The Mariinsky in Germany

During the German tour, maestro Gergiev will be conducting the Mariinsky Opera and Orchestra in three of the country’s major cultural centres – Baden-Baden, Munich and Berlin. On 28 June the Mariinsky Theatre will be performing a Gala Concert marking fifteen years of the Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden. The concert programme includes excerpts from Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s opera Eugene Onegin with soloists Yekaterina Goncharova (Tatiana) and Alexei Markov (Onegin), Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto (with soloist Hélène Grimaud) and Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony. The concert begins at 7pm.

On 30 June at the Munich Philharmonic there will be a special concert including Gustav Mahler’s famous Fifth Symphony. The motto for the concert will be the Year of Russia and Germany’s slogan “Let’s Create a Future together.” As a sign of the strong friendly ties between the two countries, Mahler’s symphony will be jointly performed by Russian and German musicians – the Mariinsky Theatre and the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, of which Valery Gergiev becomes Principal Conductor starting in 2015 following a unanimous vote by the musicians themselves and the Munich City Government. The symphony will be performed at the grand hall of Munich’s Gasteig cultural centre; the concert begins at 7pm.

The Mariinsky Theatre’s tour to Germany will conclude at the Berliner Philharmonie’s Grosser Saal with a grand concert marking the end of the Year of Russia and Germany. Among those appearing in the concert are internationally acclaimed performers representing Germany and Russia, such as German bass René Pape and Russian pianist Denis Matsuev. The concert programme will also feature masterpieces of Russian and German music, including the introduction from the opera Lohengrin, Wotan’s farewell to Brünnhilde from Richard Wagner’s opera Die Walküre, Dmitry Shostakovich’s Second Piano Concerto and Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony (Pathétique).