Easter Festival`s concert crowns Victory Day
Moscow`s Easter Festival, the brainchild of the celebrated maestro Valery Gergiev has come to an end with a closing concert in the capital`s Poklonnaya Gora, the traditional area for Victory Day festivities.
The Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra under Gergiev played an open-air gala concert that ended with Sergey Prokofiev`s towering military composition Symphony No 5. Entry to the concert was free, as usual.
During the festival, the Mariinsky Symphony Orchestra played almost 40 concerts in Russia and abroad. The festival`s extended tour also revealed the lack of quality concert halls across the country. Gergiev raised this issue in his conversations with regional governors.
"This year the festival has significantly expanded," Valery Gergiev said at a media conference before the concert. "Concerts have taken place in five capitals [Kiev, Minsk, Astana, Vilnius, and Moscow] and the halls were fully packed. And this is the essence of the festival`s historical mission - to revive the huge cultural potential," Valery Gergiev said.
One of Moscow Easter Festival`s concerts was dedicated to the memory of those who perished or suffered from the disastrous earthquake and tsunami in Japan. All money collected from the concert on May 4 was transferred to the Japanese Red Cross.
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