Moscow's music and arts scene is thriving because of the new money flowing into the city, writes Conor Sweeney

Moscow may be in the news for all the wrong reasons at the moment, but the locals don't spend all their time indulging in conspiracy theories or worse. Instead, the city remains one of the cultural capitals of Europe, with around 15 operas, ballets and classical concerts on any given day. With the city's new rich thriving, it has also become a lucrative art market, with prices just as high as Manhattan or London, suggest local artists.

It's now 15 years since the collapse of the Soviet Union and whatever about the lack of consumer goods on sale, the Eastern bloc was always proud of its cultural prowess. Musicians were usually well treated by the communist authorities, once they kept clear of politics.

Since the early 1990s, there have been stories about the relentless fall in living standards for everyone working in the state sector, with orchestras among those worst hit. Nevertheless, Moscow now supports around 40 orchestras, although few musicians are making their sole income from the meagre official pay, with many receiving private-sector sponsorship too. Crucially, there's still a paying audience willing to pay and see impressive live events. Anecdotally, however, many people working in the sector believe it's in a slow decline, though they won't admit it publicly.

The cost can vary enormously, with concerts featuring performers such as Yo-Yo Ma costing anywhere between €60 to €150, dropping right down in price to around 20 roubles, or about 50 cent, for other high quality concerts.

For these cheap events, for example in the city's Rachmaninov Hall, around 300 people are still filling the venue, night after night. Then again, with Moscow's population now well over 12 million, perhaps the attendance figures aren't quite as impressive as they may first appear, given the huge potential audience.

Typically, there might be large-scale concerts, with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra performing Mozart, up against smaller venues featuring music by Bach, Beethoven or Debussy. On one night recently, there was a concerto from the contemporary Dutch composer Martijn Padding in a smaller theatre specialising in new music. On the same night, opera lovers could choose between Bastien and Bastienne, Mozart's comic opera and Verdi's Rigoletto. On a different evening, three or more different performances, including new Russian works or classics from Verdi, were on offer.

At the ballet, there was a choice between Dangerous Liaisons and La Bayadere, while every few weeks there's a new chance to see any of the classical ballets.

On one recent Saturday night, more than 1,000 people paid a maximum of €15 to hear Beethoven's Seventh Symphony and Bartok's third incomplete symphony in the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall. The renowned venue is considered one of the city's finest, with giant wall paintings of the great 19th-century composers staring down on the audience. The acclaimed Russian pianist Alexander Melnikov accompanied the Russian Symphony Orchestra through the difficult Bartok piece while New York conductor David Stern gave a fresh interpretation of the well-known Beethoven symphony.

AS A FREQUENT visitor to both Ireland and the UK, where he teaches at Manchester, Melnikov was adamant that the gap was not quite as big as it may initially appear, once the vast scale of Russia's 142 million population gets taken into account.

"I've been to Ireland lots of times, to Dublin, Belfast and Sligo," he says. "I think there's lots of activity going on there, but of course it's a lot smaller, so you just don't have many orchestras." He feels trying to judge the overall health of classical music in Russia or anywhere else can be difficult, but says he's the "wrong person to ask" because he's travelling the world to perform.

Streaming out after the show, the exhilarated audience appeared knowledgeable about the performance. "I specifically chose to come and see Stern conducting, because it was interesting to see what he would do with the Beethoven symphony," said Oleg Stepanov, an engineer. "I try and see live music about once every two weeks," he said, though he complained that the 7pm starting time was often too early to make it on time through the city's intense traffic jams.

Classical music magazines such as Gramophone no longer rank Russian orchestras among the top 10 in the world, with frequent complaints that musicians here are quite conservative in their style. Certainly, Russian orchestras can play their Tchaikovsky pieces, but critics are sceptical about their versatility when it comes to newer interpretations of the well-known composers.

Obviously the most acclaimed venue in the city remains the Bolshoi, which literally means "big" in Russian, but it's still shrouded in scaffolding as a massive renovation effort continues. Instead, operas and ballets are being staged in the much smaller New stage nearby. But visitors beware, no self-respecting Muscovite would contemplate attending a performance of Swan Lake or The Nutcracker at the Bolshoi, which are generally targeted at visiting tour groups, the tickets being sold off at inflated prices through hotel receptions.

Elsewhere, there's the new shiny steel and aluminium Moscow city-funded music hall, the tiny Gelikon Opera and the Novaya Opera house, all trying to pull in crowds with vast posters advertising concerts right across the city. There are usually Saturday afternoon matinees and Sunday performances too.

Musicians such as the acclaimed violinist Alexei Bruni are still highly respected in Russian society. He told The Irish Times of his passion for classical music and his quest to bring lesser-known Russian composers such as Taneev to a wider audience.

WHEN IT COMES to other areas of the arts, notably theatre or the visual arts, Moscow is still a thriving cultural centre.

The choice at present ranges from an exceptionally cynical version of King Lear, right through to a Russian version of the West End musical based on Abba songs, Mamma Mia. Among the smaller productions is a one-woman show Yes, I Will Yes, based on Molly Bloom's monologue at the end of James Joyce's Ulysses.

British artist Damien Hirst also made a big splash in Moscow recently when a one-day exhibition of his work sold out in advance. The show's dramatic symbolism, including a work entitled The Wounds of Christ using close-up photographs of a gunshot victim on a ventilator with Photoshop additions of bleeding wounds to his feet and hands, did not upset wealthy Muscovites.

It's believed a Russian "minigarch" - someone not quite wealthy enough to join the ranks of the oligarchs - bought out the entire collection of prints at a special advance showing.

But Moscow's art community didn't seem too phased or even jealous by the way the former Brit-art poster boy could romp into town and sell out so easily.

On the contrary, they believe there's probably more collectors for lucky artists inside the Moscow ring road than in either Manhattan or London.

"I think it's quite normal," says Iskander Ulumbekov, a renowned and highly collectible local artist. His unusual studio currently sits on the 24th floor of a newly built apartment block which sits right on the city's MKAD ring road, at the very end of the metro line. The apartment owner, explains Ulumbekov, can't afford to fit it out yet, so he works with his oil palette in the raw concrete shell, using the bare walls as a makeshift gallery for his work.

"Sometimes it happens with some artists. I had an exhibition where a lot of the pieces, about 70 per cent, were sold out." The reason, he explained, is simply down to the high concentration of very well-off individuals in Moscow.

"The prices now in Moscow are higher than for example in America. Last year I had an exhibition in London, but I think that the prices here are like London, sometimes even higher," he said, reflecting the general optimism that seems linked to the country's new economic affluence.

Building at the Bolshoi

As one of Moscow city's landmarks, the Bolshoi theatre has been staging concerts and operas for more than 180 years.

Right now, it's shrouded in both scaffolding and controversy as an enormous renovation project continues.

With the costs spiralling - estimates now run at more than €700 million - the work has become a major news story as Russian taxpayers are footing the bill.

During Soviet times, some repairs were undertaken, although not enough to avoid the building crumbling dangerously.

It will be at least another two years before the walls, stage and even the foundations have been reinforced.

But the closure of the main 2,000-seat venue hasn't closed the theatre completely. Instead, controversial reinterpretations of Russian operas such as Eugene Onegin are being staged in the nearby "New" stage, although it can only accommodate about 800.

It's not clear when the main Bolshoi theatre, just a few hundred metres from the Kremlin in downtown Moscow, will reopen - perhaps not until 2008.

In fact, it would be cheaper to rebuild the entire venue from scratch, but it's feared this would ruin the famed acoustics.