A Tribute to Shostakovich

The anniversary was marked at the Mariinsky Theatre with a performance of three one-act ballets by the great 20th century composer: The Young Lady and the Hooligan (choreography by Konstantin Boyarsky), The Bedbug (choreography by Leonid Yakobson) and Leningrad Symphony (choreography by Igor Belsky). Ulyana Lopatkina performed the role of the Girl in Leningrad Symphony.

In summing up Valery Gergiev´s ambitious project it should be noted that all major events at the Mariinsky Theatre in the 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 seasons are linked to Shostakovich. The anniversary programme includes two large cycles conceived by Valery Gergiev and run both in St Petersburg in Russia and in the world´s capital cities: the Shostakovich Symphonies cycle and Shostakovich on Stage. Valery Gergiev also recorded six of the composer´s symphonies (from the Fourth to the Ninth) with the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra.

As part of this global symphonic project the theatre´s orchestra and other leading symphony orchestras will perform all fifteen symphonies for the first time, some of them all but unknown to the general public. This fact underlies the important populist and educational idea of the project, as audiences include students from the Moscow State University, the St Petersburg State University and the Universities of Michigan, San Francisco and Los Angeles in addition to mainstream concert-goers. Valery Gergiev opened the symphonic series when he conducted the Seventh and Eighth Symphonies in October with the London Symphony Orchestra at London´s Barbican Hall.

Between October 2005 and December 2006 there were almost eighty anniversary concerts and performances in over forty towns in Russia, the USA, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Austria, Belgium, the UK, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Poland, Ukraine, Finland, France, Switzerland and Sweden.
The Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra initiated the project in autumn 2005 in St Petersburg, continuing in November with four of Shostakovich´s symphonies in Toulouse, France, and during the theatre´s largest tour ever to Japan in early January 2006 with the Fifth Symphony.

The orchestra went on to perform in major concert venues in the USA, travelling to New York, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin. During the US tour the First, Second, Seventh, Ninth and Tenth Symphonies were performed. This unique music project was enthusiastically met by the public, both in American university towns and at the renowned three thousand capacity Avery Fisher Hall at New York´s Lincoln Center.

The UK section of the anniversary programme began during a tour to Great Britain in May 2006: over four evenings there were performances of the Fifth, Eighth, Tenth and Fifteenth Symphonies in New Castle, with the Third and Tenth being performed in Birmingham. The Shostakovich century was a central leitmotif for many festivals directed by Valery Gergiev: the V Moscow Easter and the XIV International Stars of the White Nights Festival.

At the Stars of the White Nights all of the composer´s symphonies were performed at eleven concerts under outstanding conductors Christoph Eschenbach, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Maris Yansons and, of course, Valery Gergiev. The composer´s son Maxim Shostakovich opened the anniversary programme on 13 May. The programme also saw a performance by one of the world´s leading orchestras, the London Symphony, which played in St Petersburg under its future Principal Conductor.
In early July under Valery Gergiev the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra presented Shostakovich´s legacy (his final four symphonies, highlights from the ballet The Golden Age and the operetta Moscow, Cheryomushki) at the annual music festival in Mikkeli, Finland.

In August on a tour to the Albert Hall during the Proms there was a performance of the Thirteenth Symphony and a concert performance of the opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, while the Baltic Sea Festival in Stockholm saw a performance of the Seventh Symphony. In October 2006 the Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra will finish the US series with concerts conducted by Valery Gergiev in major cities including Seattle, Washington and New York.

The geography of the anniversary concerts will also encompass Spain: during its November tour the orchestra will perform the First, Fifth and Fifteenth Symphonies. In late November the orchestra will take part in the Accademia Santa Cecilia festival: the programme includes the Seventh Symphony.

The crowning glory of the Shostakovich Symphonies series will come with performances of Shostakovich´s Second, Sixth, Tenth, Eleventh, Twelfth and Thirteenth symphonies under Valery Gergiev at London´s Barbican Hall. Alongside Shostakovich´s symphonic works, Valery Gergiev has also presented the composer´s works for theatre.

The twenty-two year old composer´s innovative opera The Nose, a rarity on opera houses´ playbills, created a sensation during the Mariinsky Theatre´s large-scale tour to the Opйra Bastille in November 2005. At the Stars of the White Nights festival as part of the Shostakovich on Stage series alongside the composer´s operas and ballets there were premieres of the operetta Moscow, Cheryomushki and the ballet The Golden Age.

The unprecedented Shostakovich on Stage series at the London Coliseum in July was also devoted to the Shostakovich century.

The festival playbill included the operas The Nose and Katerina Ismailova, the operetta Moscow, Cheryomushki and a ballet programme. The UK public saw the composer´s entire works for musical theatre for the first time.

The theatre´s upcoming plans include performances of The Nose in Vienna and New York.
The Mariinsky Theatre has become not just the Theatre of Shostakovich, but the first Russian philharmonic orchestra to play all of the great composer´s symphonies.

In a continuation of its educational projects aimed at popularising the legacy of Russia´s greatest composers, Valery Gergiev intends to run major cultural events marking one hundred and twenty five years since the birth of Igor Stravinsky (2007) and one hundred years since the death of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (2008).

By www.mariinsky.ru