On March 11, 2021 the outstanding pianist Alexei Volodin will take part in the concert in the Great Hall of the Primorsky Stage. He will perform Nikolai Medtner’s Piano Concerto No. 1, accompanied by the Mariinsky Orchestra of the Primorsky Stage under Pavel Smelkov’s baton. Symphonic Dances, one of the best compositions by Sergei Rachmaninoff, will be performed in the second part of the concert.
Alexei Volodin is one of the most known contemporary representatives of Russian piano school. He is an extensively touring pianist who is in demand by orchestras throughout the world. Critics consider him notable for his intellect, artistry and bright emotions; the musician has acquired such unbelievable proficiency that it allows him “to discover new intentions in the well-known music and make the audience listen to the unknown music with animation”.
In Vladivostok Alexei Volodin performed all the piano concerti by Sergei Prokofiev within one night in 2015. A year earlier he appeared at the Tchaikovsky Marathon Project. In 2016 he took part in the Beethoven Marathon Festival as a soloist for all the piano concerti written by the composer.
During this visit to Vladivostok, Alexei Volodin is to turn to the legacy of the intellectual romantic Nikolai Medtner (1880-1951) who is one of his most favorable Russian composers. Medtner’s Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 33 is a dramatic composition of great scale. An outstanding pianist, Nikolai Medtner made a soloist occupy the dominating position in this Concerto. “The orchestra must sound like a chorus in a tragedy, and the piano like a narrator”, said the composer. This composition can rarely be heard live. The Concerto will be performed at the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre for the first time.
