Back from 'Music Land' and the cold....

Used to very warm Provence weather and rather moderate humid British one from time to time, our 'expedition' to Moscow was quite an event...
Short day light (it starts getting dark around half past three some days) and very low temperatures (-17° when we landed and for our first day around Red Square) ) did not take us by surprise as we read about Russian Winter but it was quite a sight to see us transformed into  yeti and huge

matryoshka .. looking rather inelegant when the Moscow feminine population looked rather smart in their expensive  fur coats, leather boots. and fur hats.. I had borrowed my granddaughter skiing boots and scarves and hardly felt the cold !(my first pict of me on the blog... amazing souvenir, it was around -18° and was the night of arrival around 11pm we wanted to see the main street where we were and the Boshoï just there too)





Each day an army of workers was busy scrubbing the snow in the center around Revolution Square, the Bolshoï and Red Square . It was always easy to walk there,  at times  it got slippery in spite of all the salt which was thrown all day long. We watched  our steps most of the time and while walking for an hour or so under light falling snow we popped into shops to warm up then carried on walking and visiting.  We took the metro twice, found the steps rather tiring too, but it was worth visiting the ones we took.

We  had a great time during two evenings , one spent at the Bolshoï New stage for the Stone Guest ( Don Juan revisited in a romantic style by Pushkin for the libretto, and very fine music from Alexander Dargomyzhsky, orchestred by Rimsky Korsakov and Cui after the musician's death). The second night was spent  at the Tchaikovsky Hall for a piano recital : Lucas Debargue gave a stunning rendition of Chimanovsky Sonata n° 2 and two Schubert sonatas (12 and 14) . He finished with two Encore (a Scarlatti short quiet piece and perhaps a Debussy one  which had L'après midi d'un Faune accents somehow). It was a fine musical evening in this prestigious house. (full and very welcoming for this young French pianist)
 There are so many concert halls and opera houses in Moscow!

When we visited Saint Basil,  three A cappella  singers  gave us  a free concert in the main chuch of the Intercession. I could not resist taking a short video; It was tearjerking !(but I cannot upload it and I do not want to publish it on youtube, it is too short and does not do justice to these great voices, so...)Here's a screenshot the three amazing singers with wonderful voices:

I found the three singers we listened to on Sunday morning the 18th on youtube at a warmer season ( they were wearing open shirts) this is tremendous singing. I could listen to them all nights ans days..; (thank you for this uploading)

As a souvenir are these two cds, very affordable compared to our prices. Russia  in Winter is a wonderful destination for Music, every where even on the Red Square full of free intertainement for families even when it is -14° !
Our Son and Daughter in law  bought us the airtickets as a present ... they  were so right ! Moscow with snow and End of year decorations lit up around 4pm looks fabulous!