A champion of Russian music

In its final issue of the outgoing year, influential French magazine Classica has published an article relating to Valery Gergiev’s receiving the magazine’s “Artist of the Year” award and Mariinsky label recordings of Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Symphonies on DVD and on Blu-ray Disc winning the Choc de l’année prize.

“Russian music has found a champion in Valery Gergiev, as much in lyric as in symphonic repertoire. To see him conduct Symphonies Nos 4 – 6 at the Salle Pleyel, Paris, is an experience that is both intense and unique,” Classica stated. “Everything is fascinating, his expressions, the quick reactions from the orchestra, the incredible sonority... This interpretation attains something that is normally difficult: a naturalness.”