MOSCOW, March 27 /TASS/. The VII Mstislav Rostropovich International Festival will traditionally open at the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire on March 27th, the Maestro’s birthday.

The concert will open with Requiem by Mozart to be performed by the Russian National Orchestra and the Yurlov State Academic Choir under the baton of Massimo Zanetti. The soloists will include outstanding singers like Barbara Frittoli, Daniela Barcellona, Ram·n Vargas and Ildebrando D'Arcangelo.

This year’s festival will be devoted to the 90th birth anniversary of Rostropovich’s late wife and outstanding opera singer Galina Vishnevskaya.

Further performances will take place in Moscow during the 10 days of the festival: on April 2nd the London Philharmonic Orchestra with its chief conductor, Vladimir Jurowski with the violinist Boris Brovtsyn as soloist; on 5th April the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra with Myung-Whun Chung in the double role of conductor and pianist - indeed it is the first time he will appear in Moscow in the guise of piano soloist since winning the second prize at the Tchaikovsky International Competition in 1974.

French pianist Lucas Debargue will give a big solo concert.

One of the main events of the Festival will be A concert performance on the 30th March of Giuseppe Verdi's Aida, the opera in which Galina Vishnevskaya appeared in the title role at opera houses throughout the world, will be one of the festival’s highlights. The cast in this performance will be made up of Maria Jos· Siri, Veronica Simeoni, Fabio Sartori, and other well-known singers, as well as the choir and orchestra of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino under Maestro Zubin Mehta (March 30).

Two concerts will take place in St. Petersburg, Vishnevskaya’s home city, and Kronstadt.