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Annual Easter festival kicks off in Moscow

Gergiev said Prokofiev’s music was very popular abroad

MOSCOW, April 15 (Itar-Tass) —The annual Moscow Easter festival is kicking off in the Russian capital on Sunday. Concerts will be held in 30 Russian towns and cities and the Ukrainian capital of Kiev.

This year the festival will focus on music by Sergei Prokofiev. “The performance of a series of Prokofiev’s symphonies and piano concerts will be a real music gift for the audience,” Valery Gergiev, the artistic director of the Moscow Easter festival, said.

Concerts of Prokofiev’s symphonies No. 1 and No.5 will take place at the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire on Sunday.

Gergiev said Prokofiev’s music was very popular abroad.

Cellist Ivan Karizna, the winner of the last Tchaikovsky concert, will play together with Gergiev’s orchestra. The Moscow Easter festival will attract world famous names such as Denis Matsuyev, Olga Borodina, Ferruccio Furlanetto, Olli Mustonen and Christian Blackshaw.

Actors Chulpan Khamatova and Yevgeny Mironov will stage a performance to Prokofiev’s symphony suite “The Egyptian Nights”.

The Moscow Easter festival is being held for the eleventh time on the initiative of Valery Gergiev and with the blessing of Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill. One hundred fifty concerts will be held from April 15 to May 9.

Choirs from Germany, Israel, Hungary, Bulgaria, Greece and Latvia will perform in Moscow and other Russia cities.

The festival will end with a gala concert on Moscow’s Poklonnaya Hill on May 9.

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