ST. PETERSBURG, December 27. /TASS/. A concert where the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Sergey Stadler performed all the nine symphonies by Beethoven in one day has entered the Guinness World Records. The city’s concert association, Peterburg-Kontsert, which the St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra reports to, received a written notification from Guinness World Records Russia.
"Following a recommendation from the Guinness World Records Russia expert department, a decision was made to recognize the application as an official record scored in Russia," the letter said. "The editorial board congratulates you on the recognition of your achievement that profiles the Russians as a creative nation and, on top of that, shows the creative mentality and an offbeat approach to the presentation of classics."
The music marathon that carried on for 8 hours and 3 minutes has gone down in history as "the longest philharmonic concert with a program consisting of the works of just one composer in the rendition of a single orchestra under the baton of one conductor."
The event took place on November 26, 2017, at the stage of the St. Petersburg State Academic Capella. Guinness emphasized in the letter that the participants of the record marathon have the opportunity to send applications to the CIS Records Book, the Book of Records of Europe and the Guinness Book of Records.
In the meantime, Sergei Stadler told TASS the project did not have any sporting element in it. The concert merely continued the tradition of autumn music marathons that appeared in 2014 when six symphonies by Tchaikovsky were performed on a single day.
The success of that concert inspired Stadler and his orchestra’s musicians to continue the project. In 2015, they performed Brahms in the same format and a year later, Mozart. "I think we’ll abide by this tradition in the future, too," the conductor predicted.
He founded the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra in December 2013. It has performed at the largest concert floors in the city, as well as at large international functions, festivals, and forums.
The orchestra is intensively touring Russia. On January 6, it is going to give a Christmas Eve concert in Moscow. The musicians will devote it to Russia.