The fourth program of the 13th edition of the Vladimir Spivakov Invites Festival is devoted to the art of Mozart and Mahler. The junction of these great names in concert posters has turned into tradition since the era of Bruno Walther, great conductor, one of the best interpreters of Mahler’s Symphonies and the first performer of the latest of them. Since those times the music of the two Viennese classics of the 18th and 19th centuries has often been played together, especially when of Mahler’s Symphonies is taken the Fourth in which the composer openly toyed with the classicism language, creating an unprecedented idyllic utopia and ironically re-framing the style of the past. Moreover, Mahler-conductor was famous for his brilliant performances of Mozart’s works.
With the NPR’s very first seasons Vladimir Spivakov brought Mahler’s music into its repertoire regarding it as a measure of mastership, and, as a rule, played it together with Mozart’s Concertos. This time the maestro has chosen Piano Concerto No.20, one of the most tragic pages of Mozart’s oeuvre (in the same D-minor «tonality of death» was written his illustrious Requiem, and it starts and ends his opera Don Giovanni). The soloist in the Concerto will be young French pianist Rémi Geniet, pupil of Brigitte Engerer and Rena Shereshevskaya, awardee of various international contests such as the Queen Elizabeth Competition in Brussels, Beethoven Competition in Bonn and others. He is referred to as «one of the most interesting, thoughtful and refined musicians of his age».
The soprano part in the philosophical Finale of the Fourth Symphony (an illusory apotheosis based on a children song Das himmlische Leben from Des Knaben Wunderhorn collection) will be sung by the Bolshoi’s star Anna Aglatova, owner of the voice of rare beauty and phenomenal dramatic talent. In February 2023, the singer performed the Fourth Symphony with the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia under Vladimir Spivakov at Zaryadye Concert Hall as part of the «All Mahler Symphonies» series. The concert was recorded and released on streaming platforms in July 2024.