On Tuesday, tickets go on sale for the 35th annual "Svyatoslav Richter December Evenings" in the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. When they began way back in 1981, they were an extraordinary innovation — holding concerts in a museum! Today that thrill may have worn off, but the concerts are still one of the high points of the holiday season.
Beginning on Dec. 1 and running until Dec. 30, the evenings include poetry readings, piano recitals, and performances by musical groups and singers from Russia and around the world. There is a full schedule in Russian on the Pushkin Museum site: classicalmusicnews.ru.
Tickets tend to go very, very quickly, so consider a trip to the museum ticket offices on Tuesday, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Also in December, the Bolshoi Theater is putting on the ballet "The Legend of Love" for the first time in a decade. Composed by Arif Malikov and choreographed by Yury Grigorovich, it is based on the ancient legend of unrequited love that was immortalized by the Turkish poet Nazim Hikmet.
One of the most colorful and best loved of the Soviet ballet repertory, it is being performed for just four nights, Dec. 10-13. Tickets are still available on the Bolshoi site tickets.bolshoi.ru and from various ticket sellers.
