Events
10 May 2017
The XVI Moscow Easter Festival embraces 77 regions of Russia!
The XVI Moscow Easter Festival was held from April 16 to May 9 with the support of the Moscow Government, the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation and with the Blessing of His Holiness the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill. The Festival was dedicated to the 135th anniversary of the birth of Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky.
The 24 days of the Festival saw 182 concerts of symphonic, choral, chamber and bell-ringing programs in 77 cities of Russia, from Kaliningrad to Vladivostok.
Within the framework of the Symphonic Program, the musicians of the Mariinsky Orchestra and Valery Gergiev performed 45 times in 26 cities of Russia: in Moscow, Kazan, Almetyevsk, Naberezhnye Chelny, Orenburg, Magnitogorsk, Yekaterinburg, Surgut, Tyumen, Novosibirsk, Kemerovo, Tomsk, Strezhevoy, Omsk, Perm, Ulyanovsk, Saransk, Nizhny Novgorod, Vladimir, Tula, Kursk, Novocherkassk, Vladikavkaz, Kislovodsk, Stavropol and Voronezh. Traditionally, the musicians traveled by a special charter train of the Moscow Easter Festival, the entire route having covered about 18,000 km.
A striking accent of the symphonic program was the performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Simon Boccanegra on the stage of the Neftyanik palace of arts in Surgut. And the Primorsky Stage of Mariinsky Theater in Vladivostok became the venue for two performances of Seong-Jin Cho, a South Korean piano virtuoso and holder of the golden medal of the F. Chopin International Competition.
Participants of the symphonic program included the Mariinsky Orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev, the Stradivarius Ensemble and the Brass Ensemble of the Mariinsky Theater, pianists Denis Matsuev, Daniil Trifonov, Behzod Abduraimov, Abisal Gergiev and Seong-Jin Cho, violinists Kristóf Baráti, Pavel Milyukov, Lorenz Nasturica-Herschcowici, Roman Simović and Stanislav Izmailov, violist Yuri Afonkin and harpist Sofia Kiprskaya, cellist Sergei Roldugin, conductor Darrell Ang, soloists of the Mariinsky Theater opera company – Ildar Abdrazakov, Stanislav Trofimov, Oleg Sychov, Vladislav Sulimsky, Roman Burdenko, Alexander Mikhailov, Mikhail Makarov, Dmitry Grigoriev, Anastasia Kalagina, Marina Mareskina, and Tatiana Pavlovskaya.
Choral Program. Concerts of the choral program were held in 30 cities: Moscow, Istra, Tver, Orekhovo-Zuevo, Balashikha, Severodvinsk, Kaluga, Arkhangelsk, Klimovsk, Yegoryevsk, Sergiyev Posad, Elektrostal, Mytishchi, Staritsa, Khimki, Murom, Korolyov, Veliky Novgorod, Reutov, Serpukhov, Alexandrov, Zelenograd, Dmitrov, Rostov Veliky, Kolomna, Novodvinsk, Zaraysk, Tula and Kimzha. For the first time, the choral program was widely represented in Vladivostok: the Primorsky Stage of Mariinsky Theater and the Cathedral of the Intercession of the Most Holy Mother of God were the venues where the Combined Choir of the Primorsky Metropolia conducted by Lyudmila Makarenko performed, and the Church in honor of the Port Arthur Icon of the Most Holy Mother of God hosted a performance by the Choir of the Church of the Port Arthur Icon of the Mother of God conducted by Yelena Kokhanovskaya.
All in all, there were 77 choral concerts.
This year, 28 teams from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Voronezh, Vladimir, Arkhangelsk, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok, as well as from Greece, Serbia, Belarus, Armenia, Georgia, Czechia, Bulgaria and Sweden took part in the choral program.
Chamber Program. The chamber program embraced 20 cities. For the first time the concerts were held in Kaliningrad, Plyos, and also in Crimea – in Simferopol, Yalta and Sevastopol. Soloists of the Academy of Young Opera Singers of Mariinsky Theater and the artistic director of the Academy Larisa Gergieva presented a program of Russian romances and world opera masterpieces, songs of the war years, as well as a series of open rehearsals and master classes. The Symphony Orchestra of the Togliatti Philharmonic conducted by the young conductor Timur Zangiev, the Symphonica ARTica symphony orchestra, the State Concert Orchestra of the Yakutia Philharmonic named after G. M. Krivoshapko conducted by Natalia Bazaleva, the Sofia Soloists chamber ensemble conducted by Plamen Djurov, as well as soloists and the Chamber Orchestra of the Primorsky Stage of Mariinsky Theater also took part in the chamber program.
There were 25 performances in the chamber program.
Bell-ringing Program. 35 Easter chimes were performed within the framework of the Festival in 9 cities: on the best-known belfries of Moscow – Zaryadye, Zamoskvorechye and Taganka, including the Red Square and Danilov Monastery, and in the park areas – Kolomenskoye, Sokolniki, as well as on the belfries of Zvenigorod, Sergiyev Posad, Istra, St. Petersburg, Uglich, Noginsk, Veliky Novgorod and Ramenskoye.
Charity Concerts. The 16th Festival continued the traditions of charity. 17 charity concerts were held within the framework of the Choral Program in orphanages, boarding schools, homes for the disabled and veterans. In the Palace of Culture of Sergiyev Posad, soloists of Mariinsky Theater Tatiana Pavlovskaya and Vasily Gerello performed with the participation of the Preodoleniye ("Overcoming") ensemble – residents of the Sergiyev Posad home for deaf-blind children. Musicians of the Mariinsky Orchestra played 13 charity concerts, including those for the military: in the House of Officers of Tsentralny Military District in Yekaterinburg and in the Tyumen Presidential Cadet School. Besides, a concert of the Chamber Orchestra of the Primorsky Stage of Mariinsky Theater was conducted by Pavel Smelkov in the Prince Volkonsky Garrison (Khabarovsk Territory).
The climax of the charity program of the Moscow Easter Festival was the open concert of the Mariinsky Orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev on Victory Day on Poklonnaya Hill in Moscow, which gathered about 300,000 listeners annually.
The 16th Moscow Easter Festival ended on May 9, with an evening concert in the Grand Hall of the Conservatory, with the participation of pianist Daniil Trifonov.