April 27, 2026 | Svetlanov Hall of the Moscow International Performing Arts Center
Wagner's Universe
Conductor – Fyodor Beznosikov
Richard Wagner – Lorin Maazel. «Ring without Words» – symphonic suite
The Ring without Words is a grandiose symphonic suite compiled by great conductor Lorin Maazel on the commission from the Telarc American recording company from Richard Wagner’s famous opera tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen. The Telarc company’s choice of Maazel was not accidental for he had been the first American conductor invited to direct The Ring in Bayreuth – Wagner’s opera theater. There Maazel happened to meet and talk with Wagner’s grandson Wieland who confirmed again that his great grandfather had considered the orchestra to be the protagonist of the musical drama and it was the orchestral score that played the key role in transmitting his ideas.
The four independent operas based on tales of German mythology, Icelandic sagas and the Song of Nibelungs Middle-Ages poem are over 15 hours long. Maazel chose the most bright orchestral pieces and masterly combined them without adding any note and without changing the order of scenes. His work had an overwhelming effect on the stage — only the orchestra, without singers, but all main events, the drama of the stories, their passions were expressed in their full glory.
Maazel first produced his Ring without Words with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra in 1987 and issued it on a disc. Since that time, the orchestral travel through Wagner’s operas has attracted many conductors and orchestras. In Russia, the score was heard for the first time in 2008 played by the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia under the baton of Gintaras Rinkevičius. In the coming concert the NPR will play the Ring Without Words under the direction of Fyodor Beznosikov, awardee of international and All-Russia competitions, conductor of the Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theater and the Russian National Orchestra, principal conductor of the E.V. Kolobov «Novaya Opera» Music Theater. In the 2023-2024 season, the Musical Life journal called Fyodor Beznosikov «The Discovery of the Year».