According to the organizers, the current festival differs from the previous events in numerous opening nights, with 13 concert programs and several special projects to be offered to the audience.
On the opening day, George Haendel's oratorio Solomon shall be performed at the philharmonic society's grand hall. This composition shall be performed in St. Petersburg for the first time. It is to be done by an international group of performers comprising the State Hermitage Orchestra, Estonian conductor Andres Mustonen, Latvian choir Ave Sol and soloists from Finland, Latvia, Sweden and Estonia.
For the duration of the festival, over 10 famous palaces of St. Petersburg and its suburbia shall open their doors to the public. Concerts are to take place in the Hermitage and Mariinsky Theaters and Menshikov Palace as well as the palaces of the towns of Pushkin, Pavlovsk, Gatchina and Peterhof.
Every year, the Palaces of St. Petersburg festival sees ever more palaces turned concert halls open. This year, the Konstantinovsky Palace and Ethnographic Museum are to join the festival.
The festival shall last until July 3.
The Palaces of St. Petersburg festival was launched in 1993 by Konstantin Orbelyan, head and chief conductor of the State Academic Chamber Orchestra of Russia.
