Yaroslavl

Yaroslavl is the Golden Ring's capital and Russia's first stage. Founded in 1010 — legend has Yaroslav the Wise felling a bear at the rivers' meeting, and the bear strides the city's arms with an axe — the Volga trading city grew rich enough in the seventeenth century to fill itself with churches whose tiled façades and frescoed interiors define the "Yaroslavl style": the Church of Elijah the Prophet on the central square keeps one of Russia's great fresco cycles, and the historic centre entire is UNESCO-listed, its Volga embankment the classic provincial promenade. Here in 1750 the merchant's son Fyodor Volkov gathered the first professional public theatre in Russia — the Volkov Theatre, splendidly rebuilt, still carries his name and the nation's theatrical birthright.

The concert record documents the musical establishment — the Yaroslavl Philharmonic Orchestra and the Yaroslavl State Philharmonic Concert Hall, the resident pairing of orchestra and house — and, alongside them, the Bulgarian National Radio Choir: a touring guest ensemble rather than a local institution, flagged for the workbook, and evidence of the Volga city's place on the international circuit. Bear on the shield, frescoes on the walls, Volkov's inheritance on the boards: Yaroslavl has been performing — faith, trade and theatre — for a thousand years.