Jubilee Easter Festival opened in Moscow
The 10th Easter Festival, held annually in Moscow by the Mariinsky Theater and its unparalleled artistic director, Valery Gergiev, has opened in the capital on Sunday.
This year the festival`s concerts will also reach the near abroad. Kiev, Minsk, Astana and Vilnius, along with some 38 Russian cities were placed on the Festival`s tour map. Over 100 concerts featuring more than 1,000 soloists and groups of musicians from 11 countries will span over 17 days of the festival.
The Easter Festival that has become a not-to-be-missed event among classical music lovers across the country, traditionally opened in Moscow on Easter Sunday. The Mariinsky choir and the Symphony Orchestra of Russia`s most celebrated theater, one of the world`s best pianists, Denis Matsuev, and mezzo-soprano Olga Borodina performing under Maestro Valery Gergiev gave a start to the musical marathon.
On April 25, Moscow`s Tchaikovsky Concert Hall listened to Donizetti`s most famous work - opera Lucia di Lammermoor, performed by the soloists, the choir and the Symphony Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theater under Valery Gergiev, featuring soprano Natalie Dessay.
Moscow will also see three solo concerts by the International Chopin Piano Competition winners. Daniil Trifonov (third place), Evgeny Bozhanov (fourth place) and Yulianna Avdeeva, who scooped the first prize, will perform at Moscow`s Tchaikovsky Concert Hall on May 1, 2 and 3.
Two concerts in the capital were dedicated to tragedies that shocked the world: one in the recent past and another 25 years ago. The concert that will pass on April 26 will commemorate the victims of the most horrible nuclear accident in history - the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant meltdown. The soloist of the Mariinsky Theater bass Mikhail Petrenko will sing Pyotr Tchaikovsky`s and Sergey Rakhmaninov`s romances. Another Moscow concert due on May 4 will be dedicated to those who suffered from this year`s earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Verdi`s "Requiem" will be performed in their honor by the Mariinsky Symphony Orchestra and chorus under the direction of Valery Gergiev.
Final concerts of the festival will traditionally pass in Moscow on Victory Day, crowning the marathon with a performance by the Mariinsky Symphony Orchestra under Gergiev at Poklonnaya Gora - the area that houses a vast World War II memorial complex and annually hosts massive celebrations on May 9.
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