Sixth Annual Moscow Easter Festival Set to Kick Off
This year is the sixth annual Moscow Easter Festival. It will begin on April 8th, Easter Day and wrap up on Victory Day, May 9th with a pair of concerts. One concert will be outdoors at Victory Park, the other will be at the Moscow International House of Music. There will be over 100 events which will also include a large program of concerts in regional cities.
The festival came about five years ago when conductor Valery Gergiev and Mayor Yury Luzhkov decided to put together a music festival to celebrate the Russian Orthodox Easter season.
The symphonic program is usually dominated by Gergiev and his musicians from the Mariinski and this year is no different. The festival usually focuses on the music of one composer. This year it is Igor Stravinsky being honored because of the 125th anniversary of his birth this year. Some of the pieces that will featured include the ballet works Petrushka, The Rite of Spring and The Wedding; three of his symphonies and the oratorio-like opera Oedipus Rex.
Other works that will be performed are Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake and Prokofiev’s The Love for Three Oranges. There will also a choral program featuring a half-dozen local choirs as well as choral groups fro other parts of Russia and from other predominately Orthodox countries like Armenia, Georgia, Serbia and Ukraine.
You can find a full schedule of events at www.easterfestival.ru .
Read more posts in this category: Nightlife
