In November, opera soloists and the Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra under Valery Gergiev will perform in Rome and Palermo within the framework of the cultural program of the Year Russia — Italy. In Rome, along with the chorus of the famous Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, we’ll perform Tchaikovsky’s opera Eugene Onegin and Mahler’s Third Symphony. Our Orchestra will also perform the Fourth and Adagio from the Tenth (unfinished) Symphonies by Mahler. These concerts are a part of a special series dedicated to the 150th anniversary of composer’s birth (2010) and the 100th anniversary of his death (2011). Like other world capitals of music, Rome marked the 2010/11 concert season with performances of Mahler’s complete symphonic cycle under different conductors. Same days, to complete of the cycle, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Valery Gergiev, will perform Mahler’s Seventh Symphony. A year ago, the same orchestra under the baton of Valery Gergiev performed Mahler’s Fifth Symphony in Rome.

On stage of one of the oldest music theaters in Italy, Teatro Massimo in Palermo, opera soloists and orchestra of our theater will give a gala concert with a program of works by Russian composers: Glinka, Borodin, Mussorgsky, reflecting the last visit by the Mariinsky Theatre and Valery Gergiev in Palermo in 1990s when we performed operas from the Russian repertoire: Ruslan and Lyudmila, Prince Igor, Sadko.

At the end of the year of the 150th anniversary of Mahler’s death, the Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra under Valery Gergiev will perform Mahler’s Seventh Symphony on December 23rd, in Moscow, at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, within the framework of the Russian Winter Festival, and on December 24th, in St Petersburg, at the Grand Philharmonic Hall, as part of the Arts Square Festival.

All symphonies by Gustav Mahler were recorded by the London Symphony Orchestra under Valery Gergiev and released on the LSO Live, the orchestra’s own record label. Available for iTunes download and for purchase in SACD format.