A Recital of French Organ music from 17th to 20th Century: in the historic city of Pushkin…
On 5th February 2022 I will play a special concert in the city of Pushkin near St. Petersburg (the former Tsarskoye Selo). The concert will take place in the Church of the Resurrection of Christ, which is the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Resurrection of Christ (the centre of the Pushkin parish of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Ingria).
The history of the Church of the Resurrection of Christ
The Lutheran community in Tsarskoye Selo was formed in 1811, when The Imperial Lyceum, which had teachers, employees and pupils of the Lutheran faith was opened.
The initiator of the construction of the Lutheran church was a lecturer in law of the Imperial Lyceum, Pastor Christian Friedrich Gnichtel. Emperor Alexander I allocated a place for the construction of the shrine and granted funds. The first wooden church in the Empire style was founded in 1818 and consecrated in October of the same year.
On August 14, 1860, a new stone church of the same name was laid next to the dilapidated building by that time, designed by architect Alexander Fomich Vidov.
Later, Emperor Alexander II allocated money for the completion of the construction of the church, and on April 17, 1865, on the birthday of Alexander II, the church was consecrated and the exterior was very much as it appears now.
The church was closed by the decree of the Leningrad Executive Committee of December 5, 1931, and the building was transferred to a mechanical repair plant.
During the Great Patriotic War, the church was not damaged. After the end of the war, the building housed a driving school and an auto repair shop.
In 1977, the church was handed over to the Finnish Evangelical community and restoration work was carried out. The shrine was again consecrated in the name of the Resurrection of Christ.
On November 11, 1977, services in Finnish began in the church, and since 1988, in Russian and German.
The history of the city of Pushkin
Pushkin was founded in 1710 as an imperial residence named Tsarskoye Selo (in Russian: Ца́рское Село́, “Tsar’s Village”) and received status of a town in 1808. The first public railways in Russia, Tsarskoye Selo Railways, were opened here in 1837 and connected the town to the capital, St. Petersburg. After the October Revolution, the town was renamed to Detskoye Selo (in Russian: Де́тское Село́, “Children’s Village”). Its name was further changed in 1937 to Pushkin to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the death of the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. The town contains an ensemble of the 18th century “Tsarskoye Selo”. This museum complex includes the Catherine Palace, Alexander Palace and other buildings and associated parks; it is a major tourist attraction in the area and is included in the list of monuments protected by the UNESCO.
Tsarskoye Selo, postcard of 1904
My programme
“French Organ Music from the 17th to the 20th century”, and of particular interest are works by such infrequently performed composers as Christophe Moyreau (1700-1774), Clément Loret (1833-1909) and Jeanne Demessieux (1921-1968).
The concert starts at 17.00 local time.
4 Naberezhnaya str, Pushkin.
Free admission, donations accepted.
