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Maestro Gergiev conducts orchestra in Paris on occasion of Bastille Day

The stage for the orchestra was assembled near the Eiffel Tower

PARIS, July 15. /TASS/. Maestro Valery Gergiev conducted the French National Orchestra on Friday night as part of the traditional concert in Champs de Mars in Paris, held annually on the occasion of Bastille Day.

France 2 channel broadcast the concert live.

The stage for the orchestra was assembled near the Eiffel Tower. The concert was free for the general public and it drew together several hundred thousand listeners.

The program included works by Berlioz, Puccini, Verdi, Prokofiev, Rimsky-Korsakov, Brahms, Shostakovich, Strauss, Mussorgsky, Bizet, and Delibes. Singers Diana Damrau, Nadine Sierra, Anita Rachvelishvili, Brian Himmel, Ludovic Tezier, cellist Renaud Capucon, and two choirs of Radio France - the main choir and the youth one - took part in the presentation.

The Paris concert was an item on the itinerary of maestro Gergiev’s brief visit to Western Europe. The series of his performances began on July 13 at a music festival in Rheingau in central Germany where he conducted the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra in a concert of German and Russian classics. He is artistic director of the orchestra as of 2015.

On July 16, the Munich Philharmonic under Gergiev’s baton is expected to perform on Odeonsplatz in what will be the conclusive concert during this season.

A huge pyrotechnical display followed the concert. It crowned the expansive festive program that opened on Friday morning with a gala military parade received by President Emanuel Macron of France and Donald Trump of the U.S.

July 14 is the only day in the year when Paris has a large pyrotechnical show. The local authorities gave consent to fireworks on the New Year’s night a few years ago - a move marking a novel development.

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