Moscow Easter Festival (Artistic director Valery Gergiev)20 April 2014 - 09 May 2014 SCHEDULE 20 April 2014 - 09 May 2014
The Moscow Easter Festival was inaugurated by the artistic and general director of the Mariinsky Theatre (former Kirov Ballet Theahre) Valery Gergiev and the mayor of Moscow Yury Luzkov. It has quickly developed into one of the largest and most authoritative musical forums in Russia and Europe.
The First Festival was held at Easter 2002 with support of the Moscow government and blessing of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexei II. It was a resounding success and the decision was quickly taken to make the Festival an annual event, with the Russian Ministry of Culture as co-promoter.
The musical programme and the international dimension of the Festival have grown steadily richer year by year.
Russia’s key and eagerly
anticipated XIII Moscow Easter Festival will run from 20 April to 9 May 2014
with the support of the Moscow City Government, the Ministry
of Culture of the Russian Federation, the Russian Orthodox
Church and the Ministry of Defence of the Russian
Federation. The geographic scale of this music forum will be impressive
in itself, breaking all records of previous years. For the first
time, the festival will traverse the entire country. Moreover,
the grand opening at the Great Hall of the Moscow
Conservatoire will be preceded by a series of pre-festival concerts
in the Russian regions.
We would like to invite you to attend the press conference where
Artistic Director of the Moscow Easter Festival Valery Gergiev
will present the programme of the thirteenth festival. These
press conferences have become an integral part of the festival’s
traditions, with maestro Gergiev speaking about the theme,
the participants and the festival’s key events. The press conference
will take place on 28 February at 15:00 in the White Hall
of the Moscow City Government (13 Tverskaya Street).
Taking part will be representatives of the XIII Festival’s general
sponsors and information partners. Mayor of Moscow Sergei Sobyanin, Culture
Minister of the Russian Federation Vladimir Medinsky, His Holiness
Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, and Russian Defence Minister
Sergei Shoigu are also due to attend. History
of the Festival The Moscow Easter Festival, which began in
2002, has, in a few years, won the reputation of being one of the largest and
most respected musical forums of Russia and Europe. The Festival has the
backing of Yury Luzhkov, the Mayor of Moscow, and Valery Gergiev, the artistic
and general director of the Mariinsky Theatre. The wide response to the
first Festival, held with the support of the Moscow Municipal Government and
with the blessing of Aleksey II, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, brought
about the decision to hold the event annually. In 2003, with the support
of V.V. Putin, President of the Russian Federation, the Festival was given the
title All-Russian.
This, the largest Russian
festival, follows the tradition of the West European musical forums held at
Eastertide - such events take place annually in Salzburg, Vienna, Berlin,
Lucerne, London and many other cities, and include varied programmes, both
spiritual and temporal, which attract a great number of music lovers. In
forming the repertoire of the Moscow Easter Festival, its artistic director
Valery Gergiev, in his own words, thought of the forum as an event of
all-national importance, like the similar festival in Salzburg founded by
Herbert von Karajan. At the same time, one of the main missions of the
Moscow Easter Festival became the continuation of the traditions of Orthodox
Easter and the resurrection of now-unknown forms of Russian musical culture.
In the opinion of
the international and central Russian press, the Moscow Easter Festival forms
the culmination of the capitals musical season every year, attracting
world-class artistes, presenting interesting well-filled programmes, and paying
great attention to charitable projects.
The Festival now
takes place annually, with the support of Yu.M. Luzhkov, Mayor of Moscow, D.A.
Medvedev, President of the Russian Federation, and the Ministry of Culture of
the Russian Federation, and with the blessing of His Holiness Cyril, Patriarch
of Moscow and All Russia. The Festival programme, which included only 20
concerts in its first year, has now reached an impressive size - up to 120
events over two to three weeks in the Spring.
From the first days of its existence, the social
priorities of the Moscow Easter festival have been charity and education, which
are embodied in all the four major classes of the festival: symphonic, chamber
and choral programmes, and a bell-ringing week.
The symphonic programme, which
began with a performance by the Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra in five
regions, by the beginning of the Ninth Festival is taking place in 26 cities:
Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhni Novgorod, Kazan, Vladikavkaz, Krasnodar,
Ekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Chelyabinsk, Rostov-on-Don, Ulyanovsk,
Izhevsk, Khanty-Mansiysk, Tolyatti, Samara, Veliky Novgorod, Cherepovets,
Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Perm, Petrozavodsk, Murmansk, Belomorsk, Kiev and
Yerevan. The orchestra has been to some of them three times!
Several thousand
performers from throughout the world have taken part in the Moscow Easter
Festival over the years of its existence, including both well-known stars and
promising young artistes. The Festival programme has been enhanced by the
names of such supreme vocal artistes as Anna Netrebko, Olga Borodina, Vladimir
Galuzin and Bryn Terfel. Participants invited by maestro Gergiev include
the violinists Vadim Repin, Viktoria Mullova, Nikolai Tsnaider, Leonidas
Kavakos, the viola player Yury Bashmet, the cellists Misha Maisky and
Marie-Elizabeth Hacker, the pianists Mikhail Pletnev, Lang Lang, Vladimir
Feldman, Aleksandr Toradze, Yefim Bronfman and Kun-Woo Paik, the Belgian choir
and baroque-instrument orchestra Collegium Vocale Gent under the direction of
Philippe Herreweghe, the Cologne Chamber Choir and orchestra under the direction
of Peter Neumann, prima ballerina of the Mariinsky Theatre Ulyana Lopatkina and
many others.
The choral programme began in 2002 in Moscow with concerts by seven
choirs. The following year, performances were given in six cities, and the
number grows with each season. Choirs have performed in Novosibirsk, Kiev,
Krasnoyarsk, Archangel, Murmansk, Maikop, Izhevsk, Cherepovets, Kazan, Yakutsk,
Zaraysk, Aleksandrov, Vladikavkaz, Kaluga, Krasnodar, Krasnoyarsk, Murom, Rostov
Veliky, Serpukhov, Tver, Tula, Tolyatti, Ulyanovsk, St. Petersburg, Dmitrov,
Ryazan, Kasimov, Kolomna, Kaluga, Vladimir, Suzdal, Yaroslavl, Yegoryevsk,
Lyubertsy, Nizhny Novgorod and other cities. In 2009, 18 choirs took part
in 39 concert programmes. Thanks to the cooperation of the Moscow
Patriarchate, it became possible for the first time in history to hold concerts
of spiritual choral music in active churches; last year, Easter singing took
place in 26 churches and cathedrals. This year, the number of choirs
participating in the festival has risen to 21. Choral programme events
will cover 14 Moscow churches and nine concert sites in the capital.
From its first
days, the Festival has aroused the interest of a very wide auditorium in the art
of Easter bell-ringing. Each year, the best of the Russian bell-ringers
have been attracted to Moscow to take part in the “Easter Bells Week”
programme. Chimes of bells relayed from one church to another were heard
in the historic centre of Moscow in 2002 for the first time since 1917.
This musical phenomenon, amazing in its effect, not only fills the souls of
Christians with well-being and calm, but also inspires hope, strengthens faith
and affirms the truth of spiritual resurrection.
Performances by the musicians of
the Young Singers Academy, headed by Larissa Gergieva, took place as part of the
chamber programme for the first time in 2003. They were held in seven
Russian cities: Kostroma, Yaroslavl, Tyumen, Vologda, Omsk, Tomsk and
Seversk. Since then, the artistes of the Academy of Young Singers of the
Mariinsky Theatre have performed all over the country, from Murmansk to
Vladivostok, through Yaroslavl, Mirny and Blagoveshchensk.
The Festival’s
charity concerts in urban hospitals, veterans’ homes and children’s music
schools enable those who cannot come to concert halls to hear interesting
programmes.
The Moscow
Easter Festival which took place in the capital for the first time in 2002 was
not allocated a serial number. It became called the First only after the
event: due to the tremendous response from the public, it was decided to hold it
annually. The concerts of the main symphonic programme of the Festival
reflect the history of Russian culture in its interaction with European
tradition: each year, the programmes are subordinated to a single thematic
principle.
For example, the central event of the second
Moscow Easter Festival was M.P. Mussorgsky’s opera “Boris Godunov” in the
Cathedral Square of the Kremlin. This performance was particularly
memorable for the audience: On the day of the concert, the weather took a turn
for the worse, and it poured with rain. The stringed instruments were
replaced by a piano, but the choir, soloists and other musicians of the
Mariinsky Theatre led by Valery Gergiev, in spite of the weather, kept going to
the end and performed the opera splendidly.
The Third Moscow Easter Festival
was the first to hold a broad programme of concerts in nine Russian
cities. A special place in the repertoire of the 2004 forum was devoted to
the music of Sergey Prokofiev. The Mariinsky Theatre orchestra presented
all seven of his symphonies, which are rarely heard en bloc. The Third
Festival also included the mini-cycle “Days of Bach in
Moscow”.
The Fourth Moscow Easter Festival
was devoted to the 60th anniversary of the great Victory in the Second World
War. The symphonic programme included “heroic” compositions by L. van
Beethoven, Sergei Prokofyev, Johannes Brahms and Dmitry Shostakovich. The
other themed bloc was in the form of a cycle of three symphonies by S.V.
Rachmaninov. Two special projects also became part of the celebration of
the 60th anniversary of Victory: the presentation by the Mariinsky Theatre of
Sergey Prokofiev’s opera “War and Peace”, directed by Andrey Konchalovsky with
the participation of Anna Netrebko; and a performance by the specially-created
Combined Youth Orchestra of countries which took part in the Second World War,
under the direction of Valery Gergiev.
The Fifth Moscow Easter Festival
marked the centenary of the birth of the 20th-century classical composer Dmitry
Shostakovich. The Moscow retrospective of the master’s compositions was
the culmination of Valery Gergiev’s large-scale international project devoted to
the centenary: he presented programmes of Shostakovich’s music in New York,
London, Paris, Beijing, Tokyo, Rome, Los Angeles, St. Petersburg and other world
musical capitals. The opera “The Nose” and selected compositions from the
composer’s symphonic legacy were performed by maestro Gergiev and the Mariinsky
Theatre in Moscow on the stage of the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko
Musical Theatre when it reopened after reconstruction. For the first time
in many years, inhabitants of the distant regions were able to assess
world-renowned Mariinsky Theatre opera productions: Giuseppe Verdi’s operas
“Falstaff” and “Nabucco” were performed in Novosibirsk and Krasnoyarsk. A
special project “Kievan Rus” was prepared for the festival days in Kiev.
This included five productions: the operas “The Journey to Rhiems” by Gioachino
Rossini and “Parsifal” by Richard Wagner, with the participation of the famous
bass-baritone Bryn Terfel, S.V. Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto and Dmitry
Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto.
The Sixth Moscow Easter Festival
was devoted to the 125th anniversary of the birth of Igor Stravinsky, one of the
most “St. Petersburg style” composers, whose works vividly portray the spirit of
the Northern capital. The programme included both popular stage
productions (a triad of Russian ballets: “The Firebird”, “Petrushka”, “The Rite
of Spring” and the opera-oratorio “Oedipus Rex”, and rarely-performed opuses
(“Symphony in C”, “The Wedding”, “Symphony in Three Movements” and the cantata
“King of the Stars”). The tradition of operatic gifts from the Mariinsky
Theatre to the Russian capital was continued by a sparkling spectacle with the
participation of soloists of the Young Singers Academy: “Love for Three Oranges”
by Sergey Prokofiev - producer Alena Maratra. Leading soloists of the
Mariinsky Opera took part in presenting three fragments from the four-part work
“Ring of the Nibelung” by Richard Wagner - the biggest project in the recent
history of the Theatre.
The Seventh Moscow Easter Festival
reflected the Mariinsky Theatre’s own anniversaries: 225 years from its
foundation, and 20 years with maestro Valery Gergiev in control. In its
jubilee season, the Mariinsky Theatre presented to the public a panorama of the
best historical spectacles and contemporary premieres, including the splendid
musical displays “Khovanshchina” by M.P. Mussorgsky and “The Maid of Pskov” by
N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov in their historic sets. The Festival programme gave a
special place to the music of Rimsky-Korsakov (on the centenary of his death):
it included the “The Bright Holiday” overture, “Spanish Capriccio”, and
overtures and fragments from the operas “The Legend of the Invisible City of
Kitezh and the Maiden Fevronia”, “May Night”, “The Tsar’s Bride”, “Mlada” and
“The Tale of Tsar Saltan”. An international element was added to the
Festival programme by the names of the Chinese virtuoso pianist Lang Lang, the
talented German cellist Marie-Elizabeth Hacker, the Belgium ensemble Collegium
Vocale Gent and the “maestro of baroque” Philippe Herreweghe. Audiences
for the symphonic programme of the Seventh Moscow Easter Festival totalled
over 35,000 in Moscow and the Russian
regions.
The programme of the Eighth
Festival included performances connected in various ways to works by N.V. Gogol,
whose 200th birth anniversary was celebrated in 2009. In particular, there
was a performance of Vlacheslav Kruglik’s comic opera “The Carriage”, based on
the novel of the same name by N.V. Gogol. The wide regional coverage of
the Festival included 28 Russian cities: the Symphony Orchestra of the Mariinsky
Theatre and maestro Gergiev set out on a wide-ranging tour from Perm to Murmansk
in a chartered train. They did not only perform in large cities, but also, in
particular, in Belomorsk, a city with a population of 12'000. Belomorsk embraced
the Easter Festival warmly, meeting it with a choir of incredibly touching
sincerity, and in kokoshniks. They also presented them with more flowers than
the ensemble is used to receiving in the more Southern, wealthier
megalopolises.
The orchestra performed in the
Russian North and the Kola Arctic for the first time. The warm reception
and the high audience awareness of the public left Valery Gergiev with good
impressions of this region. The artistic director of the forum promised
the Northerners that the Easter Festival would return. Last year, the
Festival was taken abroad for the first time, to Yerevan.
The programme of the Ninth Moscow
Easter Festival is devoted to the 65th anniversary of the Great Victory in the
Second World War. Therefore, its regional part includes tours of the Hero
Cities and Cities of Military Glory. The concert programmes devote much
attention to the music of the composer Dmitry Shostakovich, who lived through
the war. “I’m the son of a front-line soldier myself, we don’t only know
about the horrors of the war and the great joy of the Victory by hearsay.
We want to pay a musical tribute to the veterans. It is worth giving
concerts for them alone”, says Valery Gergiev.
Music fanatics will be interested
in the Swedish Radio Choir concert, and lovers of baroque music in the arrival
of a true star of authenticity in music, the Catalan Jordi Savall with his
orchestra “Le Concert des Nations”. The names of such soloists as
Ferruccio Furlanetto, Denis Matsuyev, Nelson Freire, Mario Brunello, Yekateria
Gubanova and Sergey Babayan will grace the programme, giving it the highest
artistic prestige. Mariinsky opera fans will undoubtedly meet its leading
soloists.
SCHEDULE 20 April 2014 - 09 May 2014
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