On 14 December at 19:00 a recital by French pianist Lucas Debargue at the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre opens the ХII International Piano Festival, which runs until 30 December and includes over thirty concert programmes at Mariinsky Theatre venues in St Petersburg and in Vladikavkaz. Among festival events this year are major monograph programmes, recitals by acclaimed piano maestri and the projects A Composer and the Pianist and Children for Children. The festival's monograph programmes are to be dedicated to the anniversaries of composers that the Mariinsky Theatre has been commemorating throughout 2017 – Igor Stravinsky and Rodion Shchedrin.
On 17 December (19:00) at the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre as part of the concert Stravinsky-135 the pianists Alexei Volodin, Sergei Redkin, Zarina Shimanskaya, Eduard Kiprsky and Alexander Maslov, as well as Mariinsky Opera soloists Oxana Shilova (soprano), Yekaterina Sergeyeva (mezzo-soprano), Yevgeny Akhmedov (tenor) and Andrei Serov (bass) will be appearing with the Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Gergiev. The programme includes Igor Stravinsky's Concerto for Piano and Winds, music from the dance scenes in Les Noces and Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra.
On 24 December (15:00) there will be a concert marking Rodion Shchedrin's jubilee. At the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre, the composer's works for piano will be performed by Denis Matsuev (Piano Concerto No 2), Alexei Volodin (Piano Concerto No 1) and Sergei Redkin (Piano Concerto No 4 (Sharp Keys). The programme also features the Double Cello and Piano Concerto A Romantic Offering (with Alexander Ramm (cello) and Sergei Redkin (piano)). Valery Gergiev will be conducting the Mariinsky Orchestra.
Key festival events will be performances by Brazilian pianist and acclaimed piano maestro Nelson Freire with Ludwig van Beethoven's Fifth Concerto (23 December, 16:00) and the outstanding French musician Pierre-Laurent Aimard with works by Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel (29 December, 18:00). The concerts will be accompanied by the Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Gergiev (Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre).
Rarely performed piano concerti by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Leoš Janáček and Anton Rubinstein will be performed by Uki Ovaskainen, Konstantin Shamrai and Pavel Raikerus. Mischa Damev will be conducting the Mariinsky Orchestra (Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre, 16 December, 16:00).
New names for St Petersburg audiences include the American pianist and conductor Stephen Kovacevich (22 December, 19:00), and the young Dutch musician Ramon van Engelenhoven, who will be appearing with the Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Gergiev (26 December, 18:00). Also appearing that evening at the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre will be the talented young pianist Abisal Gergiev. Much of the festival programme comprises recitals by acclaimed pianists: Ignat Solzhenitsyn (16 December, 20:00), Nikolai Lugansky (21 December, 19:00), Konstantin Lifschitz (23 December, 20:00), Pierre-Laurent Aimard (28 December, 18:00), Dmitry Masleyev (30 December, 12:00) and Zarina Shimanskaya (30 December, 15:00). Returning once again to St Petersburg will be the "Korolyov" piano duo featuring Yevgeny Korolyov and his wife Ljupka Hadzi-Georgieva (24 December, 20:00). All performances will take place at the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre.
The festival's chamber programme opens on 15 December: at the Prokofiev Hall (Mariinsky-II) the first concert of the project Children for Children will take place. The project will see performances by students of the Middle Special School of Music of the St Petersburg Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatoire Anna Valeyeva and Vasily Petrenko, student of the St Petersburg Arts Lyceum Anton Samsonov and also Sergei Davydchenko, winner of the XVII Nutcracker International TV Competition for Young Musicians. All concerts start at 17:00 (15, 19, 20 and 22 December, Prokofiev Hall).
The chamber music programme at the Prokofiev Hall continues with the project A Composer and the Pianist. Acclaimed Egyptian pianist Ramzi Yassa will be performing works by Ludwig van Beethoven (25 December, 18:00), Dmitry Kalashnikov, a pupil of Honoured Artist of the Russian Federation Professor Elena Kuznetsova, will perform Frédéric Chopin (30 December, 12:00) and the young Italian pianist Viviana Lasaracina will perform Enrique Granados (30 December, 13:30).
In line with tradition, the festival will present the class of one teacher – this year these are students of Sergei Babayan from the Juilliard School and the Cleveland Institute of Music (USA): Do-Hyun Kim, Ruoyu Huang, Sara Daneshpour, Ming Xie and Tomer Gewirtzman will be appearing at the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre in recitals and with the Mariinsky Orchestra under Zaurbek Gugkaev (25 December, 20:00 and 27 December, 19:00).
Sergei Babayan himself will be performing with Andrei Gugnin – the triumphant winner at the Sydney International Piano Competition (2016) and co-founder of the International Piano Festival Mira Yevtich at the festival's closing concert. Conducting the Mariinsky Orchestra will be Valery Gergiev (Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre, 30 December, 20:00).
In addition to the main programme, pianists taking part in the International Piano Festival have prepared a musical gift for audiences – the concert Encore! (Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre, 31 December, 14:00).
In Vladikavkaz the International Piano Festival is being staged for the first time, from 20 to 27 December, with seven concerts at the North-Ossetia State Academic Philharmonic. The programme will be framed by appearances by young Moscow pianists Konstantin Shamrai and Andrei Gugnin with the State Symphony Orchestra of the Republic of North Ossetia-Alania under Mischa Damev (Bulgaria).
Vladikavkaz will also host the projects A Composer and the Pianist, involving performances by Dmitry Kalashnikov and Viviana Lasaracina (25 December), and Children for Children, the concerts of which will feature young pianists from the republics of the Northern Caucasus, students from the faculty of piano of the Vladikavkaz Gergiev College of Arts and prize-winners of the Republican Lolaeva Competition of Young Pianists (22, 24 and 26 December).
The International Piano Festival was founded by Valery Gergiev and Mira Yevtich in 2011.
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