The second evening show of the Eleventh Spasskaya Tower International Military Music Festival was held today on Red Square.
The International Celtic Pipes and Drums combining musicians from various countries united the common Celtic culture was the first of the Festival’s international participants to perform on Red Square before the audience. The group was formed in 2016 especially for performing at the Spasskaya Tower Festival.
Following the theme of the Festival musicians marched along the cobblestone to the sounds of the old-times English waltz “My Home”. This waltz can be heard on the balls all over Great Britain. Fine columns and slow leisure pace are peculiarities of the band’s performance.
Last year the International Celtic Pipes and Drums performed together with the International Highland Dance Team. This year the audience’s attention is grabbed by the show of drum-majors juggling with conductors’ rod. Among girls, participants of the drum-major show, there is Kathy Hunter, winner of the 2018 Young Drum Majors World Championship.
Performance of the Company of “Vieux Grenadiers” of Geneva also taking part in this year’s Festival resembled the marching style of the Celtic bands featuring the same straight lines rearrangement, precision and organization.
The adjective vieuxmeaning old in the name of the band doesn’t refer to the age of musicians but to the time of creation of the Grenadier Circle (1749), predecessor of the Vieux Grenadiers Company. Musicians perform in uniform of the Napoleon Army where the Swiss served.
The Grenadiers parade in the same order typical of those times. They march behind its Commanding officer, in the following order: the sappers with their axes wearing white leather aprons, the flag carries, the drum Major and his drummers, the music leader and his musicians, grenadiers with their muskets and their officers. The evolutions and shots of the Company are ordered according to the 1813 rules.
Guns, swords and sabres which the Company has brought to Red Square are authentic. They were made back in the 19thcentury and served in the French army. The Vieux Grenadiers performed Swiss and French marches of the Napoleon times. They left Red Square to the sounds of the Ballad of the Soldier song by Soloviev-Sedov.
Russian theme also found reflection in the performances of other foreign groups. Thus, the Military Band of the Royal Guard of Oman stepped onto Red Square to Blanter’s Katusha sounds which was also performed by the Military Band of Sri Lanka. The Imperial Youth Band from Brentwood (the United Kingdom) adjourned their performance by performing Knipper’s Cavaliers of Steppes.
The finale of the show saw performance of all the bands participants of the Festival conducted by Colonel Timofey Mayakin, Head of the Military Music Band Service of the Russian Armed Forces – Chief Military Conductor and Music Director of the Spasskaya Tower Festival. Musicians performed the Officers’ Ball potpourri of well-known Russian and foreign composers, including Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, Dunaevsky, Sviridov, Frenkel, Nikitin, Strauss and others. The final accord adjourning the show was Tchaikovsky Overture “1812”.
As a matter of tradition the main show of the Spasskaya Tower Festival finished with grandiose fireworks.
Among this evening’s guests of honor there were Major Genera (Retired) Alexander Soluyanov, legendary trooper and Hero of the Soviet Union, Mr. Nikolai Tokarev, Transneft President, Mr. Alexander Kibovskiy, Minister of the Government of Moscow and Head of the Department of Culture of the City of Moscow, Colonel Igor Khanchich, Deputy Commander of the Presidential Regiment of the Federal Guard Service of Russia and Mr. Havier Gomes, Director of the Cordoba Equestrian Association.
Honored Artist of Russia Evgeniy Khoroshevtsev, official voice of the Festival, congratulated Group Captain Chandana Amarasinghe, conductor of the Sri Lankan Military Band, on his birthday.
