March 27 will see the opening ceremony of the 8th International Mstislav Rostropovich Festival in the Big Hall of the Moscow P.I. Tchaikovsky State Conservatory.
The festival opening is timed to the maestro's birthday, March 27. This year marks the 90th anniversary since the birth of Mstislav Rostropovich, which is widely celebrated throughout the music world.
The Academic Symphony Orchestra of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic will open the festival with a concert under the conductorship by Yuri Temirkanov.
For the first time since 1993, the Washington National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by by Christophe Eschenbach, will perform at the festival. Mstislav Rostropovich headed this orchestra for more than 17 years. The orchestra will perform in Moscow on March 29 and 30, and in the St. Petersburg Philharmonic on March 31.
April 2 will see the solo concert of Maxim Vengerov, the winner of numerous international awards, who will perform all of Brahms' violin sonatas to the piano accompaniment by Polina Osetinskaya.
On April 4 the 8th International Mstislav Rostropovich Festival will be crowned with a joint concert of Russian and Japanese music orchestras. Gabriel Faure's Requiem and two suites from Maurice Ravel's ballet Daphnis et Chloe will be performed under conductorship by Kazuki Yamada, the art director of the Yokohama Symphonietta Orchestra.
In the autumn of 2017 the 2nd Galina Vishnevskaya International Opera Festival in Sochi and the 5th Mstislav Rostropovich International Festival in Orenburg will be also dedicated to the 90th anniversary of Mstislav Rostropovich.