5th International Mstislav Rostropovich Festival to open on March 27
Baku, March 25 (AZERTAC). The 5th International Mstislav Rostropovich Festival will take place in Moscow from 27th March—5th April.
This fifth Festival follows an established tradition of excellence, presenting internationally renowned soloists and orchestras in the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire and the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, two of Moscow’s most beautiful and prestigious venues. Over the last four years, the Festival has hosted nineteen of the world's best symphony orchestras, six choirs, and more than sixty international-class soloists. Its programmes have been distinguished by their richness and variety, offering premières of new compositions, musical rarities, works in different genres, all performed in concert by star performers. In its policy of encouraging young talent, the Festival has also promoted the débuts of exceptionally gifted young musicians. Acclaimed by public and critics alike, the Mstislav Rostropovich Festival has acquired within a very short time an enviable international reputation, and today is recognised as one of Russia's most important musical events.
The traditional date of the opening of the Festival is 27 March, the date of Rostropovich's birthday. It will be inaugurated by an evening concert at the Grand Hall of the Conservatoire given by the renowned Philharmonia Orchestra of London under the direction of Esa- Pekka Salonen in performances of Beethoven's Third Symphony (the Eroica) and Sibelius' Fifth Symphony. Following a tradition established over the last four years, one of the festival programmes is dedicated to the music of Dmitri Shostakovich, the great composer, friend and teacher of Rostropovich. This year the Shostakovich event will take on March 28th with the first Russian performance of his unfinished Opera Buffo «Orango», which was re-discovered in 2004 in the Shostakovich archive of the Glinka Museum by the musicologist Olga Digonskaya, and orchestrated by the British composer Gerard McBurney. Esa.Pekka Salonen, a committed performer of contemporary music conducted the world première of «Orango» in Los Angeles in December 2011. His second programme in Moscow consist of the Russian première of «Orango»followed by a performance of Shostakovich's monumental Fourth Symphony.
On March 29th the Festval will welcome back the Russian National orchestra under the direction of Mikhail Pletnev, its founder and artistic director. Pletnev's concerts are long-awaited events, and audiences will be delighted to hear him performing in the dual role of piano soloist and conductor.
The next two evenings will be dedicated to the concerts of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France under the direction of Myung-Whun Chung. On March 30th, at the Grand Hall of the conservatoire they will be joined by the prize-winning Bulgarian pianist, Plamena Mangova, one of the most acclaimed musicians of the young generation. Then the following evening the soloist in the concert will be the Grammy award winner, the brilliant Norwegian cellist Truls Mork.
The Festival will continue on 3rd April with a concert at the Tchaikovsky Hall, where the Stuttgart German Radio Symphony Orchestra performs under the direction of Stéfane Denève, with the participation of the Danish violinist Nikolaj Znaider, winner of the Queen Elizabeth competition in Brussels. Finally the marathon of orchestral concerts will be completed with two concerts given by the London Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of its chief conductor Vladimir Yurovsky. On 4th April a performance will take place of one of the 20th century's masterpieces, the War Requiem by Benjamin Britten, a beloved friend of Rostorpovich and Visnevskaya, for whom he conceived the soprano part of the Requiem. On this occasion the distinguished team of soloists is made up from the soprano Alexandrina Pendatchanska, the tenor Ian Bostridge, and the baritone, Matthias Goerne. The Festival concludes with a concert on 5th April where Yurovsky and the LPO will be joined by the violinist, Lisa Batiashvili, winner of the «Beethoven Ring» prize awarded by the Beethovenfest of Bonn.
Following the tradition established in previous years, the Mstislav Rostorpovich Festival travels to Orenburg, the town which has been associated with the great musician's family since the mid 19th century.
Other news in this section
