Valery Gergiev: “Rodion Shchedrin is a classic of contemporary Russian music, and we should all celebrate this anniversary as it should be celebrated. The Mariinsky Theatre is making its own serious preparations: there will be two concerts of his music in St Petersburg and a further two Moscow. We will also be staging the Russian premiere of Shchedrin’s mono-opera Cleopatra and the Snake, which has already been performed in the USA and in Salzburg in Austria. We will be performing a great number of Shchedrin’s pieces and almost all of his compositions for theatre. And I believe that it’s a great success and wonderful ‘school’ for the Mariinsky Theatre’s performers to work with a composer who is still with us. Such are the traditions of the Mariinsky Theatre. Shchedrin’s birthday should be a celebration and a great event for every Russian musician.”
On 22 December there will be a piano marathon featuring Rodion Shchedrin’s Piano Concertos Nos 1, 2, 3 and 4. That evening, the piano will be performed by Alexei Volodin, Denis Matsuev, Yeol Eum Son and Olli Mustonen.
On 23 December the programme for the second concert includes Music for Strings, Oboes, French Horns and Celesta, the Oboe Concerto (soloist – Alexei Ogrintchouk), Parabola Concertante for solo cello, string orchestra and timpani (soloist – Alexander Buzlov) and the Russian premiere of the scène dramatique Cleopatra and the Snake for female singer and symphony orchestra to a text from the final scene from Shakespeare’s tragedy Antony and Cleopatra with soloist Yekaterina Goncharova as well as highlights from the ballet The Little Humpbacked Horse.
On 24 and 25 December the Mariinsky Orchestra and soloists under Valery Gergiev will perform a programme to mark Rodion Shchedrin’s 80th birthday in Moscow at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall as part of the Russian winter arts festival. The solo in the mono-opera Cleopatra and the Snake will be performed by Yekaterina Goncharova.
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