Mao Fujita (piano) and Valery Gergiev

PERFORMERS:
Soloist: Mao Fujita (piano), recipient of the 2^nd prize at the Tchaikovsky International Competition (2019)
The Mariinsky Orchestra
Conductor: Valery Gergiev

PROGRAMME:
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Suite from the opera The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Fevroniya

Sergei Rachmaninoff
Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30

Hector Berlioz
Excerpts from Roméo et Juliette

Invariably met with ovations at the XVI International Tchaikovsky Competition, the pianist has enchanted audiences not just with his filigree technique and impeccable precision of performance; the main and defining characteristic of the playing of Mao Fujita, who won the hearts of audiences on his first tour, is the sharply individual sound of the instrument. “Heavenly”, “sun-like” and “crystalline” – these are just some such of the epithets that critics have awarded the pianist.
As a result of the competition, the twenty-year-old Japanese musician was presented with the prestigious 2^nd prize and the Silver Medal of the competition, along with awards at such competitions as the Gina Bachauer Piano Competition (2016, 3^rd prize) and the Clara Haskil Piano Competition (2017, 1^st prize).
Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No 3 will be conducted by Valery Gergiev. Brilliantly performed in the finale of the Tchaikovsky Competition, the concerto was to prove the culmination of Fujita’s performances, demonstrating the pianist’s uncompromising virtuosity and exceptional breadth.