On 19 December the Mariinsky II hosted the opening of the XI International Piano Festival. Valery Gergiev was conducting. The co-founder of the festival, Serbian pianist Mira Yevtich, performed Maurice Ravel's First Piano Concerto, French pianist Jean-Baptiste Fonlupt performed André Jolivet's Piano Concerto, recipient of the Gold Medal at the Piano Competition in Cincinnati Anastasia Volchok performed Camille Saint-Saëns' Second Piano Concerto and sixteen-year-old pianist Abisal Gergiev performed Francis Poulenc's Piano Concerto in C sharp minor.
The concerts of the festival's chamber music programme begin on 20 December; at 16.00 at the Prokofiev Hall there will be the first concert of the project Children for Children, while in the same venue at 18.00 Jean-Baptiste Fonlupt will perform a programme of works by Franz Liszt as part of the series A Composer and the Pianist. Also at the Prokofiev Hall it will be possible to hear Frédéric Chopin's Four Ballades and Scherzo performed by young Uzbek pianist Nuron Mukumi (22 December, 18.00) and two Rondos and Sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven performed by Vladimir Milošević, one of the most outstanding Serebian pianists of his generation (28 December, 18.00). The project Children for Children continues at the Prokofiev Hall on 21, 22, 23 and 27 December (all concerts at 16.00). Prize-winners at Russian and international competitions, diploma-recipients of the Grand Piano Competition and participants and prize-winners at the Nutcracker International TV Competition will be demonstrating their skills, among them Tuna Bilgin, Ivan Bessonov, Arseniy Gusev, Ilya Papoyan and Alexander Bolotin. Concerts in the chamber venues of the Mariinsky-II will also feature performances by the young pianist Anna Denisova with a programme of works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Robert Schumann and Frédéric Chopin (Prokofiev Hall, 23 December, 18.00). In line with tradition, the festival programme will include a class by an outstanding professor of piano. This time residents and visitors of St Petersburg will hear pupils of Professor Tatiana Zelikman of the Russian Gnessin Academy of Music – at the Concert Hall, Konstantin Shamrai, Roman Martynov, Frédéric D'Oria-Nicolas and Alexander Kudryavtsev will perform all of Alexander Scriabin's piano sonatas (24 December, 18.00).
A monograph programme will be presented by Daniil Trifonov, winner of the XIV International Tchaikovsky Competition. At the Concert Hall with the Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Gergiev the musician will perform all of Sergei Rachmaninoff's piano concerti (22, 23 and 25 December).
Another festival highlight will be an appearance by prize-winners of the Sydney International Piano Competition Andrey Gugnin, Arseny Tarasevich-Nikolaev and Moye Chen (Concert Hall, 21 December, 21.00 and 25 December, 16.00). There will be recitals at the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre by Lucas Debargue, a prize-winner at the XV International Tchaikovsky Competition (20 December, 20.00), Honoured Artist of Russia Boris Petrushansky (21 December, 18.00), prize-winner at the XIV International Tchaikovsky Competition the South Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho (25 December, 20.00), prize-winner at international competitions Pavel Raikerus (27 December, 18.00) and Honoured Artist of Russia Vladimir Tropp (27 December, 21.00). Seong-Jin Cho will also present a programme of works by Pyotr Tchaikovsky accompanied by the Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Geregiev (Concert Hall, 26 December, 19.00).
Returning to St Petersburg will be the virtuoso pianists from The Netherlands, the brothers Arthur and Lucas Jussen, who made a great name for themselves at the XXIV Stars of the White Nights music festival. In addition to works by Francis Poulenc, Frédéric Chopin and Nikolai Kapustin, the musicians will perform the ballade El amor y la muerte from the second book of Enrique Granados' Goyescas and music from Igor Stravinsky's ballet Le Sacre du printemps arranged for piano for four hands (Concert Hall, 28 December, 18.00). The festival concludes on 30 December at the Concert Hall; pianists Nicholas Angelich and Sergei Babayan together with the Mariinsky Orchestra under Valerey Gergiev will perform Johannes Brahms' Piano Concerto No 2 and Arvo Pärt's Lamentate (dedicated to the memory of Vera Gornostayeva).
The International Piano Festival was founded by Valery Gergiev and Mira Yevtich in 2011.
| user_name | | Exit |
