PROKOFIEV – THE SYMPHONIES
Carol Main

The List
14 August 2008
UK

Russian around with the tireless Valery Gergiev

In one of the most exciting orchestral weekends hosted by the Usher
Hall, the London Symphony Orchestra appears with its principal
conductor, Valery Gergiev, performing all of Prokofiev’s seven
symphonies plus the two violin concertos with soloist Leonidas
Kavakos. As the venue’s redevelopment programme is still in progress,
audiences are advised to allow more time than usual to find your
seat. The real problem may be getting people to vacate them, as this
particularly potent combination of music and musicians is highly
likely to leave audiences demanding more.

A long-time champion of the music of Prokofiev – and, indeed, fellow
Russian Shostakovich – Gergiev is at his ‘absolute best’ with these
two composers, according to EIF director Jonathan Mills. ‘But it is
more than just as a conductor,’ he says. ‘He is a conductor and a
proselytizer in the best sense.’

Born in Moscow in 1953, Gergiev spent the formative years of his
conducting career in Russia. He conducted many of the main orchestras
of the former Soviet Union, especially the Armenian State Orchestra,
leading to his appointment as chief conductor at the Kirov Opera in
1988 where he has been artistic director and principal conductor
since 1996 when he was invited by the Russian government to take
up the post. ‘He’d had the choice to cut and run or make a stance,’
says Mills. ‘It was at a time when Russia was in difficult social and
economic circumstances and Gergiev was in charge of one of its great
institutions, the Kirov and Mariinsky Theatre. He was being sounded
out for many glittering jobs in the west, but he stayed in Russia. I
think that he showed incredible guts and courage for standing up for
the people and supporting their own culture, and he should be praised
for it. "We may not have bread," he would say, "but we can sing!"’

Although there are a number of enticing one-off concerts, the
residencies that underpin them are vital to the Festival’s orchestral
programming. ‘It gives people the opportunity to hear more than just
one idea from an orchestra,’ says Mills. ‘And Gergiev certainly brings
a special quality to this repertoire.’