The International Piano Festival (24 December 2013 - 30 December 2013)
The Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre is presenting
a new series of the Contemporary Piano Faces international
festival – there will be concerts together with the Mariinsky
Orchestra under the baton of Valery Gergiev as well as recital programmes
by unique musicians from various generations and different schools who all
have their own “voice”, unlike that of any other performer: Denis Matsuev, Christian Blackshaw, Goran Filipec, Ohad Ben-Ari, Vladimir Milosevic, Eric Ferrand-N’Kaoua,
Nikita Abrosimov, Ignasi Cambra, Sangwon Kim, Edisher Savitski and
Vakhtang Kodanashvili.
Denis Matsuev: “It
was a wonderful initiative on behalf of Valery Gergiev and
the Mariinsky Theatre to establish a festival with such
a wonderful and subtle name as Contemporary Piano Faces in order
to come together and present audiences with utterly different piano schools from
all over the world.
“Of course, it is important to understand
that the Soviet (Russian) piano school is, in my opinion,
the best; first and foremost, it brought to life the art
of singing on the piano, it existed
in the “closed” USSR in a kind of detached manner.
Today young pianists have the opportunity to take master classes and change
their teachers. And so the various piano schools, including
the Russian one, have mixed together. And I believe there’s something
positive about that.
“At the Contemporary Piano Faces festival you will
be able to see different generations and different schools. That
is just great, because piano music is tremendously popular throughout
the world.”
Valery Gergiev has stated that
the festival’s task is to invite musicians to St Petersburg who have
already won international acclaim but who are, as yet, less well known
in Russia and to introduce new names and clear the path
for young talents as well as to popularise piano music.
About The International Piano Festival