Vladimir
Series
November 10, 2026Vivaldi’s Winter: A Score Like a Hollywood ThrillerHow do you write a thriller long before the cinema existed? The conductor opens the score of the first movement of Concerto No. 4 in F…Read the note →
November 6, 2026Bach’s Badinerie: Lightness Built on MasteryBach’s Badinerie from the Second Suite lasts less than three minutes, but it holds so much air and precision that only the listener finds it easy…Read the note →
October 30, 2026Glinka’s Kamarinskaya: Plagiarism or GeniusIf a composer takes someone else’s melody, is it plagiarism or genius? In Kamarinskaya Mikhail Glinka took two Russian folk songs, a wedding song and a…Read the note →
October 28, 2026Beethoven’s First Symphony: A Supercar Started in the Wrong KeyImagine: April 2, 1800, the Burgtheater in Vienna. Twenty-nine-year-old Beethoven leads the orchestra at his own benefit concert and begins the symphony with a chord that…Read the note →
October 21, 2026Bernard Haitink: Great Symphonies Without PathosOn October 21, 2021, Bernard Haitink died, a conductor who knew how to reveal great symphonies without outward pathos. A sparing gesture behind which stood the…Read the note →
October 20, 2026The Sydney Opera House: How the World’s Most Recognizable Theatre Was BuiltOn October 20, 1973, Queen Elizabeth II opened the Sydney Opera House, and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony sounded in the hall. The most recognizable building in the…Read the note →
October 19, 2026Eugene Onegin: The 1884 Premiere in St. PetersburgOn October 19, 1884, Tchaikovsky’s “lyrical scenes” were heard for the first time on an imperial stage, at the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre in St. Petersburg, with…Read the note →
October 9, 2026Saint-Saëns and The Carnival of the Animals: Why the Composer Banned His Most Famous MusicOn October 9, 1835, Camille Saint-Saëns was born in Paris, a man who began composing at three and at ten took the stage of the Salle…Read the note →
October 1, 2026International Music Day: How Shostakovich and the Gnessin Academy Remade the DNA of the ClassicsWhen we speak of classical music education, images of strict professors and academic silence often come to mind. But the Gnessin Academy and the contemporary stage…Read the note →
September 28, 2026Rudolf Barshai: How the First Chamber Orchestra in the USSR AppearedWhen we speak of Soviet classical music we often picture huge, academic symphony orchestras. But the conductor and violist Rudolf Barshai proved that a chamber ensemble…Read the note →
September 11, 2026Iosif Kobzon: 100 Songs in One ConcertWhen we speak of Iosif Kobzon we remember not just an artist but a titan of a man whose baritone became the musical DNA of an…Read the note →
September 10, 2026Henry Purcell: How Music Became the Theatre’s Main Special EffectWhen people talk about the theatre of the seventeenth century, they rarely recall that it was music that could make a production a real sensation. Henry…Read the note →
September 6, 2026Yevgeny Svetlanov: Why Russian Classics Became His Life’s WorkImagine: 1964, La Scala. On stage is Russian grandeur: Boris Godunov, Prince Igor, Sadko. Svetlanov conducts. The Italians freeze: before them is not just opera but…Read the note →
Conductor’s Notes
Stories about operas, composers and conductors — and about what a conductor hears at the podium that the audience never sees. Short videos and articles by Vladimir Yatskevich.
November 10, 2026Vivaldi’s Winter: A Score Like a Hollywood ThrillerHow do you write a thriller long before the cinema existed? The conductor opens the score of the first movement of Concerto No. 4 in F…Read the note →
November 6, 2026Bach’s Badinerie: Lightness Built on MasteryBach’s Badinerie from the Second Suite lasts less than three minutes, but it holds so much air and precision that only the listener finds it easy…Read the note →
October 30, 2026Glinka’s Kamarinskaya: Plagiarism or GeniusIf a composer takes someone else’s melody, is it plagiarism or genius? In Kamarinskaya Mikhail Glinka took two Russian folk songs, a wedding song and a…Read the note →
October 28, 2026Beethoven’s First Symphony: A Supercar Started in the Wrong KeyImagine: April 2, 1800, the Burgtheater in Vienna. Twenty-nine-year-old Beethoven leads the orchestra at his own benefit concert and begins the symphony with a chord that…Read the note →
October 21, 2026Bernard Haitink: Great Symphonies Without PathosOn October 21, 2021, Bernard Haitink died, a conductor who knew how to reveal great symphonies without outward pathos. A sparing gesture behind which stood the…Read the note →
October 20, 2026The Sydney Opera House: How the World’s Most Recognizable Theatre Was BuiltOn October 20, 1973, Queen Elizabeth II opened the Sydney Opera House, and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony sounded in the hall. The most recognizable building in the…Read the note →
October 19, 2026Eugene Onegin: The 1884 Premiere in St. PetersburgOn October 19, 1884, Tchaikovsky’s “lyrical scenes” were heard for the first time on an imperial stage, at the Bolshoi Kamenny Theatre in St. Petersburg, with…Read the note →
October 9, 2026Saint-Saëns and The Carnival of the Animals: Why the Composer Banned His Most Famous MusicOn October 9, 1835, Camille Saint-Saëns was born in Paris, a man who began composing at three and at ten took the stage of the Salle…Read the note →
October 1, 2026International Music Day: How Shostakovich and the Gnessin Academy Remade the DNA of the ClassicsWhen we speak of classical music education, images of strict professors and academic silence often come to mind. But the Gnessin Academy and the contemporary stage…Read the note →
September 28, 2026Rudolf Barshai: How the First Chamber Orchestra in the USSR AppearedWhen we speak of Soviet classical music we often picture huge, academic symphony orchestras. But the conductor and violist Rudolf Barshai proved that a chamber ensemble…Read the note →
September 11, 2026Iosif Kobzon: 100 Songs in One ConcertWhen we speak of Iosif Kobzon we remember not just an artist but a titan of a man whose baritone became the musical DNA of an…Read the note →
September 10, 2026Henry Purcell: How Music Became the Theatre’s Main Special EffectWhen people talk about the theatre of the seventeenth century, they rarely recall that it was music that could make a production a real sensation. Henry…Read the note →
September 6, 2026Yevgeny Svetlanov: Why Russian Classics Became His Life’s WorkImagine: 1964, La Scala. On stage is Russian grandeur: Boris Godunov, Prince Igor, Sadko. Svetlanov conducts. The Italians freeze: before them is not just opera but…Read the note →
Moscow City Orchestra
The conductor founded the orchestra and leads it: from chamber ensembles to a full symphony orchestra with chorus.
mosorchestra.ru →