Renowned musicians from Belarus, Russia, and Lithuania will perform at the I.I. Sollertinsky Festival in Vitebsk
Renowned musicians from Belarus, Russia, and Lithuania will gather for the XXIV International I.I. Sollertinsky Music Festival in Vitebsk, as reported to BelTA correspondent by Nelly Matsaberidze, artistic director of the Vitebsk Regional Philharmonic.
This year, the event, important for classical music connoisseurs, will take place from December 3 to 22. The festival will open on December 3 with a traditional concert by teachers and top students of the Vitebsk State I.I. Sollertinsky Music College, dedicated to the 110th anniversary of Ivan Sollertinsky's birth.
December 10 and 11 will be landmark dates for classical music fans. On these days, laureate of international competitions, Honored Artist of Russia Alexander Knyazev will perform in the Vitebsk Regional Philharmonic hall. He will appear before the audience as a cellist and organist with the program "J.S. Bach - 'The Musical Bible'," which includes the most significant works of this great composer. The cello he will perform with is also noteworthy, noted Nelly Matsaberidze. According to her, this musical instrument was made by Carlo Bergonzi (1686-1747), a student of Stradivari. Previously, this instrument was played for a long time by Grigory Piatigorsky and Sviatoslav Knushevitsky, and after the latter's death in 1963, no one played it: the cello was searching for its performer, not yielding its sound to anyone. The prolonged period of oblivion ended in 1987 with the meeting with Alexander Knyazev, who conquered the unique instrument and has been performing with it exclusively ever since.
The festival program also includes performances by the I. Stravinsky String Quartet (Russia) of the St. Petersburg Academic Philharmonic, the Lundstrem Trio ensemble of soloists (Russia), laureate of international competitions Igor Uryash (piano, Russia), the famous soloist of the Lithuanian National Philharmonic Ignas Misiura-Tumanov (bass-baritone, Lithuania) in tandem with accompanist Daiva Petruciūnaite (piano), and the "Classic-Avant-garde" ensemble of soloists (artistic director - Honored Artist of Belarus Vladimir Baidov, Belarus).
An important event in the life of the XXIV festival will be the scientific readings, which will gather musicians and musicologists from Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, and Germany for the 14th time on December 3-4. During the two-day event, reports will be presented on the creative biographies of Ivan Sollertinsky, Leonid Utyosov, modern interpretative forms of music, etc. In addition, a presentation of a collection dedicated to I. Sollertinsky and the festival will take place. The publication includes four sections (history of the festival, the figure and personality of Ivan Sollertinsky, events and people of Vitebsk music, materials of the XII-XIII scientific readings), as well as appendices with posters from previous years, programs of all readings, and a bibliographic list of publications about the festival.
Olga Bogacheva - BELTA