From January 18 to February 12, 2021, Moscow will be hosting the Second Winter International Art Festival under the art direction of People's Artist of the USSR, Maestro Yuri Bashmet. This time, the festival program includes 12 concerts in 7 venues in Moscow. During the month, listeners are invited to make an impressive journey with maestro Yuri Bashmet through the best concert halls and theaters of Moscow, and enjoy a kaleidoscope of stars and genres. World premieres, classical music, performances, jazz, literature and music performances with famous stage and film actors, as well as unique concerts performed by famous Russian and foreign musicians - all of that and more is prepared for the audience at the Second Winter International Festival of Arts in Moscow. In the diverse program of the festival, there will be a cultural event to every taste, because famous soloists, renowned orchestras, and unusual ensembles performing music of various eras, genres and directions have united here. The festival's events will cover all the favorite places of Moscow music lovers and theater-goers: the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, the Great Hall of the Conservatory, the Zaryadye Concert Hall, the Moscow International House of Music, the Gorky Moscow Art Theater, the Moscow Sovremennik Theater and the Bashmet Center. At the same time, all events of the festival will be held in compliance with antiviral measures. The festival program surprises not only with world premieres, which are always waiting for the audience of Maestro Bashmet festivals in all cities of Russia, but also with the constellation of star participants from around the world. Among them are famous soloists Maxim Vengerov (violin, Israel), Efim Bronfman (piano, USA), Xavier Demestre (harp, France), Matthias Gernet (baritone, Germany), Patricia Kopaczynska (violin, Switzerland), David Fry (piano, France), Istvan Vardai (cello, Hungary), Nico Cook (guitar, Germany), Ksenia Bashmet (piano), Igor Butman and his big band, Soqquadro Italiano ensemble (Italy), theater and film actors Sergey Garmash, Konstantin Khabensky, Evgeny Mironov, Elizaveta Boyarskaya, Mikhail Porechenkov and others. To top it all, at the festival, three groups of Maestro Bashmet will perform at once: the chamber ensemble "Soloists of Moscow", the State Symphony Orchestra" New Russia " and the All-Russian Youth Symphony Orchestra. The festival is opening with a premiere on January 18, 2021 The Concert Hall "Zaryadye" will host a musical and literary event "Yesenin and Mayakovsky", dedicated to two geniuses of poetry, ardent antagonists of the XX century. Mikhail Porechenkov will act as a reader. Another big world premiere of the festival will take place on February 10: at the M. Gorky Moscow Art Theater, the audience will be presented with the musical performance "Rendezvous in Moscow" staged by Pavel Safonov to the music of Alexander Tchaikovsky. In addition, the festival program could not but include other performances, which are always in big demand among the Moscow audience. So, another performance-concert "Onegin. Lyrical Digressions" directed by Marina Brusnikina will take place in the Svetlanov Hall of the House of Music on January 26, 2021 It stars Elizaveta Boyarskaya and Yevgeny Mironov in the leads. On January 30 and 31, the festival will present the play "Don't Leave Your Planet" based on the "Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint Exupery with the participation of Yuri Bashmet and Konstantin Khabensky on the stage of the Sovremennik Theater. The premiere of the play took place as part of the Winter International Festival of Arts in Sochi in 2016 and since then has always been sold out not only in Russia, but also abroad. On February 3, the Soqquadro Italiano ensemble, a multiple time participant of Yuri Bashmet's festivals, will perform in the Zaryadye Concert Hall. The ensemble will bring a program called "La Stravaganza- a Musical Journey with Antonio Vivaldi". Thanks to modern technologies – the use of video graphics and animation - you will be able to see the expanses of Florence, admire its architecture and listen to the famous instrumental concerts of Vivaldi, and less well-known vocal music. On February 8, the program of the Moscow festival will for the first time include jazz - one of Maestro Bashmet's favorite genres. So, one stage of the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall will host "The Soloists of Moscow" under the conductorship of Yuri Bashmet and the Big Band of the famous jazzman Igor Butman with the program "Classics meets Jazz". Three concerts stand out in the program: a birthday concert of Maestro Bashmet on January 24, which he annually holds on the stage of the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall. 2021 will not be an exception and his friends and fellow musicians will come to greet him. On January 28, Zaryadye will host a concert dedicated to the past century: «20th Century. Century of Search», featuring mainly foreign musicians. At the same time, two maestro groups will be involved in both concerts: the chamber ensemble "The Soloists of Moscow"and the large symphony orchestra"New Russia". The festival will be crowned with a large gala concert in the Great Hall of the Conservatory on February 12 with the participation of Sergey Garmash, Ksenia Bashmet, Nico Cook and the All-Russian Symphony Orchestra under the the conductorship of Maestro Bashmet and Claudio Vandelli. The festival will also include master classes in the framework of the program "Yuri Bashmet – Young Talents of Russia", a special project in cooperation with the European Festivals Association and chamber music concerts at the Bashmet Center.


Author: Vera Ivanova

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