• Under Gergiev’s direction the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg has become a major theatre and concert complex
• The orchestra is one of the oldest ensembles in Russia
• Maestro Gergiev is a regular guest of the world’s most prestigious concert halls and opera houses and the artistic director of several festivals; he also devotes particular attention to young and talented musicians
• The orchestra has been conducted in the past by Berlioz, Wagner, von Bülow, Tchaikovsky, Mahler and Rachmaninov
• The orchestra first appeared in Slovenia during European Cultural Month in 1997
• In 2017 Slovenia’s president Borut Pahor conferred the Silver Order of Merit of the Republic of Slovenia on Valery Gergiev in a ceremony at the Presidential Palace

Programme:
M. Kozina: White Carniola, symphonic scherzo
H. Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14

Two symphonic works form the programme of a concert evening featuring the famous Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra under Valery Gergiev, a conductor who is a regular presence at the Ljubljana Festival and whose charismatic interpretations always find an appreciative audience. Marjan Kozina’s “symphonic scherzo” White Carniola is actually the third movement of his monumental Symphony – conceived as a cycle of four symphonic poems. Composed in the years following the Second World War, the work offers a poetic or even idealised view of an idyll in the midst of the horrors of war, which the composer himself experienced. Though a traditionalist, Kozina infused his works with originality and a unique vitality that places him among the most important Slovene composers of symphonic music. Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique (Op. 14), subtitled Episode in the Life of an Artist, is a special kind of musical drama that follows a clearly designed programme. It is a fiery, romantic work that defies categorisation. Running through the work and connecting it into a single whole is an idée fixe, a recurring theme representing the artist’s unrequited yearning for the unattainable girl with whom he is hopelessly in love. The five movements have titles that reflect the programme of the work: “Reveries – Passions”, “A Ball”, “Scene in the Fields”, “March to the Scaffold” and “Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath”. The last movement ends in a dizzying bacchanalia.