Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra are commencing a significant tour to cities throughout Europe, during which they will visit six major music festivals.
Valery Gergiev
On 23 August Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra appeared at the acclaimed Edinburgh International Festival (Great Britain). In the Usher Hall maestro Gergiev conducted works by 20th century composers: Sergei Prokofiev’s Classical First Symphony, while the Royal Scottish National Orchestra performed Benjamin Britten’s Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge. In the programme’s finale the orchestras together performed Dmitry Shostakovich’s Fourth Symphony.
Valery Gergiev at the Baltic Sea Festival
The performances at the Baltic Sea Festival (Sweden) on 25 and 26 August were dedicated to Richard Wagner. On 25 August at the Berwaldhallen Concert Hall was a concert performance of Act III of the opera Parsifal by soloists of the Mariinsky Opera and the Mariinsky Orchestra as well as the Swedish Royal Opera Chorus, while on 26 August a rendition of the opera Das Rheingold.
Götterdämmerung
The Mariinsky Theatre will continue its performances of works by Richard Wagner at the 65. Ljubljana Summer Festival – one of Slovenia’s most important cultural events. On 29 and 30 August the Cankarjev Dom Cultural Centre will host performances of the operas Siegfried and Götterdämmerung (production concept by Valery Gergiev and George Tsypin). The lead roles will be performed by Mikhail Vekua (Siegfried), Andrei Popov (Mime), Roman Burdenko (Alberich), Yekaterina Shimanovich (Brünnhilde), Yevgeny Nikitin (the Wanderer), Mikhail Petrenko (Fafner) and Zlata Bulycheva (Erda) on 29 August, and by Dmitry Voropaev (Siegfried), Larisa Gogolevskaya (Brünnhilde), Roman Burdenko (Alberich), Olga Savova (Waltraute), Yekaterina Shimanovich (Gutrune), Yevgeny Nikitin (Gunther), Mikhail Petrenko (Hagen), Zhanna Dombrovskaya (Woglinde), Irina Vasilieva (Wellgunde) and Yekaterina Sergeyeva (Flosshilde) on 30 August.
Behzod Abduraimov
On 31 August a concert by the Mariinsky Orchestra under the baton of Valery Gergiev will bring the 65. Ljubljana Summer Festival to a close. The programme includes Ludwig van Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony, Dmitry Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony and Sergei Prokofiev’s First Piano Concerto. The soloist is Behzod Abduraimov.
Daniil Trifonov
On 1 and 2 September Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra will present two monograph marathons at the famous Lucerne Festival (Switzerland). The first evening will be dedicated to Modest Musorgsky. The programme includes the introduction from the opera Khovanshchina, the symphonic fantasia Night on Bald Mountain, the song cycle Songs and Dances of Death (with soloist Oxana Volkova) and Pictures at an Exhibition (orchestration by Maurice Ravel).
Sergei Redkin
On 2 September at the KKL Luzern Concert and Convention Centre there will be performances of all of Sergei Prokofiev’s piano concerts by the brilliant young pianists: Daniil Trifonov, Behzod Abduraimov and Sergei Redkin.
Denis Matsuev
On 3 September the Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Gergiev will perform a concert at the renowned British festival the BBC Proms. The programme of the sixty-eighth promenade concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London will feature Dmitry Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony, Sergei Prokofiev’s Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of the October Revolution and Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Third Piano Concerto, the solo to be performed by Denis Matsuev.
To conclude the tour, on 8 September the Mariinsky Orchestra and Valery Gergiev will appear at the opening of the Beethovenfest in Bonn (Germany). The programme includes Ludwig van Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony, the introduction to Act I of Richard Wagner’s opera Lohengrin and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s symphonic suite Schéhérazade.
(after Mariinsky Theatre, 23.8. 2017)
Marijan Zlobec