This Saturday, August 26, Moscow’s Red Square welcomed the grand opening of the Spasskaya Tower International Military Music Festival, which this year is celebrating its fifteenth birthday. Twenty-seven ensembles from Russia and abroad stepped onto the cobblestones tonight.
The 154 Preobrazhensky Regiment's Honor Guard Unit and Military Band kicked off the spectacular music show, wowing the audience with their precise marching defile and perfected synchronous arm drilling skills.
Members of the Preobrazhensky Regiment Honor Guard Unit have another very important task. They bring the flags of all the countries participating in the Spasskaya Tower Festival to the cobblestones.
Then, seven cannon shots sounded loudly in the air, and the show went on.
The musicians, singers, and dancers of the Central Ensemble of the Border Guard Forces of the Federal Security Service of Russia literally set fire on Red Square. Their dynamic medley of marches and songs, vibrant and colourful dances were accompanied by the fireworks, delighting everyone on the stands.
The Great Military Band of the National Bolivarian Armed Forces ‘Supreme Commander Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias’ was the first foreign music ensemble to step onto Red Square. Our guests from Venezuela, for the first time, will present their rich culture and traditions to the Russian audience. The musicians invited everyone to take part in their carnival. Viva, Venezuela and other compositions are imbued with the spirit of Latin America, its colourful carnival energy.
The Exemplary Band of the National Guard Forces of Russia performed Arise, Russian People, an excerpt from Alexander Nevskiy's cantata by Prokofiev, and the excerpt from Yablochko, a Russian national dance regarded as the traditional dance of sailors. When the musicians were performing the medley of Luybe band songs, guests on the stands couldn’t help themselves and started singing. For the first time, musicians were accompanied by members of the honor guard unit of the Russian National Guard Forces.
The musicians of the Egyptian Military Symphonic Band stepped onto Red Square dressed as Egyptian pharaohs, carrying with them a chariot decorated with the sacred bird Ibis. The sounds of Johan Strauss Senior's Radetzky March, Verdi's Fanfare from Aida, and Shostakovich's Russian Waltz filled the air around Red Square. Nonetheless, the audiences were ecstatic to hear the Egyptian musicians perform Katuysha, one of Russia's most beloved songs.
Moving forward, we are already watching the Central Military Band of the Russian Ministry of Defense marching into Red Square. The audiences were delighted to hear the Russian folk song, There was a Birch Standing in the Field, performed in a jazz arrangement. The musicians even brought elements of a theatrical performance into their performance by performing a comic sketch, Merry Geese, with the band’s members portraying the grandmother and two unlucky geese.
The audiences also enjoyed appearances by several soloists, featuring Sergey Makhovikov, singer and Honored Artist of Russia, with a very touching song, My old friend, composed to the verses of Evgeniy Evtushenko, Fyodor Rytikov with the song Talyanochka; and a very popular Russian singer, Sergey Mazaev, who performed The Earth is Our Home song to the verses of Robert Rozhdestvensky. The audience greeted the song with thunderous applause and shouts of "bravo!".
For sure, the Spasskaya Tower Festival evening show couldn’t lack the performance by the Suvorov Cadet Band, the all-time favourites of our military tattoo. The dynamic Bang song by Gorkiy Park and the drumming performance of the cadets and sturdents of the All-Girls Boarding School of the Russian Ministry of Defense left no one untouched.
Among the guests of honor there were member of the Public Chamber of the Russian Federation Alena Bulgakova, commissioner for Human Rights in the Luhansk People's Republic Victoria Serdyukova, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Kingdom of Thailand to the Russian Federation Sasivat Wongsinsawat, Major General Edward Asryan, Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Armenia, Major General Armen Lalayan, Military Attaché at the Embassy of the Republic of Armenia in the Russian Federation, Brigadier General Carlos Andrés Herrera, Acting Head of the Defense Attaché of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in Russia, Head of the Main Directorate of Combat Training of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Belarus, Major General Andrei Nekroshevich and Defense Attaché of the Arab Republic of Egypt and President of the Association of Foreign Attachés in Russia Mohamed Ahmed Mostafa Saleh.
Tonight the cobblestones of Moscow Red Square also welcomed the Central Band of the Russian Navy named after Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, the President’s Band and Honor Guard Regiment of the Presidential Regiment, the Exemplary Band and Honor Guard Unit of the Belarus Armed Forces, the Military Band of the Russian National Guard Forces Chief Department for the Krasnodar Region, the Panghat Performing Arts Group, the Merry Notes Children Violin Ensemble, the Military Band of the Armenian Armed Forces General Staff, the Combined Band of the Russian National Guard Central District Headquarters, the Boonwattana School Marching Band and the Combined Band of the Russian Airborne Forces.
To call it a day, the night featured performance by the Festival’s combined band under the lead of Major General Timofey Mayakin, Head of the Military Band Service of the Russian Armed Forces. The first show of the Fifteenth Spasskaya Tower International Military Music Festival finished with the magnifecent fireworks lighting the sky high above Moscow’s Red Square aure and, the band
The Festival is carried out following the Order of the Russian President Vladimir Putin, under the aegis of the Public Council headed by Mr. Alexander Zhukov, First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, with the support of the Russian Ministry of Defense and the Moscow Department of Culture.
Фото: Maria Moskvitsova, Andrey Golovanov, Alexey Bok
