Peter Donohoe -- a fiery and meticulous genius
Spring has come to St Petersburg, and so have Russian violin maestro Sergei Stadler and controversial British piano genius Peter Donohoe.
Donohoe, Stadler and conductor Mariss Jansons will be featured at four concerts taking place at the Hermitage Theater and the Great Hall of the Philharmonia.
The series will open on April 3 with a special joint violin-piano recital in the intimately beautiful Hermitage Theater, staged partially to highlight the theater's new Steinway piano.
Donohoe and Stadler will team up to perform Bartok's violin sonata No 1, and Beethoven's violin sonata No 9 in A Major (Opus 47, nicknamed the "Kreutzer" sonata).
The duet will continue on April 4 in the Philharmonia Great Hall with the same program.
Donohoe takes the stage by himself on April 5 in the Great Hall to thrill audiences with two Mozart sonatas for piano (A major, K 311 and F major, K 332), and two Chopin sonatas (No 2, Op 35 and No 3, Op 58).
He'll conclude the series on April 7 with the Schumann piano concerto, joined by renowned maestro Jansons conducting the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra.
Donohoe has become well-known for his extremely large repertoire, his near-perfect technique and natural musicianship.
He made a special -- if controversial -- name for himself in 1982 at the renowned Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow.
He and Russian Vladimir Ochinnikov both placed second in a fiery, controversial competition.
Donohoe's remarkable final performances at the competition of Tchaikovsky's first and Rach-maninov's third concertos caused such a furor among jury members that they awarded no first place prize that year.
So if one lovely spring evening this week, you happen to be strolling down Nevsky past the Philharmonia or along the Neva past the Hermitage, ice cream in hand and smile on your face, eat a bit faster and drop in at one of these performance halls.
The concerts on offer promise to beas bright, inspiring and uplifting as spring itself.