• Mariinsky Orchestra on tour to Europe
• Just released on the Mariinsky Label
• Verdi at the Mariinsky Theatre this December
• Subscription series of music by Mussorgsky and Sviridov

Last week, the Symphony Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre embarked on a major European tour. Large-scale tour of our orchestra comprises of 15 concerts, each of which will be held under the baton of Valery Gergiev, spans over nine European cities in five countries. Our Orchestra will perform works by Mussorgsky, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, Brahms, Prokofiev, Shchedrin. Outstanding musicians will be starring in instrumental concertos with the orchestra: violinist Leonidas Kavakos and pianist Nelson Freire. Opera soloists of the Mariinsky Theatre also take part in some works performed on this tour.

Important parts of this tour for our orchestra are our residencies in Vienna (4 concerts) and in Paris (3 concerts). We have performed seven of the fifteen symphonies by Dmitry Shostakovich at the Wiener Konzerthaus, thus completing the cycle of complete symphonies. Other eight Shostakovich symphonies had been performed by our Orchestra at the Konzerthaus in April. Salle Pleyel in Paris will see the continuation of a joint project of the Symphony Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre, the London Symphony Orchestra and various choirs. This project directed by Valery Gergiev in Paris and New York aims to perform complete cycles of symphonies by Gustav Mahler during the concert season 2010/11, which marks 150th birthday and 100th anniversary of Mahler’s death.

The last two weeks of the year will be extremely busy for the Symphony Orchestra of our theater: there will be a few interesting symphonic programs on stage of the Mariinsky Concert Hall conducted by Valery Gergiev that will cover a wide repertoire of Russian and Western European classical music as well as some popular works by composers of the XXth century.

We have just released the eighth release on the Mariinsky Label, our own recording label. In continuation of a project to record all the symphonies of Dmitry Shostakovich under Valery Gergiev in SACD format, we have issued the Second and the Eleventh Symphonies. Previously, on the Mariinsky Label we released the First and the Fifteenth Symphonies, as well as the opera The Nose. Mariinsky Theatre is probably the only theater in Russia so active in promoting Shostakovich’s legacy both at home and abroad. In different years, the Mariinsky Theatre performed almost all the works of the composer for the theater, as well as his orchestral and instrumental works. A complete list of places, where our theater performed Shostakovich’s works, will be unusually long... The most memorable are performances of operas, ballets, symphonies, instrumental concertos by Dmitry Shostakovich in St Petersburg, Moscow, New York, London, Rotterdam, Paris, Tokyo, Vienna, Basel.

On 7 & 8 December the Mariinsky Theatre revives a production of the opera by Giuseppe Verdi Un ballo in maschera. This ambitious show, staged by the famous film director Andrei Konchalovsky was presented by the Mariinsky Theatre in the year 100th anniversary of the composer’s death at the music festival in his name in Italy. The same season the production received its premiere at the Mariinsky Theatre.

27 & 29 December at the Mariinsky Theatre will see performances of the last Verdi’s operatic premiere of our theater – Attila. The opera, which belongs to the early period of Verdi, is full of vivid arias as well as rich ensembles of soloists and choral episodes. “Star” Mariinsky artists: Ildar Abdrazakov, Anna Markarova, Yevgeny Akimov and Alexei Markov, Chorus and Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre conducted by Valery Gergiev, all in the same cast will perform twice this masterpiece of Verdi.

At the end of 2010, we start our last subscription series No. 18 A lively conversation with other people that consists of three concerts of works by Modest Mussorgsky and Georgy Sviridov. This subscription must, without doubt, raise a great public interest because of the way its concerts programmed: they include both popular works by the two composers (for example, Pictures at an Exhibition by Mussorgsky and Kursk Songs by Sviridov) and lesser-known works. Listeners who have chosen this subscription, will get an opportunity to hear the Chorus and the Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre: together (like in the first concert this month) and on their own (like in two other concerts). Such programming of concerts, in terms of both repertoire and performers, provides an excellent opportunity to compare the styles of the two Russian composers who worked in different centuries, but whose work over time became remarkably closely attuned to each other by their kindness and love of life, people and Homeland. Subscription series of concerts of music by Mussorgsky and Sviridov can be purchased at the box-office of the Mariinsky Theatre and the Mariinsky Concert Hall, as well as on the Mariinsky Theatre web-site.