Leonid Desyatnikov finished the work on his new score under the name A Journey of the Fox to the North-West. This piece for soprano and orchestra was composed by the request of the Sverdlovsk Philharmonic to be performed by the Ural Academic Philharmonic Orchestra at the opening of the 2nd Eurasia International Music Festival. The work is based on the poems by Elena Schwartz (1948 – 2010).

Leonid Desyatnikov claims, “Four poems written by the outstanding Russian poet and set by me to music represent different poetic cycles and different periods of time. Undoubtedly, the poet drew her inspiration from the books written by Pu Songling. These collections of novels represent a kind of Chinese Decameron of the 17th century. Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio or Liaozhai Zhiyi by Pu Songling is one of my most favorite books. However, Schwartz, a “cursed poet” of the epoch of everlasting stagnation, redesigned the slightly decorative chinoiserie masque, redoing it willfully and achingly, with cuts and bruises, so that she would fit into it: her Fox is a lyrical hero, an alter ego of the author. The North-West appearing in the title is represented by Saint-Petersburg where Elena Schwarz lived all her life.

It is not easy for me to talk about the music: it has never been played before… I promise a lot of sonorous percussion instruments, harp, grand piano and celesta; a lot of bent pentatonic scale inspired by Oriental compositions by Ravel and Stravinsky.”

On October 4, 2013, at the Festival opening, the world premiere of Desyatnikov’s new work will be held with the participation of the Ural Academic Philharmonic Orchestra, lead by its Chief Conductor Dmitry Liss, and Venera Gimadieva, the Bolshoi Theatre solo soprano.