An anniversary festival in Mikkeli

The Mikkeli Festival is an incredibly important cultural dialogue forum for Russian and Finnish music and art. It was founded on the initiative of renowned Finnish music historian and critic Seppo Heikinheimo in 1992 and was initially a chamber music festival. Through the activities of Valery Gergiev, who was appointed the festival’s Artistic Director in 1993, its format has expanded significantly thanks to symphony, vocal-symphony and organ music programmes.

This year, the anniversary festival runs from 1 to 8 July. It will open at the Martti Talvela Hall, the festival’s principal concert venue. Under the baton of maestro Gergiev, the Mariinsky Theatre will be performing works by Richard Strauss, Franz Liszt and Sergei Rachmaninoff, Denis Matsuev playing the solos in Strauss’ Burleske in D Minor and Liszt’s Totentanz (Dance of Death).

Subsequent Mariinsky Theatre concerts are to be held at the Chamber Music Hall, the neo-Gothic style Cathedral seating one thousand two hundred and the Mikkeli Parish Wooden Church, the third largest wooden church in Finland which seats two thousand people. Guest stars include pianists Miroslav Kultyshev and Alexander Toradze, violinist Sergey Khachatryan – a frequent visitor to Mikkeli and the youngest ever prize-winner in the history of the International Jean Sibelius Competition in Helsinki – and violinist and conductor Rainer Honeck. On 5 July there will be a concert performance of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Attila under the baton of Valery Gergiev. The title role is to be performed by Ildar Abdrazakov, that of Odabella by Anna Markarova, that of Foresto by Sergei Skorokhodov and that of Ezio by Vladislav Sulimsky.

One special sporting event of the festival comes with the traditional football match between the teams of Mikkeli and the Mariinsky Theatre; this will take place on 4 July.

For details of all events please go to the festival website.