The Mariinsky Theatre's tour to Europe

Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra are undertaking a major European tour. From 5 to 17 February the musicians will present twelve concerts in Austria, Germany, Spain and Italy.

On 4 February, the day before the tour commences, the Mariinsky Orchestra, Chorus and soloists of the Opera Company as well as guest artistes will present Giuseppe Verdi's opera Simon Boccanegra at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall (concert performance). The lead roles will be performed by Tatiana Serjan (Maria Boccanegra, also known as Amelia Grimaldi), Otar Jorjikia (Gabriele Adorno), Roman Burdenko (Paolo Albiani), Vladislav Sulimsky (Simon Boccanegra), Gleb Peryazev (Pietro) and Stanislav Trofimov (Jacopo Fiesco). Valery Gergiev will be conducting.

Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra well then depart for Austria, whene on 5 February a concert at the Brucknerhaus in Linz will open the ensemble's tour of Europe. The programme opens with Claude Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune. Olivier Messiaen's Four Symphonic Meditations and Dmitry Shostakovich's Fourth Symphony will also be performed.

From 6 to 11 February Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra will be on tour in Germany. The programmes of the concerts at the Liederhalle (Stuttgart, 6 February) and the Meistersingerhalle (Nürnberg, 7 February) feature Claude Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, Pyotr Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony (Pathétique) and Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No 3. On 8 February at the Konzerthaus in Freiburg the works by Debussy and Rachmaninoff, performed the day before, will be supplemented with Pyotr Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony. On all three evenings the piano solo in the concerto will be performed by Denis Matsuev.

On 10 February at the Großer Saal of the Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg) there will be a concert performance of Pyotr Tchaikovsky's opera Iolanta with soloists of the Mariinsky Opera and Chorus. The lead roles will be performed by Irina Churilova (Iolanta), Najmiddin Mavlyanov (Count Vaudémont), Alexei Markov (Robert), Stanislav Trofimov (René, King of Provence) and Roman Burdanko (Ibn-Hakia). Valery Gergiev will be conducting.

The German leg of the tour concludes on 11 February at the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, the programme again including Claude Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, Dmitry Shostakovich's Fourth Symphony and Sergei Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No 3. The soloist is Alexei Volodin.

From 12 to 16 February the Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Gergiev will appear in five towns in Spain. On 12 February at the Grand Concert Hall of the Baluarte Palacio de Congresos (Pamplona) there will be a performance of Gustav Mahler's Fifth Symphony and Sergei Prokofiev's cantata Alexander Cantata with the Orfeón Pamplonés chorus.

On 13 and 14 February at the Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid and the L'Auditori concert hall in Barcelona there will be performances of Gustav Mahler's Second Symphony with Mariinsky Opera soloists Anastasia Kalagina (soprano) and Yulia Matochkina (mezzo-soprano) and the Ibercamera chorus (Artistic Director – Mireia Barrera).

On 15 February at the Palau de la Música de València there will be a performance of Johannes Brahms' Piano Concerto No 2 (soloist – Nelson Freire) and Dmitry Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony (Leningrad), which will be performed by both the Mariinsky Orchestra and the Orquesta de Valencia under Valery Gergiev.

The series of performances in Spain will conclude with an evening at the Concert Hall in Alicante (16 February). The programme includes Igor Stravinsky's Symphony in Three Movements, Modest Musorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition and Sergei Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No 3. The soloist will be Sergei Redkin, prize-winner at the XV International Tchaikovsky Competition.

The final concert of the tour will take place on 17 February in Turin in Italy. The Gianni Agnelli Concert Hall will host a performance of the suite from the opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Anatoly Lyadov's The Enchanted Lake and Sergei Rachmaninoff's Symphonic Dances and Piano Concerto No 2. The soloist is Varvara Nepomnyashchaya.