The musical program of the festival is also based on the principle of reflections and metamorphoses. It will combine Bach's original compositions and their interpretations. Various versions of one and the same topic will be presented at some concerts, for instance, two variants "The Seven Last Words of Our Savior on the Cross" by Haydn and Gubaidulina. "I have always been interested in the reflection and interpretation of one and the same event in different epochs and by different authors," said festival's artistic director, world's No. 1 viola player Yuri Bashmet.
Moreover, the festival seeks classical echoes in jazz. Bach, Bolling, Templeton, Gould and Goodman will be compared. It is necessary to prove the theorem about the roots of neoclassical art put down in classical soil.
Metamorphoses of love emotions, from happy requited love to doubts of each other and despair (for instance, Schumann's "Poet's Love") is another topic of the festival. Those participating in the event will be Moscow's Soloists chamber ensemble conducted by Yuri Bashmet, Natalia Gutman, Nikolai Lugansky, Ignat Solzhenitsyn (son of the famous writer), musicians from Austria, Germany, Great Britain, Norway, Denmark, Canada and the United States.
It is difficult to explain parallels which the festival's organizers saw between Picasso's painting and the above-mentioned music. Associations can be a universal explanation. The work of the giant who artistic career lasted for 80 years is a great mosaic and encyclopedia of the 20th century's styles from cubism to pop-art. He created various interpretations of one and the same subject, made revolutions in art, denied classics, and then suddenly turned into its devotee. His work had enough reflections and metamorphoses. Therefore, his art is not discordant to the festival's music.
Russians are familiar with Pablo Picasso's work. His early paintings (cubism and the blue period) are exhibited in the Pushkin Fine Arts Museum and State Hermitage. His graphic works are widely known in Russia, as well. He was in high favor with Soviet and post-Soviet art connoisseurs. Picasso's exhibitions have always been popular. This time showpieces from the Picasso museums in Paris and Barcelona, the National Modern Art Museum in Paris and the State Gallery in Stuttgart will be presented in Moscow.
The exposition opens with the section "Picasso and African sculpture" (some gouaches of 1908 compared to African figurines). The second section "Picasso and Antique Art" includes 30 illustrations to Ovid's "Metamorphoses" (Picasso's interpretation of ancient images and motifs). The third section "Picasso and European masters of the 16th-19th centuries" features paintings, drawings and etchings inspired by Lucas Cranach the Elder, Diego Velasquez, Nicholas Poussin, Gerard David, Eugene Delacroix, Edouard Manet, etc. These are "variations on the theme". The exhibition in the Pushkin museum presents the many-sided and changeable world of Pablo Picasso's art.
As usual, the beau-monde and a few lucky men who managed to buy tickets beforehand will be December Nights guests. The harmony of the selected paintings and compositions and adjustment of the festival's concept do not matter at all. The most important thing is that this is a great event and that classic music and Picasso are still popular.
