For a respite from the hustle and bustle of Moscow life, take in a concert of organ music in St. Andrew's Anglican Church on Sunday and Thursday evenings at 7:30 p.m. The church, built by British merchants in 1885 to serve the needs of their community in Russia, is an oasis of serenity — “a little corner of England” —just off Tverskaya Ulitsa. After a being expropriated by the Soviet government after the 1917 revolution, the priceless organ and stained-glass windows were lost or destroyed, the merchants' valuables were confiscated, and the church was at various times a warehouse, a hostel and a recording studio. The interior may not yet be restored to its pre-revolutionary glory, but the acoustics that were so attractive to Melodiya records are still magnificent. This Thursday Alexander Udaltsov will perform a concert of baroque music.
St. Andrew’s Anglican Church. 8 Voznesensky Pereulok. Metro Pushkinskaya, Okhotny Ryad. 926-285-0877. At 7:30 p.m.
For a second go at free ice cream, head over to GUM on Thursday. The trading house's traditional July 3 Ice Cream Day — established because the command to sell it allegedly came down to them on July 3, 1954 — was not celebrated with free cones last week for undisclosed technical reasons. Representatives of the trading arcade assured disappointed ice cream lovers that free cones – vanilla, chocolate and caramel cream — will be handed out to each and all from 1 p.m. until closing at 10 p.m. In between cones, check out the flower show both outside and inside the shopping arcade. Over a quarter of a million flowers of every color will decorate GUM until July 31.
GUM. Red Square. Metro Okhotny Ryad, Teatralnaya and Ploshchad Revolyutsii. 495-788-4343.
