Valery Gergiev has long been associated with the Mariinsky (formerly known as the Kirov) Orchestra – including 11 previous UMS appearances.

This program features Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, which had its world premiere in 1913 in Paris, just 16 days after Hill Auditorium opened. The ballet, with choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky, caused a scandal, yet it has had a tremendous impact on music for the past 100 years and is now considered a masterpiece of the 20th century. This concert features the orchestral score.

The concert also features piano soloist Denis Matsuev, who made his UMS debut with the Mariinsky in October 2010 and returned for an equally stunning recital in January 2012. He returns as piano soloist for Shostakovich’s Concerto in c minor for Piano, Trumpet, and String Orchestra. “Ever since his triumph in the 1998 Tchaikovsky Competition, Denis Matsuev’s name has inspired awe and amazement in musical circles. And for once, the hype”¦is, if anything, low-pitched. For here is a virtuoso in the grandest of Russian traditions”¦” (Gramophon Magazine)

Program
R. Strauss: Ein Heldenleben, Op. 40 (1898)
Shostakovich: Concerto in c minor for Piano, Trumpet, and String Orchestra, Op. 35 (1933)
Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring (1913)