According to the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, the Moscow Philharmonia broke the absolute record in subscriptions’ sales, having sold more than 100’000 subscriptions in 2016. The sales of subscriptions to the newly opened Rachmaninov hall in Philharmonia-2 and to the Philharmonic chamber hall of have grown by almost a third. The subscriptions sales of the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall and the Moscow Conservatory’s Grand Hall have also reached good volumes.
Philharmonia is from the Greek. “harmony” – concert and artistic organizations, preserving musical traditions and promoting music. The word “Moscow” means that the Philharmonia is located in Moscow. The organization of concert is carried out by subscriptions (from the French “Abonnement” – a subscription for a publication or service), categorised by topics and target groups. For example, there are the children’s or themed subscriptions.
According to the deputy minister of culture of the Russian Federation Alexander Zhuravsky, “there is a large demand for family subscriptions. This means that parents invest in cultural education of children”… “This success is due to several factors: the unflagging interest in the classical music, the well-made Philharmonic programs aimed at different audiences, including children, and a deliberate pricing policy of the philharmonic management that ensures the availability of the best Russian and foreign performers concerts to citizens”.
In response to a question of “E Vesti” about the reasons for the success of the programs, a press secretary of the Philharmonic Natalia Uvarova also noted the programs and pricing, and she shared the details about the subscriptions: “We issue more than 200 different subscriptions for all ages starting from 1 year. We have a very large selection of subscriptions for children. We have subscriptions for the chamber halls for the very young. A program “Tales with the orchestra” is very popular, where leading artists read the best of fairy tales and children’s books with the music. For this, special pieces of music are selected. The subscription for the program is sold out in a matter of days”.
When “E Vesti” asked about a first classical work to see, Natalia said: “People make a choice by compositions, an orchestra or a performer. “Great piano concertos”, “Opera masterpieces” and “Great instrumental concerts” are very popular. The subscriptions for the concerts of Denis Matsuev, Nikolai Lugansky and Boris Berezovsky are bought out for one day. Many people prefer to start with the best of the classics: Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Beethoven”.
Let’s hope that the trend of growing interest in classical music will become usual in our country.
