December 28, 2025 | Svetlanov Hall of the Moscow International Performing Arts Center
«A Tribute to Maya. 100 Years»br />Conductor – Vladimir Spivakov
Bizet – Shchedrin. Carmen-Suite
Ravel. Bolero
Vladimir Spivakov and the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia are dedicating this concert to the 100th anniversary of great ballet dancer Maya Plisetskaya with whom the maestro had been in close friendly relations for many years. For the concert he has chosen two musical masterpieces of the 20th century that played a great role in Maya Plisetskaya’s life and formed in many ways her stage image that is Carmen-Suite by Bizet — Shchedrin and Bolero by Ravel.
’Plisetstkaya is a real servant of arts, — says Vladimir Spivakov. — I have seen her in «Death of Rose» and in «Bolero», and in «Carmen», and in «The Seagull». She worked wonders... I was smitten by her capabilities, her devotion to her art, her tremendous, not female, power... Maya was Carmen herself. I think that in this part she played herself. It was her nature. Remembering how Maya danced Carmen helps us to understand why this personality is the symbol of freedom in love.’
Maya Plisetskaya’s life-long dream was to impersonate the character of the legendary gypsy from the novella by Prosper Merimée and the opera by Georges Bizet. It was she for whom Rodion Shchedrin wrote a one-act ballet Carmen-Suite, picking up from the opera an array of the brightest fragments and composing a score for strings with 47 percussion instruments trying to underline by timbres its difference from the original.
’On the day of its premiere, great Shostakovich said some good words to me which arise my pride even now — so happily to treat so well-known melodies is even more difficult than to write one’s own successful opus’ - recalled Shchedrin later.
Maya Plisetskaya had danced Carmen about 350 times all over the world from Moscow to Havana, from Helsinki to Tokyo. Besides, Carmen-Suite has found its place in orchestral programs.
Bolero, the embodiment of the Spanish dance, is one of the most perfect world-famed symphonic works by Maurice Ravel. The piece was written in 1928 on commission from the Ida Rubinstein Enterprise. In its premiere at Le Grand Opera, the music became the base of a choreographic performance staged by Bronislava Nijinska. In 1961 at The Royal Theatre of La Monnai there was premiered Bolero choreographed by Maurice Béjart, where the principle role would be acted for many years by prominent female dancers (since the end of the 1970s also male dancers), and in 1978 Maya Plisetskaya took her turn in the row. Her unforgettable interpretation was depicted in a well-known video recording.