A program for a concert by the Court Musicians’ Corps (Pridvornyi muzykantskii khor) in honor of the wedding of Grand Duchess Xenia (or Ksenia) Alexandrovna & Grand Duke Alexander Mikhailovich on 25 July 1894, V. Kene i Ko., St. Petersburg. The heavy card embossed & printed in color with the Imperial State Seal, the program including: Felix Mendelssohn’s 1842 “Wedding March” from his suite of incidental music (Op. 61) to Shakespeare’s play “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”; the overture to Mikhail Glinka’s “A Life for the Tsar”; Richard Wagner’s “Bridal Chorus” from the 1856 opera Lohengrin, better known as “Here Comes the Bride” in the English-speaking world & popularized after it was used in the 1858 wedding of Victoria, the Princess Royal to Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia; Johann Strauss’ (II) 1881 “Myrthenblüten [Myrtle Flowers]” composed for the celebration of the wedding of Princess Stéphanie of Belgium & Crown Prince Rudolf of Hapsburg-Lorraine; the Prologue to Ruggero Leoncavallo’s 1892 opera “Pagliacci”; Fantasia from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s 1889 ballet “The Sleeping Beauty”; &, “Heroic March” from Jules Massenet’s Swabadi.

According to Daniel Jaffé’s Historical Dictionary of Russian Music (2012, p. 93) notes that the Court Musicians’ Corps was founded in 1882 “to entertain Tsar Alexander III & his entourage on Sundays & holidays at the 900-room Gatchina Palace, performing at balls & on ceremonial occasions. Originally staffed almost entirely by uniformed cavalry musicians, the orchestra was expanded in 1886 to full symphonic size.” It is now the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra.