CLASSICAL

It’s spring – and time for the Easter Festival again. This year sees the 10th installment of the festival, which started out as a handful of excellent concerts in 2002. Now the festival spans more than 40 cities in five countries.

This time around, the festival brings a couple of very welcome female vocalists to Moscow as well as prize winners of the Chopin International Piano Competition which was held in Warsaw late last year.

© Photo / Courtesy of Moscow Easter Festival

Olga Borodina

Valery Gergiev has managed to bring Russia’s most luscious mezzo soprano Olga Borodina to the festival this year; she sings at the opening concert on April 24, starring in Prokofiev’s cantata “Alexander Nevsky”. She appears again on May 4 for a performance of Verdi’s “Requiem”, which Gergiev intends to perform in memory of the victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

Another hot name in the list is French singer Natalie Dessay, who performs the main role in April 25th’s concert performance of “Lucia di Lammermoor”. Regarded as one of the finest coloratura sopranos alive, she combines flawless technique, a perfect voice and an utterly charming stage presence.

Piano lovers will doubtlessly be looking forward to hearing some of the winners of the recent Chopin Competition; three prize winners have performed in St. Petersburg but this is the first time (post-competition) that they are performing in Moscow.

Unfortunately, the popular 2nd prize winner (whom many expected to take away the 1st prize) Ingolf Wunder will not be coming, but the rest are lined up for performances on May 1, 2 and 3. Twenty-yearold Daniil Trifonov, also an audience favourite and former contender for the 1st prize, plays on May 1. The Nizhny Novgorod native now studies with famed pedagogue and pianist Sergei Babayan in Cleveland.

May 2 will be Bulgarian Evgeni Bozhanov’s turn; the 27-year-old has stormed just about every major piano competition in the world, including the Sviatoslav Richter (2008, 2nd prize with no 1st prize awarded), Van Cliburn (2009, finalist), Queen Elisabeth (2010, 2nd prize) and the Chopin (2010, 4th prize).

Controversial 1st prize winner Yulianna Avdeyeva performs on May 3; almost no one expected her to come away with the top prize, as she was overshadowed throughout the competition by her far more brilliant and consummate peers. Many pundits and critics said the competition was a scandal; the Moscow public will be able to judge for themselves on May 3 – try attending concerts of two or more prizewinners for comparison.

© Photo / Courtesy of Moscow Easter Festival

Evgeni Bozhanov

Festival highlights

April 24, 7pm, Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, 4/31 Triumfalnaya Ploshchad, m. Mayakovskaya
Festival Opening: Shchedrin “Round Dances” (1989), Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 3, Lyadov “The Enchanted Lake”, Prokofiev cantata “Alexander Nevsky” – Mariinsky Theatre Choir and Orchestra, Valery Gergiev (cond), Denis Matsuev (piano), Olga Borodina (mezzo soprano)

April 25, 7pm, Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, 4/31 Triumfalnaya Ploshchad, m. Mayakovskaya
Donizetti “Lucia di Lammermoor” (concert performance) – Mariinsky Theatre Choir and Orchestra, Valery Gergiev (cond), Natalie Dessay (soprano), Sergei Skorokhodov (tenor), Vladislav Sulimsky (baritone) and others.

May 1, 8pm, Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, 4/31 Triumfalnaya Ploshchad, m. Mayakovskaya
Daniil Trifonov – piano recital

May 2. 8pm, Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, 4/31 Triumfalnaya Ploshchad, m. Mayakovskaya
Evgeni Bozhanov -- piano recital

May 3, 8pm, Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, 4/31 Triumfalnaya Ploshchad, m. Mayakovskaya
Yulianna Avdeyeva – piano recital

May 4, 7pm, Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, 4/31 Triumfalnaya Ploshchad, m. Mayakovskaya
Verdi Requiem – Mariinsky Theatre Choir and Orchestra, Valery Gergiev (cond), Viktoria Yastrebova (soprano), Olga Borodina (mezzo soprano), Sergei Semishkur (tenor), Ildar Abdrazakov (bass)

May 9, 8pm, Moscow International House of Music (MMDM), 52 Kosmodamianskaya Nab., bldg 8, m. Paveletskaya
Closing concert – Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, Valery Gergiev (cond)