The 12th Tschaikovsky international competition was held in Moscow from
June 6 to June 25 in 2002.
I could listen to the performance by eight finalists
for four days of the last stage.
Every night two persons performed 2 pieces
of the piano concerto at a time.
Let me show you the scenery of Moscow
that caught my eyes in the meantime.
On maples, I could often see Norway maples as roadside trees at the
Kremlin or at many places.
Tatarian maples and Negundo maples also could
be seen.
I left Japan on June 18, from Narita in the morning and arrived in Moscow
in the evening.
After checking in at the hotel, I went to hear the first
day of the final stage.
When two persons' performance on the 1st day finished
it had already been 10:00 at night,
however I was so surprised at the brightness
of the sky
as if I were at 7:00 in the evening of Japan at that time.
On the morning of the 19th we went to Novodevichiy Convent & Cemetery
to worship at the grave of Richter.
The Tschaikovsky competition has four sections as piano, violin, cello
and vocal music section.
The photograph of the lower left shows the portrait
curtain of the piano section
that covered over the back of the stage.
A
right photograph shows the stage of the vocal music section,
and it was
a piano made in Japan for vocal music sections that caught my eyes there.
A Japanese female pianist won the victory
and she also used the piano made in Japan,
there is a feeling of living
in a quite different age when thinking of the old days 20 or 30 years before.
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Next, let me show you the scenery of the Kremlin and the Red Square.
I could visit there on the morning of the day I would come back to Japan.
I entered from the west gate of the Kremlin,
passed the graves of the
soldiers of the Second World War along the Royal Palace,
and came to the
National History Museum (upper right of the following photograph).
The gate of the Royal Palace entrance is at the eastern part of the
museum,
in the middle of this photograph. When we entered the gate from
the north side,
we reached the Red Square.
St. Basil's Cathedral was visible
to the south under the counter light of the sun.
The Kremlin is located
at the right side to the west.
Lenin's Mausoleum is located on the west side of Red Square,
and this
time we could worship at Lenin who has been enshrined and preserved.
Then,
walking along the royal palace to the south we came out to the north front
of
St. Basil's Cathedral.
Furthermore, walking to the south,
I could take
photos of St. Basil's Cathedral from the southwest side at last.
I don't know why this tower would shake my child's heart.
Maybe I had already taken pictures of it more than 30 sheets then.