On 23 and 24 October the historic stage of the Mariinsky Theatre will host performances by the Estonian National Opera. For the St Petersburg tour, the Estonian company will be bringing two productions: Eduard Tubin's ballet The Goblin with choreography by Marina Kesler and George Frideric Handel's opera Rinaldo staged by William Relton.

On 23 October (19.00) the Mariinsky Theatre will present the ballet The Goblin – the first Estonian ballet and the first work by Eduard Tubin for musical theatre. According to the composer, the score is entirely based on folk music which "makes this ballet an inexhaustible treasure-house". The premiere of The Goblin took place in 1943 at the Vanemuine Theatre – it was conducted by the composer himself, and the choreographer was Ida Urbel. One year later the ballet staged by Rachel Olbrei was performed at the Estonian National Opera, though soon the theatre building suffered from bombing and performances were cancelled. In 1999 The Goblin was re-staged at the Estonian National Opera with choreography by Mai Murdmaa. St Petersburg audiences will see the Estonian company perform its fourth version of The Goblin (choreography and stage designs by Marina Kesler).

The lead roles will be performed by Anatoli Arkhangelski (the Master), Andrei Fabbri (the Devil), Patrick Foster (the Goblin), Yevgeny Grib (Batrak) and Marta Navasardyan (the Master's Daughter). Vello Pähn will be conducting the Estonian National Opera Orchestra.

On 24 October (19.00) at the historic stage of the Mariinsky Theatre there will be a performance of George Frideric Handel's opera Rinaldo staged by William Relton. The lead roles are to be performed by Mati Turi (Goffredo), Helen Lokuta (Almirena), Monika-Evelin Liiv (Rinaldo), Mart Madiste (Eustazio), Rauno Elp (Argante), Helen Lepalaan (Armida) and Mart Laur (the Magician). Conducting will be the acclaimed specialist in medieval and baroque music and the founder and director of the famous Hortus Musicus ensemble Andres Mustonen.

The world premiere of the opera Rinaldo took place at the Queen's Theatre in London in 1711 and proved a tremendous success: none of the composer's other operas was performed so often during his lifetime. The libretto by Giacomo Rossi and Aaron Hill after Torquato Tasso's poem Gerusalemme liberata included most of the available plot techniques: war, magic, treason, love, kidnapping and heroic endeavours. In speaking about work on the opera, William Relton remarked that "When I first saw Rinaldo, nothing had prepared me for the delight which I felt while watching this masterpiece for the first time. Even for Handel this opera has a large number of 'hit' arias that leaves one gasping. And then there is of course the incomparable 'Lascia ch’io pianga' sung by Almirena in the middle of Act II. One of Händel’s most beautiful and celebrated arias. A treat indeed!"

On 22 October (20.00) the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre will host the St Petersburg premiere of George Benjamin's opera Written on Skin. The concert performance as part of the ХVII International Conservatoire Week Festival will showcase vocalists from Great Britain and the Melos Sinfonia symphony orchestra directed by the ensemble's founder and director Oliver Zeffman (London). The lead roles will be performed by Ross Ramgobin (the Protector), Lauren Fagan (Agnès), Patrick Terry (First Angel, Youth), Bethan Langford (Second Angel, Marie) and Nick Pritchard (Third Angel, John). The production director is Jack Furness.

The opera Written on Skin is the first full-scale theatre work by George Banjamin – a pupil of Olivier Messiaen and one of the greatest living British composers. The opus was commissioned by Bernard Foccroulle, the director of the Aix-en-Prevence Festival. At his request, George Benjamin and the dramatist Martin Crimp selected a plot connected with Provence. As a result, the plot was based on a local medieval legend about a tragic story of love and a heart that is eaten.

The opera, completed and staged in 2012, has known a happy destiny. The first production – at the Aix-en-Prevence Festival – was created by Katie Mitchell, the composer himself was the conductor and the roles of the protagonists were performed by Barbara Hannigan, Bejun Mehta and Christopher Purves. The work met with tremendous success. One year after the premiere the opera was staged at Covent Garden and the Opéra Comique, as well as being recorded and issued on video. Mitchell's production was brought to Moscow last spring. In St Petersburg, George Benjamin's opera Written on Skin is being performed for the first time.

The on-line broadcast of the opera Written on Skin is available on mariinsky.tv and mariinsky.fm.

The concert is being held with the support of the British Council.

In 2017 the Mariinsky Theatre is widely celebrating Rodion Konstantinovich Shchedrin's 85^th birthday. Concerts and performances by the Mariinsky Theatre have been dedicated to his anniversary year in St Petersburg, Vladivostok and Vladikavkaz. In December there will be special events marking Rodion Shchedrin's anniversary in Moscow, Tula, St Petersburg, Vladivostok and Munich.

Between 16 and 22 December the Mariinsky Theatre will give three performances at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, presenting works by the composer.

On 16 December, Rodion Shchedrin's birthday, the Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Gergiev will perform Carmen-Suite by Georges Bizet – Rodion Shchedrin, Orchestral Concerto No 1 Naughty Limericks and highlights from the opera-féerie A Christmas Tale, which was commissioned by and dedicated to Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Theatre. The concert will feature soloists of the Mariinsky Opera and the State Academic Russian Sveshnikov Chorus (Artistic Director – Yevgeny Volkov). The concert begins at 19.00.

The programme of the concert by Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra on 21 December (19.00) includes Symphonic Diptych, the Concerto for Violin and Strings Concerto cantabile (soloist – Olga Volkova), the Double Concerto A Romantic Offering for piano, cello and orchestra featuring the soloists Alexander Ramm (cello) and Sergei Redkin (piano) and the oratorio Lenin in the Heart of the People for soloists, mixed chorus and orchestra set to folk texts.

On 22 December (19.00) the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall will host its first performance of Rodion Shchedrin's opera Not Love Alone, staged by Alexander Kuzin. The lead roles will be performed by soloists and the ensemble of the Mariinsky Academy of Young Opera Singers directed by Larisa Gergieva. Valery Gergiev will be conducting the Mariinsky Orchestra.

From Moscow, the musicians will set out for Tula, the birthplace of Rodion Shchedrin's father, where on 23 December they will perform at the Tula Regional Mikhailovsky Philharmonic in honour of the composer's birthday.

Rodion Konstantinovich Shchedrin's music holds a special position in the repertoire of the Mariinsky Theatre. Over the years of creative friendship with the composer, the Mariinsky Theatre has produced many of his works, several of them for the first time. Here most of his operas and three of his five ballets have been staged, in addition to frequent performances of his symphonic works.

From 19 to 25 October Valery Gergiev will once again be conducting the Münchner Philharmoniker in a series of concerts in Germany. The first performances in the series on 19 and 20 October will take place at the Gasteig Philharmonie. The programme includes Ludwig van Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and the Leonore overture No 3 and Sergei Rachmaninoff's Fourth Piano Concerto, the solo being performed by Denis Matsuev. In addition to the evening concerts, audiences at the Gasteig Philharmonie will have the opportunity to attend rehearsals by the Münchner Philharmoniker under Valery Gergiev (18 and 19 October).

The programme of works by Ludwig van Beethoven and Sergei Rachmaninoff will also be performed at the Alte Oper in Frankfurt and the Philharmonie Essen, where Denis Matsuev and the Münchner Philharmoniker under Valery Gergiev will be appearing on 21 and 22 October.

The German ensemble and maestro Gergiev will then return to Munich for a further two concerts at the Gasteig Philharmonie on 24 and 25 October. The programmes include the overture to Richard Wagner's opera Tannhäuser, Johannes Brahms' Variations on a Theme by Haydn and Pyotr Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony Pathétique.

The next performances featuring Valery Gergiev with the Münchner Philharmoniker are due to take place in November. As part of a tour to China, the musicians will visit Beijing, Nanking, Xi'an and Tianjin.

The Mariinsky Theatre is saddened to announce that on 16 October bass Nikolai Petrovich Okhotnikov, an outstanding opera singer, soloist of the Kirov (Mariinsky) Theatre and People's Artist of the USSR, has died at the age of eighty-one.

For more than three decades Nikolai Okhotnikov dedicated his life to the Kirov Theatre, which he joined in 1971. Here he won acclaim and love from audiences, performing his greatest roles – Kutuzov in War and Peace, Heinrich der Vogler in Lohengrin, Filippo II in Don Carlo and Gremin in Eugene Onegin (for that role, like his partners in the production, Okhotnikov was awarded the State Prize). The singer's particularly vivid artistic and vocal skills were showcased in his Russian repertoire – as Susanin, Dosifei, Pimen and Boris Godunov, Konchak, Tokmakov, Kochubei, Yuri Vsevolodovich and Svetozar.

Nikolai Okhotnikov's versatile, nuance-rich and songful bass may be heard in recordings of Russian operas produced in the 1990s with Valery Gergiev, among them Khovanshchina, The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevronia and War and Peace. A superb performer of chamber music, he featured in a recording of an anthology of Russian romances, for which he sang all of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's romances for low-range voice.

As a professor at the St Petersburg Conservatoire, Nikolai Okhotnikov passed on his skills to the next generation of vocalists – at the Mariinsky Theatre his pupils still continue to perform, among them Alexander Morozov, Vladimir Feliauer, Yuri Vlasov and Vitaly Yankovsky.

The Mariinsky Theatre sends its sincere condolences to Nikolai Okhotnikov's friends and relatives. We mourn his loss with you.

The singer's farewell will take place on 20 October.
The civil funeral will commence at 10.00 in the Dress Circle Foyer of the Mariinsky Theatre (historic stage).
The funeral service will take place at 12.30 at the St Nicholas Naval Cathedral (1/3 Nikolskaya Sq).
The burial service will take place after the funeral service at the Volkov Cemetery at the "Literary Bridges" (30 Rasstannaya St).

On 15 and 16 October, Samara will be hosting the anniversary X Music Festival To Mstislav Rostropovich. At the Samara Opera and Ballet Theatre as part of the festival, the Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Gergiev and talented young soloists will be performing three times.

The programme for the concert on 15 October includes Dmitry Shostakovich's Ninth Symphony, Sergei Prokofiev's Sixth Symphony and Rodion Shchedrin's Piano Concerto No 2, the soloist in which will be Sergei Redkin.

On 16 October the Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Gergiev will give matinee and evening performances – at 13.00 and 19.00. The matinee concert, in line with tradition, will be a charitable event. The programme includes Richard Strauss' symphonic poem Don Juan, Johannes Brahms' Variations on a Theme by Haydn and Alexander Scriabin's Third Symphony Le Divin Poème. The programme for the evening performance includes Hector Berlioz' symphony Harold en Italie (soloist – Yuri Afonkin), Francis Poulenc's Piano Concerto (soloist – Abisal Gergiev) and Maurice Ravel's Boléro.

On the eve of the festival, 14 October, Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra will be taking part in the Bratislava Music Festival – a famous international festival in Slovakia. The Slovakian Philharmonic will host performances of Claude Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, Olivier Messiaen's four symphonic meditations L'Ascension, the suite from Igor Stravinsky's ballet The Firebird and Dmitry Shostakovich's Eleventh Symphony. Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra will then depart for Samara. The music festival To Mstislav Rostropovich was founded on the initiative of Valery Gergiev and the Samara Regional Government in 2008. The first two festivals (in 2008 and 2009) were held at the Samara State Philharmonic, while the third and all subsequent forums have been hosted by the Samara Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre, which reopened in 2010 following major reconstruction work.

For the first time, the Mariinsky label is releasing a series of recordings on vinyl. On sale from 20 October will be recordings of Pyotr Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto (soloist – Daniil Trifonov), as well as Sergei Rachmaninoff's First and Third Piano Concerti and Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (soloist – Denis Matsuev). The records are currently available to pre-order.

The recording of Pyotr Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto was made by the Mariinsky Orchestra and Daniil Trifonov under Valery Gergiev in 2011–2012. This recording received rave reviews from the critics and received a five-star rating from many renowned music publications.

Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Concerto and Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini were recorded by the Mariinsky Orchestra and Denis Matsuev under Valery Gergiev in 2009. The recording was one of the first releases on the Mariinsky label. In 2014 the orchestra and Denis Matsuev produced a recording of Sergei Rachmaninoff's First Piano Concerto. The label's new release on vinyl combines these works.

Denis Matsuev shared his impressions of the recording: "The Mariinsky label has re-released the Mariinsky Orchestra and my recording under Valery Gergiev of Sergei Rachmaninoff's First and Third Piano Concerti and Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini on vinyl. This has resulted in a very beautiful double record. I believe that vinyl, which even today still enjoys great popularity among music-lovers, both visually and in terms of the sound, and which is much closer to the original performance, is a very special format. Vinyl is always a more intimate, real, living and aesthetic sound. And today I hold in my hands a new vinyl record that I cannot wait to listen to, and to assess the sound which even the most up-to-date technology can convey."

Also to be released in the new format is one of the most recent Mariinsky label recordings featuring Pyotr Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony and music from the ballet The Nutcracker, produced at the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre in 2015, commemorating one hundred and seventy-five years since the composer's birth. The record will be on sale from 17 November.

The Mariinsky Theatre is dedicating a performance of Richard Wagner's tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Mariinsky II (19 to 22 October) to the memory of Richard Trimborn, an outstanding music coach and consultant and one of the leading international specialists in Richard Wagner's operas, who died on 6 October.

Richard Trimborn worked as a coach and consultant in opera houses in Düsseldorf and Kiel, the Bayerische Staatsoper and the Bulgarian National Opera and Ballet Theatre. Over the course of his artistic career he became familiar with almost the entire opera repertoire and collaborated with such conductors as Karl Böhm, Zubin Mehta, Lorin Maazel, Daniel Barenboim and Claudio Abbado. Together with Wolfgang Sawallisch he worked on productions of operas by Richard Wagner and Richard Strauss. In 1991 Richard Trimborn took part in a production of the opera Boris Godunov under Valery Gergiev at the Bayerische Staatsoper and prepared the original (St Petersburg) version of the opera La forza del destino along with Giuseppe Sinopoli.

As a music coach and consultant Richard Trimborn frequently collaborated with the Mariinsky Theatre. He was involved in productions of the opera Tristan und Isolde and the tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen, and he also prepared concert performances of the operas Parsifal, Fidelio, Die Walküre and Elektra.

The Mariinsky Theatre would like to express its sincere condolences to Richard Trimborn's family and friends.

In October the Mariinsky Theatre's concert playbill will offer a broad range of recitals by acclaimed pianists from the British, French and Russian piano schools.

On 14 October the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre will host a performance by British virtuoso Christian Blackshaw. A refined intellectual and heartfelt lyricist, he has endeared himself to audiences throughout the world thanks to his gentle sound with incredibly subtle shades and nuances. The marathon of all of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's piano sonatas which Christian Blackshaw has been presenting for several years in Europe has become a real event in the music world and was met with delight by the press and the public alike. For his programme at the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre the pianist has chosen Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Sonatas Nos 8 and 14, as well as Franz Schubert's Sonata No 21.
The on-line broadcast of the concert will be available on the websites mariinsky.tv and mariinsky.fm.

On 17 October at the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre there will be a recital by one of the greatest maestri of piano art of the present day - Pierre-Laurent Aimard. The pianist has a huge collection of prestigious music prizes and awards, among them several Grammys, the honorary Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik, several ECHO Classic prizes, the leading French award Victoires de la musique and the Prize for Achievements in Instrumental Performance from the Royal Philharmonic Society of Great Britain. In 2017 he was awarded the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize, often known as the "Nobel Prize for musicians". For a long time, Pierre-Laurent Aimard has collaborated with the recording company Deutsche Grammophon, and his first disc released by that studio –Bach's Die Kunst der Fuge –became the most frequently downloaded classical album on iTunes. At the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre the pianist will perform Claude Debussy's Twelve Études and Ludwig van Beethoven's Sonata No 29 (Hammerklavier).

On 23 October at the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre there will be an appearance by Sergei Redkin, a young pianist and prize-winner at the XV International Tchaikovsky Competition. The programme includes Johann Sebastian Bach's Partita No 3, Robert Schumann's Humoreske, Sergei Prokofiev's Sonata No 9 and Three Highlights from Igor Stravinsky's ballet Pétrouchka. A graduate of the St Petersburg State Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatoire and prize-winner at several international competitions, Sergei Redkin frequently tours in Russia and abroad, including to numerous venues in Germany, Austria, France, Switzerland, Poland, Finland and Sweden.
Sergei Redkin's concert opens the subscription St Petersburg Pianists, as part of which there will also be performances at the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre by Miroslav Kultyshev, Peter Laul, Polina Osetinskaya, Pavel Raikerus and Alisa Dukhovlinova.

On 25 October at the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre there will be a performance by Varvara Nepomnyashchaya, "whose performance style stands out for its impeccable taste." Included in the pianist's recital programme are Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Variations on the theme Ah, vous dirai-je, Maman, Ludwig van Beethoven's Sonata No 32, Nikolai Medtner's Sonata romantica and four études and Romeo and Juliet before They Are Separated by Sergei Prokofiev.
Varvara Nepomnyashchaya has been a recipient of numerous awards at prestigious international competitions, among them 1^st prize at the XII International Geza Anda Competition in Zurich. She has appeared to great acclaim in Russia, Germany, France, Poland, Italy, Austria, Japan and Switzerland. Engagements for the current season include recitals in Macau (China), Wuppertal (Germany) and Barcelona (Spain).

On 13 October as part of a tour of cities in Great Britain and Northern Ireland Valery Gergiev will be conducting the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra. At the Sheldonian Theatre (Oxford) there will be performances of the overture to Gioachino Rossini's opera Guglielmo Tell, Felix Mendelssohn's Symphony No 4 in A Major The Italian and Igor Stravinsky's suite from the ballet The Firebird and Violin Concerto. The soloist in the Violin Concerto will be Roman Simović, leader of the London Symphony Orchestra.

From 8 to 12 October Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra will be touring in Great Britain and Northern Ireland. On 8 and 9 October the orchestra performed at the acclaimed Cadogan Hall in London, on 11 October the musicians appeared at the Belfast International Arts Festival (Northern Ireland) and on 12 October the tour concludes at Symphony Hall in Birmingham.