June 12, 2026 | Svetlanov Hall of the Moscow Performing Arts Center
Soloist – Ivan Bessonov, piano
Conductor – Vladimir Spivakov
Tchaikovsky. Concerto No. 1 for piano and orchestra in B-flat minor, Op. 23
Tchaikovsky. Suites from ballets "Swan Lake" and "The Sleeping Beauty"
On June 12, 2026, on Russia Day, the Svetlanov Hall of the Moscow International Performing Arts Center will host a concert bringing together iconic masterpieces of Russian classical music and outstanding performers of different generations. Sharing the stage with the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia under the baton of maestro Vladimir Spivakov will be one of the country’s most sought-after young pianists, Ivan Bessonov — the first Russian winner of the Eurovision Young Musicians competition, laureate of the First International S. V. Rachmaninoff Competition for Pianists, Composers and Conductors, and recipient of the BraVo Award. This will not be the artists’ first collaboration: Bessonov has long been a protégé of the Spivakov Foundation, underscoring the continuity of traditions within the Russian school of performance.
The evening’s program is devoted entirely to the legacy of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, whose music has long become part of the cultural code of our country.
Concerto no.1, written initially for Anton Rubinstein and then dedicated to Hans von Bulow, rightly belongs to the treasury of world classic repertoire and is mandatory in the program of the P.I.Tchaikovsky International Competition. Not a virtuoso pianist himself, Tchaikovsky created an overwhelmingly difficult large-scale composition with rich and luminous themes, while its significant symphonism marked a new era in Russian music.
Tchaikovsky’s ballet scores, namely The Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake and The Nutcracker opened a principally new leaf in the history of the art. Earlier the ballet music had been accidental and depended on choreography. Tchaikovsky endowed it with intense dramaturgy and well-structured development (using leitmotifs) without denying traditional dancing forms and not forgetting that “a melody is the soul of music”. Following Leo Delibes’s example, the composer wanted to concoct suites based on his ballet scores but there exists only one his authorized Suite, that is The Nutcracker Suite. Many conductors prefer to make up suites according to their own views, usually choosing most spectacular ballet numbers, the approach also used by maestro Vladimir Spivakov.