Mariinsky Orchestra

Valery Gergiev, Music Director
Orchestras

Manager: R. Douglas Sheldon
Management Territory: USA

"The gripping performances these musicians from St. Petersburg offered had such intensity, character and insight that it was hard to imagine the music played with more authority." —New York Times

“The Kirov Orchestra is a perfectly balanced, impeccably blended virtuoso instrument, and Gergiev plays it with masterly élan.” —Los Angeles Times

“The orchestra, under musical director Valery Gergiev, moves as if with a single mind and always with purposeful passion.” —London Times

About

The Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre enjoys a long and distinguished history as one of the oldest musical institutions in Russia. Founded in the 18th century during the reign of Peter the Great and housed in St. Petersburg’s famed Mariinsky Theatre since 1860, the Orchestra entered its “golden age” in the second half of the 19th century under the musical direction of Eduard Napravnik, whose leadership for more than a half century (1863-1916) secured its reputation as one of the finest in Europe.

Numerous internationally famed musicians have conducted the Orchestra, . . . among them Hans von Bülow, Felix Mottl, Felix Weingartner, Alexander von Zemlinsky, Otto Nikisch, Willem Mengelberg, Otto Klemperer, Bruno Walter, Erich Kleiber, Hector Berlioz, Richard Wagner, Gustav Mahler and Arnold Schoenberg.

Renamed the “Kirov” during the Soviet era, the Orchestra continued to maintain its high artistic standards under the leadership of Yevgeny Mravinsky and Yuri Temirkanov. The leadership of Valery Gergiev has enabled the Theatre to forge important relationships for the Mariinsky Ballet and Opera to appear in the world’s greatest opera houses and theatres, among them the Metropolitan Opera, the Kennedy Center, the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, the San Francisco Opera, the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, the Salzburg Festival and La Scala in Milan.

The success of the Orchestra’s frequent tours has created the reputation of what one journalist referred to as “the world’s first global orchestra.” Since its US debut in 1992 the orchestra has made 15 tours of North America, including a 2006 celebration of the complete Shostakovich symphonies, a Cycle of Stage Works of Prokofiev in 2008, major works of Hector Berlioz in February/March 2010, and a Centennial Mahler Cycle in Carnegie Hall in October 2010. In October 2011 The Mariinsky Orchestra will open Carnegie Hall’s 120th season and will present a cycle of Tchaikovsky Symphonies on both the east and west coast and in Canada.

The 2009 and 2010 releases of the new Mariinsky Label are Shostakovich “The Nose”, Symphonies Nos. 1 & 15, Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 and “Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini”, Tchaikovsky 1812, Shchedrin “The Enchanted Wanderer” and Stravinsky “Les Noces” and “Oedipus Rex”.

The 2011 recording releases have included Shostakovich Symphonies Nos. 2 & 11, Wagner “Parsifal”, Shostakovich Symphonies Nos. 3 & 10, Donizetti “Lucia di Lammermoor” and the fall 2011 releases will include DVD/Blu-ray of Tchaikovsky Symphonies Nos. 4, 5, 6 and Balanchine’s ballet “Jewels”.

November 2006 marked the grand opening of the Orchestra’s Mariinsky Theatre Concert Hall and Spring 2013 will mark the opening of Mariinsky II, a new theatre placed alongside the historic and fabled Mariinsky Theatre.

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