Beaming with pride at the cheers and flowers showered on him by an ecstatic audience, the conductor Maxim Shostakovich held aloft the score of his father Dmitri's tenth symphony and gave it a smacking kiss: a gesture so personal, so public and so typical of the passion at the heart of Russian music.
This day, 25 September, would have been Dmitri's 99th birthday, and for Maxim it was an evening heavy with emotion: conducting his father's favourite orchestra in a hall dedicated to his memory in the heart of his beloved native city - the beautiful, sometimes savage, always opulent, mysterious St Petersburg.
Salzburg and Vienna are natural destinations for music lovers, but anyone heading for London's Barbican Centre tonight to hear Valery Gergiev conduct the second concert in his epic centenary cycle of Shostakovich symphonies should consider adding St Petersburg to their travel list. Here you can enjoy the finest of fine art and architecture by day, and opera, ballet and concerts by night ... and the musical links are endless.
Shostakovich's centenary next year will be marked all over the city, not least in the Great Hall of the Philharmonia, now called the Shostakovich Philharmonia, whose slender white columns resonate with musical history. It was here that Tchaikovsky conducted his sixth symphony nine days before he died (an 11-year-old Igor Stravinsky was in the audience). Lizst, Berlioz, Wagner, Mahler, Strauss and Rachmaninov all performed here. Shostakovich himself rehearsed, conducted and premiered many of his most famous works on this stage.
The eight enormous chandeliers that dominate this hall have a special place in its history. Throughout the Second World War they were lit only once, for one of the most extraordinary concerts ever staged. The Nazi army lay siege to what was then Leningrad from 1941 to 1944, and during 900 days, one million of its inhabitants fell victim to cold, disease, bombardment or starvation.
On the radio, Shostakovich spoke of his work to complete his seventh symphony, 'so that those listening will know that life goes on in our city ... it will always be there to enrich the fruits of culture.'
As guns thundered just a few miles away, conductor Karl Eliasberg gathered the 15 surviving thin and exhausted members of the Leningrad Radio Orchestra, augmented by musicians ordered back from the front, to begin rehearsing the symphony. On 9 August 1942, people flocked in and loudspeakers were placed on the city's defences so that the powerful, tumultuous symphony could be 'fired' at the enemy in a crazy, wonderful act of cultural defiance.
It was a triumphant morale booster, and people in the city still say it was the turning point of the siege. They also relish the fact that it was the date Hitler had chosen to hold a victory celebration in one of the city's finest hotels, the Astoria. Hotels have always played a central part in the city's musical life. Just across the street from the Philharmonia is the Grand Hotel Europe, where in 1927 the 21-year-old Shostakovich took the lift up to a suite occupied by Sergei Prokofiev to show him a sonata. Tchaikovsky spent his troubled honeymoon here; Stravinsky took a room after 48 years in exile.
The hotel still offers visiting musicians suites with pianos. Montserrat Caballe, Placido Domingo, Jose Carreras, Cecilia Bartoli and Luciano Pavarotti have all rehearsed there.
One evening, as I walked across the foyer of the Hotel Astoria, I was astonished to see a full-size orchestra in white tie and tails playing Tchaikovsky to a party of diners. Tchaikovsky lies buried not far away, with Rimsky-Korsakov, Borodin, Balakirev, Mussorgsky and Glinka, in a beautiful cemetery for musicians and artists.
The Astoria has close links with that other great St Petersburg institution, the Mariinsky Theatre, home of the Kirov Ballet and Kirov Opera, a short stroll along one of the city's canals.
Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty and Nutcracker received their premieres at the Mariinsky, which opened in 1860 with Glinka's A Life for the Tsar
Today, Valery Gergiev has turned the Mariinsky company into a world-class institution, and at the end of this season the theatre will close for two years for much-needed improvements.
Shostakovich's faith that his city would 'always be there to enrich the fruits of culture' has proved prophetic. Vast sums have been spent restoring squares and buildings. The city is famous for its many palaces and their priceless collections of art, and it is possible to spend days wandering from one extraordinary building to another, lost in wonder. Catherine the Great's Hermitage (of five palaces) houses three million works in probably the most sumptuous rooms ever devised. Dazzled by all this today, it's easy to see why the people ousted their wealthy rulers.
Across the Neva lies the former mansion of the prima ballerina Mathilde Kschessinska, lover of Tsarevitch Nicholas, later Nicholas II. This was Lenin's headquarters in the months leading to the revolution and where vast crowds came to hear his fiery oratory.
The building is now a museum which makes interesting parallels between 1917 and 1991, illustrating the labyrinthine complexities of the Russian political psyche. Now there's something that Shostakovich would understand.
Factfile
Tonight, Valery Gergiev conducts the London Symphony Orchestra in Shostakovich's 'Leningrad' symphony at the Barbican Centre, London EC2. He continues the cycle with the LSO next year on 5 February and 13 April; with the Rotterdam Philharmonic on 11 June and Vienna Philharmonic on 13 and 14 September and returns with the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra and Chorus in December 2006. The St Petersburg Philharmonic visit the Barbican on 23 November. Tickets: 020 7638 8891; www.barbican.org.uk.
Stephen Pritchard travelled with Russia specialists Exeter International (020 8956 2756 www.exeterinternational.co.uk). Four nights at the Grand Hotel Europe or Hotel Astoria cost from £1,470 including airport transfers, guide, car and driver for three days, entrance to major sights, one concert performance by the Mariinsky or the Philharmonia and personalised itinerary. British Airways (0870 850 9850; www.ba.com) flies five times a week from £250.
