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Alexandra Listova

In the orchestra since 2022

She graduated from the St. Petersburg State Conservatory majoring in piano in 2016. She has performed with the musicAeterna orchestra since 2018.

In 2021, she interned at the Moscow Ensemble of Contemporary Music workshop with a focus on the peculiarities of performing new music (Moscow), and participated as a guest performer in the International Academy of Young Composers in the city of Tchaikovsky.

As a soloist and a member of ensembles, she participated in the festivals “From the Avant-garde to the Present Day”, “Sound Paths”, “EPICENTRUM Audio & Visual Festival”, in the Improvisational Music Festival “Improvise!”, dedicated to Oleg Karavaichuk, in the Diaghilev Festival and the special project “Diaghilev +”, performing music by contemporary composers.

Since 2021, he has been performing as part of JUST Ensemble, a young St. Petersburg ensemble of modern academic music.

WHAT ARE THE PECULIARITIES OF CONTEMPORARY MUSIC PERFORMANCE?

Contemporary music requires time, just like any other kind of it. It takes an effort to reflect on a composition and to arrive at some kind of concept. Some composers enjoy inventing new techniques for sound production, so you get a wider array of sounds. Over the past ten years I've been able to try out different ways of manipulating the instrument. For instance, Stepan Nikolayev's work required playing a melody in Scandinavian style with flageolets. The combination was different for every grand piano, because different models and sizes have different string length and bridge placement. Or take a flat screwdriver: you can produce a peculiar kind of glissando, much like a howling siren, if you put it in between two strings of a course, raise the dampers and slowly move it along. Another example: if you move an inner tube of a bicycle tire along the strings, you get a piercing sound, which for a piano is unnatural - it sounds like a car braking abruptly. Or, if you move it very slowly and apply a lot of pressure, it sounds like a creaking door.

WHO ARE YOUR FAVOURITE NON-CLASSICAL MUSIC ARTISTS?

Janis Joplin, Sergey Kuryokhin, Nick Cave.

HOW DID YOU BECOME PART OF MUSICAETERNA?

My first encounter with musicAeterna took place in November 2014. Me and the other conservatory students had a very fortunate opportunity to see the performance of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas. The impression I received back then was strong enough to literally overturn the way I saw music. In 2020, I was invited to play Alexey Retinsky's chamber music compositions. It was hard to believe that this was really happening. I think a lot of people dream of becoming a part of a group that, in a sense, was a teacher and a source of inspiration. That performance was the first one after six months of COVID-caused isolation, and it became the starting point of my concert life. After that there were more collaborations with musicAeterna, and a year later, an audition for the orchestra.

musicAeterna orchestra events

April 25, 19:00

Tashkent | Palace of International Forums «Uzbekistan»

Tchaikovsky: Francesca da Rimini, Capriccio Italien, Romeo and Juliet

Symphony concert

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April 27, 20:00

Dubai | Dubai Opera

Tchaikovsky: Francesca da Rimini, Capriccio Italien, Romeo and Juliet

Symphony concert

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April 28, 20:00

Dubai | Dubai Opera

Richard Wagner: Ouvertures

Symphony concert

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May 26, 20:00

St. Petersburg | State Academic Capella

Dvořák: Alexander Sladkovsky and musicAeterna

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June 1, 21:00

St. Petersburg | Hermitage Museum

The musicAeterna Orchestra and Choir. Ars Vivendi

Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683–1764)
The thunderstorm scene from Act II of the opera-ballet Platée ou Junon jalouse (1745)
Act IV, Scene 4: Entry of the muse Polyhymnia from the lyrical tragedy Abaris ou les Boreades (1763)
Tambourines I, II from the prologue to the lyrical tragedy Dardanus (1739)

Antonio Lotti (1667–1740)
Crucifixus a 8 voci from Credo in F Major (before 1717)

Antonio Vivaldi (1678–1741)
Concerto for Cello and Strings in C Minor, RV 401 (late 1720s)

Allegro non molto
Adagio
Allegro ma non molto

The soloist Rabbani Aldangor

George Frideric Handel (1685–1759)
Ombra mai fu (There was never a shadow), aria of Xerxes from Act I of the opera Xerxes, HWV 40 (1738)
The soloist Andrey Nemzer, countertenor
Furie terribili! (Terrible Furies!), aria of Armida from Act I of the opera Rinaldo, HWV 7a (1711/1731)
The soloist Elizaveta Sveshnikova, soprano
Piangerò la sorte mia (I will mourn my fate), aria of Cleopatra from Act III of the opera Julius Caesar, HWV 17, (1724)
The soloist Elizaveta Sveshnikova, soprano
Venti, turbini (Winds, whirlwinds), aria of Rinaldo from Act I of the opera Rinaldo, HWV 7a (1711/1731)
The soloist Andrey Nemzer, countertenor

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)
Komm, Jesu, komm (Come, Jesus, come), motet for double choir in G minor, BWV 229 (before 1731–1732)
Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden (Praise the Lord, all ye nations), motet for four-voice choir, dubbing instruments and basso continuo in C major, BWV 230 (n.d.)
Erbarme dich, mein Gott (Have mercy, my God), aria of the alto No. 39 (47) from the sacred oratorio St Matthew Passion, BWV 244 (1727–1729/1736)
Soloists:
Andrey Nemzer, countertenor
Vladislav Pesin, violin

George Frideric Handel
Lascia la spina, cogli la rosa (Leave the thorn, pluck the rose), aria of Pleasure from Act II of the oratorio The Triumph of Time and Disillusion, HWV 46a (1707)
Soloists:
Elizaveta Sveshnikova, soprano
Andrey Nemzer, countertenor

Jean-Philippe Rameau
Les Sauvages/Forêts paisibles (The Savages/Peaceful Forests) from Act IV of the opera-ballet The Gallant Indies, (1725/1736)

Duration: 60 minutes