Valery Gergiev conducts the Mariinsky Orchestra on March 15 at the National Arts Centre

Summary: In a special concert during the NAC’s 40th Anniversary season, The National Arts centre is thrilled to welcome The Mariinsky Orchestra under the baton of Valery Gergiev, Artistic Director and Principal Conductor, in Southam Hall on Monday March 15 at 8pm

In a special concert during the NAC’s 40th Anniversary season,
The National Arts centre is thrilled to welcome The Mariinsky Orchestra (formerly the Kirov Orchestra) under the baton of Valery Gergiev, Artistic Director and Principal Conductor, in Southam Hall on Monday March 15 at 8 p.m. Valery Gergiev is one of today’s most sought-after conductors. On February 14, 2010, Robert Everett-Green wrote in The Globe and Mail, “larger-than-life Valery Gergiev [is] one of the most exciting conductors in the world.”
The program will include:
BERLIOZ Royal Hunt & Storm from Les Troyens
RACHMANINOV Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30
SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 15 in A major, Op. 141
The brilliant Valery Gergiev leads his own superb Mariinsky Orchestra in this extraordinary concert. Valery Gergiev is one of the foremost international conductors of our time. As well as being one of the most highly sought-after artists by the world’s top orchestras and opera houses, he occupies a unique, pre-eminent position in Russia as both the Music Director of the Kirov Opera and the Kirov Ballet and the overall Director of the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, the Kirov Companies’ historic home.
Collecting accolades from around the world, performances by Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra have been described as “vibrant and thrilling” (The Sunday Telegram, London); “thrillingly vivid” (The New York Times); “remarkable” (The Guardian, London); “spectacular” (The Wall Street Journal); “brilliant and stylish, linear and poetic” (New York Newsday); and full of “bounding panache” (The Times, London). The San Francisco Examiner wrote, “Valery Gergiev is extraordinary---simply one of the most exciting podium talents in years” and The Glasgow Herald said, “The performance, directed with great elegance and suppleness by conductor Valery Gergiev, was astounding. For the connoisseur of orchestral playing, this was an unforgettable experience.”
FRIENDS OF THE NAC ORCHESTRA SILENT AUCTION
The Friends of the National Arts Centre Orchestra will be hosting a silent auction in the main foyer
of the NAC on March 15, 2010. Bid on outstanding items from across Canada and around the world before the concert, during intermission, and for 20 minutes following the performance.
Proceeds from the auctions will benefit music education programs for young people.
Valery Gergiev’s concerts have thrilled audiences the world over – especially when he leads music steeped in the Russian tradition. Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 15 in A major is the composer’s final symphony, and the fiery conductor’s intuitive connection to the composer promises a performance ablaze with passion and energy. As the last of 15 legendary symphonies created over a 45-year span, Opus 141 offers a tantalizing series of quotations, including Rossini’s William Tell Overture, Wagner’s “fate” motive from the Ring cycle, a song by Glinka, and various other suggestions. Shostakovich had spent decades hiding profound layers of meaning under the surfaces of his music, just out of reach of Soviet censorship, and even in the relative safety of old age and international fame, his orchestral swan song keeps his inner thoughts closely veiled.
Acclaimed pianist Denis Matsuev -- a virtuoso in the grandest of Russian traditions, whom The Times of London wrote of as “perhaps the new Horowitz” -- is featured in Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30. The composer wrote his Third Piano Concerto to mark his American debut in 1909, but it did not become a concert staple until Vladimir Horowitz recorded it in 1930. Rachmaninoff was so astounded by Horowitz’s rendition that he never performed the work publicly again. The concerto became a benchmark for aspiring soloists and it is now one of the most widely performed and recorded of all concertos. Its legendary status jumped another notch following its star turn in the 1996 movie Shine. Rachmaninoff’s Third Concerto is elegantly tuneful; the piano textures are especially brilliant, serving the musical ideas with subtle variations in density and figuration. The vocabulary bears the stamps of High Romanticism in its sunset days, with surging climaxes and achingly nostalgic tunes.
French composer Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) wrote some of the most iconic and forward-thinking music of the Romantic era. “The Royal Hunt and Storm” is a wordless scene from his opera Les Troyens (The Trojans), written in 1866. While on a hunting expedition, a storm arises, and Didon, Queen of Carthage, and the Trojan warrior Énée take shelter in a cave, where their mutual attraction blooms into an ill-fated affair. The music begins in a gentle and pastoral mood, a horn conveys the far-off hunt, and then the storm descends with brilliant and colourful orchestral effects.
The Mariinsky Orchestra performs in Southam Hall of the National Arts Centre on Monday March 15 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $23.95, $36.95, $50.60, $64.25, $77.25, $90.25, and $113 for adults and $10.73, $17.23, $24.05, $30.88, $37.38, $43.88, and $55.25 for students (upon presentation of a valid student ID card). Tickets are available at the NAC Box Office (in person) and through Ticketmaster (with surcharges) at 613-755-1111; Ticketmaster may also be accessed through the NAC’s website www.nac-cna.ca.
Subject to availability, full-time students (aged 13-29) with valid Live Rush™ membership may buy up to 2 tickets per performance at the discount price of $11 per ticket. Tickets are available online (www.nac-cna.ca) or at the NAC box office from 10 a.m. on the day before the performance until 6 p.m. on the day of the show or 2 hours before a matinee. Groups of 10 or more save 15% to 20% off regular ticket prices to all NAC Music, Theatre and Dance performances; to reserve your seats, call Julie Laroche at 613-947-7000, ext. 634 or e-mail grp@nac-cna.ca.
For additional information, visit the NAC website at www.nac-cna.ca

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