The 12th edition of the Moscow Festival “Vladimir Spivakov Invites...” will take place from October 6 to December 16, 2023, on the stages of the Moscow Performing Arts Center and the Zaryadye Hall. The forum, organized by the outstanding violinist and conductor Vladimir Spivakov, has become a bright example of a successful project having its own style, priorities and constantly growing audience. “To me the most important is not so much the number of festival concerts as the occasion to show in Moscow the things I love myself, something new, of various genres and styles, unique and prodigious.”
As usually, the main part of the programs will be presented by Vladimir Spivakov with the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia and two – with the “Moscow Virtuosi” State Chamber Orchestra. Among the soloists, there will appear soprano Hibla Gerzmava, pianists Ekaterina Mechetina, Philipp Kopachevsky and Shio Okui, soprano Ekaterina Morozova, mezzo-soprano Julia Mennibaeva, baritone Igor Golovatenko and others.
The Festival will open with one of the most loved NPR's programs “A Corner in France”, admired both in the capital and in many other Russian towns. Vladimir Spivakov has always been known as a connoisseur of the French culture, and now he will again entertain music fans with exquisite interpretations of masterpieces by Georges Bizet (as arranged by Rodion Schedrin), Gabriel Fauré, Jacques Ibert and Maurice Ravel.
Famed orchestral miniatures by Gabriel Fauré and Claude Debussy will continue the French theme at the Zaryadye Hall on October 27. Francis Poulenc's witty virtuosic opus will be also performed – Concerto for two pianos and orchestra in which the soloists will be Ekaterina Mechetina, a Merited Artist of the Russian Federation, and Philipp Kopachevsky, an award-winner of many international competitions. The apex of the night will be Alexander Scriabin's Third Symphony (The Divine Poem) – a grandiose work reflecting the author's philosophic and religious pursuences.
Spivakov will conduct the “Moscow Virtuosi” Chamber Orchestra on two festival nights. The program on October 15 at the Zaryadye Hall will feature Sergei Rachmaninoff's Romances arranged for a voice and orchestra by Alexei Strelnikov for the 100th anniversary of the great Russian classic. The soloist there will be soprano Albina Tonkikh, an artist of The Bolshoi's Youth Program. The concert will also include pieces by Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Béla Bartók and Luigi Boccherini. On November 17 (Zaryadye Hall), Vladimir Spivakov will not only direct the “Moscow Virtuosi” but also play the violin in the duet with Alexei Lundin, the Orchestra's concertmaster: they will perform the Double Concerto by Johann Sebastian Bach. The “Moscow Virtuosi” will also perform works by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Béla Bartók, Luigi Boccherini, Arnold Schoenberg and Franz Schubert (as orchestrated by Gustaw Mahler).
The National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia will get on with the concert on November 22 (Zaryadye Hall) performing two seminal masterpieces of the Romanticism era: Fryderyk Chopin's First Piano Concerto and Franz Schubert's Fourth Symphony (“Tragic”) called by Igor Stravinsky the most breathtaking of the author's symphonic achievements. The piano part in the Concerto will be played by young Shio Okui, an award-winner of many important international competitions, on scholarship with the Vladimir Spivakov International Charity Foundation.
The Festival marathon will end with two opera galas featuring stars of the world opera. On December 2, the headliners of the program will be The Bolshoi's singers Ekaterina Morozova and Igor Golovatenko and the Novaya Opera Theater's soloist Julia Mennibaeva, who will sing gems of opera classics – arias and ensembles from famous operas by Italian, Russian and French composers. The closing concert of the festival on December 16 at the Moscow International Performing Arts Center will be embellished by the participation of the Russian opera diva Hibla Gerzmava. While being one of the best Bel Canto singers, she has expanded her repertoire with most difficult dramatic soprano parts, also those in Verdi's operas. She will enchant the music lovers with her unparalleled voice, phenomenal artistic temperament and highest mastership, embodying most different Verdian heroines.
