rests is a legend in its own right. It arrived at its destination in 1770, nearly two years after efforts to move it began. found at Lakhta, 6 km (4 miles) inland from the Gulf of Finland in 1768. The Thunder stone gained its name from a local legend that thunder split a piece of it. It might be the largest stone ever moved by man. It was cut to its present form after being moved, and thus was larger originally than what is seen today. The Bronze Horseman was camouflaged from German aircraft during WWII. There is legend that states that while the Bronze Horseman stands in the middle of Saint Petersburg, enemy forces will never be able to take the city. During the 900-day Siege of Leningrad during the Second World War (Leningrad being the city's name from 1924–1991), the statue was not taken down, but covered with sandbags and a wooden shelter. The protection served so well, that the Bronze Horseman survived the 900 days of bombing and artillery virtually untouched. True to legend, Saint Petersburg was never taken.