Valery Gergiev and the Münchner Philharmoniker to mark Rodion Shchedrin's anniversary

On 19 and 20 December Valery Gergiev and the Münchner Philharmoniker will give their final performances of 2017. At the Gasteig Philharmonie (Munich) there will be a performance of Rodion Shchedrin's opera The Enchanted Wanderer (in concert). The vocal parts are to be performed by Mariinsky Opera soloists Sergei Aleksashkin (Ivan Severyanovich Flyagin, the Storyteller), Andrei Popov (the Flogged Monk, the Prince, the Magnetiser, the Old Man in the Woods, the Storyteller) and Yekaterina Sergeyeva (Grusha the Gypsy, the Female Storyteller) with the Münchner Philharmoniker Chorus directed by Andreas Herrmann. Valery Gergiev will be conducting. The German ensemble is dedicating its performance of The Enchanted Wanderer to Rodion Shchedrin, who celebrated his 85^th birthday on 16 December.

The first performances in 2018 by the Münchner Philharmoniker under Valery Gergiev are scheduled for January. From 20 to 27 January the orchestra will give three performances in Munich, in addition to a series of concerts at venues in Paris, Cologne, Amsterdam and Hamburg.

In 2017 Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Theatre widely commemorated Rodion Konstantinovich Shchedrin's 85^th birthday. His anniversary year saw events take place in Moscow, Tula, St Petersburg, Vladivostok and Munich. On returning from Germany, Valery Gergiev will conduct two concerts marking Rodion Shchedrin's birthday together with the Mariinsky Orchestra at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall (21 and 22 December), before continuing the celebratory programme in St Petersburg – at the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre (24 December). Moreover, the Mariinsky Theatre is dedicating productions from its repertoire to Rodion Shchedrin: the operas A Christmas Tale (23 and 31 December and 2 and 7 January, Mariinsky II) and The Lefthander (28 December and 30 January, Mariinsky II; production by Alexei Stepanyuk), and the ballets Carmen-Suite (21 December, Mariinsky II) and Anna Karenina (30 December at 14.00 and at 19.30, Mariinsky II).