In Saint Petersburg a new season of Admiralty Music.

This time the first concert of the annual festival is devoted to the German composers Karl-Maria von Weber and Richard Wagner. It has become a tradition to perform the first concert of the festival in the Hermitage Theatre. 
How nice that the grand-daughters of Ivan Grigorovitch, the last Naval Minister of Imperial Russia, are fans of the festival ! They came to the Theatre with bunches of yellow roses.

Alexei Karabanov, Honoured Artist of Russia and the Artistic Director of the Admiralty Navy Band, opened the concert. Then his colleague from Germany, Michael Schramm, followed.
Commander Karabanov :
"I want the Band to play German music as do the Germans, English music as the English, Dutch music as the Dutch, and so on. And our foreign colleagues help us with this. Their joining us is a great pleasure and demonstrates their national approaches." 

This is the very beginning of the festival, and more concerts will follow. The next one will be tomorrow at the Saint Petersburg Capella. In February the Admiralty Navy Band will play Strauss. In March, concerts will be devoted to the music of Soviet composers.