In seven concerts: on 24, 25, 26 June, 6, 7, 9 and 10 July, at the Mariinsky Concert Hall, the renowned pianist Rudolf Buchbinder, well-known for his interpretation of the music of Viennese classics, will play a complete cycle of Beethoven Piano Sonatas. Season 2010-2011 for the famous Austrian pianist is marked by this composer: the musician recorded a disc with Beethoven’s sonatas of “live” concerts in the Dresden Semperoper, he played Beethoven’s sonatas piano concertos in prestigious concert halls in Europe. St Petersburg will be the only Russian city on the list to play the cycle of sonatas. At the Stars of the White Nights Festival all 32 Beethoven’s piano sonatas will be played over 7 recitals. Although the composer never thought his 32 sonatas for the piano as a single cycle, nowadays the integrity of the relationship between them is out of question. Beethoven significantly changed the value of the genre of piano sonatas. In the sonatas, Beethoven made use of the form only as an academic genre, which fades into background, and each sonata presents a unique, original artistic vision. The cycle of complete Beethoven’s piano sonatas, presented at the Festival, for the first time this year, should become be an event of great cultural and musical value, which will be difficult to overestimate.

20 and 23 June at the Mariinsky Concert Hall will see the St Petersburg visit by Polish composer and conductor Krzysztof Penderecki.

On June 20th will be a premiere of his work Powiało na mnie morze snow — a cycle of 21 songs for soprano, mezzo-soprano, baritone, chorus and orchestra on poems by Polish poets. The world premiere of this work was received in Warsaw in January this year, conducted by Valery Gergiev. He will also conduct the Russian premiere at the Festival.

On June 23rd Krzysztof Penderecki will appear in the dual role of composer and conductor: under his direction, the Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra will perform two of his works: Concerto Grosso and the Fifth Symphony. Concerto Grosso (in Italian, literally: “grand concerto”) by Penderecki stands out of others is that by creating a work in a classical instrumental genre that dates back to the Baroque era, the composer used an unusual arrangement: orchestra musicians are opposed to the ensemble of three cello soloists.

The third opera premiere of the season 2010-2011 at the Stars of the White Nights Festival: Ariadne auf Naxos by Richard Strauss. This is an opera performance in the genre of commedia dell’arte, when the same characters (masks) appear in different scenarios. Directed by Michael Sturminger, the production realised the idea of the ​​synthesis of arts, inherent in the opera, based in improvisation within a framework given by the composer and librettist. The opera unfolds as a “theater within the theater”, where the story of the first part (prologue) is preparing for the performance, and the second part (the actual opera) is a play itself. In the play all the recitatives and dialogues are spoken in Russian, and arias are sung in German.

The first opera premiere of the season 2010-2011 at the Stars of the White Nights Festival: The Makropulos Affair by Leoš Janáček. The play, staged by a highly acclaimed British director Graham Vick. The production is a real thriller, in which both the author (the opera is after Karel Čapek’s comedy) and the director keep the main idea in secret until the end of performance. According to the producer’s idea, it is important to emphasise the satirical aspect of the opera this is an unusual solution for productions of operas by Janáček. Graham Vick decided to abandon any experiments after the manner of futurism. Outwardly simple staging of the opera should help the viewer to focus on the development of the plot of the story-thriller. Mystical overtones in this performance are underlined by the everyday design of costumes and scenery.

The fourth opera premiere of the season 2010-2011 at the Stars of the White Nights Festival: Dead Souls by Rodion Shchedrin. One of the most anticipated season premieres, the production directed by Vasily Barkhatov became one of the brightest events in the musical and theatrical life in Russia. Without doubt, one of the opera masterpieces of the 20th century, in the new production appeared in a radically new, bright scenery, more than 30 years later, again on stage of the Mariinsky Theatre. Expressive performance of best pieces of Nikolai Gogol’s poem about the realities of Russian life in the first half of the 19th century, nowadays has become even more actual with an astonishing precision and humour.