New Festival "Offering to Paganini" to be Held in Moscow

The three-concert festival features a number of young artists performing some of Paganini's best-loved works

A new festival, to be held in Russia from November 7, 2023, will honor the 241st anniversary of the violinist and composer Niccolò Paganini. Titled "Offering to Paganini," the festival features three chamber music concerts presented by exciting young players.

Offering to Paganini will take place in the Chamber Hall of the Moscow International House of Music, and the hall will be decked with one thousand candles, to evoke Paganini's own era.

The festival's opening concert will feature Bach's Partita No. 2 in D minor, Paganini's Caprice No. 24, Ernst's Caprice on Schubert's "Erlkönig," as well as other works by Beethoven and Schubert.

These will be performed by Leonid Zhelezny, who has been a laureate of a number of competitions — and now teaches at Moscow's Tchaikovsky Conservatory.

A concert on November 14 will feature works for violin and guitar, including Paganini's "Campanella," as well as his Sonata for Violin and Guitar. These will be played by David Ardukhanyan (violin) and Alexey Korbanov (guitar).

The closing concert of the festival will comprise works by Vivaldi, Bieber, and Tartini, played on harpsichord, baroque violins, and other period instruments performed by laureates of international competitions from the Miludus Ensemble.

You can find out more about the festival here.