Diaghilev Festival 2025

Hændel
A Dedication Ceremony to George Frideric Handel.
Opening concert of the festival

09/06 Beggrov House, St.Petersburg, 20:00
10/06 Beggrov House, St.Petersburg, 16:00
13&14/06 Diaghilev Festival, Perm | House of Music (Shpagin plant), 20:00

musicAeterna orchestra and choir
musicAeterna Dance company
artists from the Anton Rubinstein Academy

Conductor – Teodor Currentzis

Details

Opening the 2025 Diaghilev Festival on June 13, Hændel is a theatrical and musical dedication to the great composer on the 340th anniversary of his birth. Performed by the festival’s headliners — the musicAeterna orchestra and choir under the direction of Teodor Currentzis — the concert presents a pasticcio: a collage of arias, ensembles, orchestral and choral scenes from Handel’s operas and oratorios.

A pasticcio (Italian for “pie” or “mash-up”) was a popular 18th-century stage practice — an artfully crafted mix of musical pieces, often from different works, assembled into a new dramatic whole. In Hændel, this form brings together excerpts from Handel’s powerful Old Testament oratorios, dramatic arias from his Italian operas (Rinaldo, Giulio Cesare in Egitto, Orlando, Teseo), and dazzling instrumental pieces.

All music will be performed on period instruments and in historical baroque tuning by musicAeterna artists, known for their thoughtful and detailed work with historically informed performance and their pursuit of authentic sound. The semi-staged format and collage-like nature of the production follow the spirit of baroque spectacle — full of illusion, shifting perspectives, scale play, and a deep focus on the voice and space.

J.S.BACH Cello Suites
on the Classical Cretan Lyra

15,06 Diaghilev’s house, Perm, 23:59

For many years, Greek cellist, composer, improviser, and researcher Yiorgos Kaloudis has been exploring the expressive potential of the Cretan lyra, one of the world’s oldest bowed string instruments. He has released seven albums and given solo performances at the Athens Concert Hall (Megaron), as well as at prominent early music, classical, and jazz festivals across Europe and Russia. He is a regular collaborator with the Diaghilev Festival and the musicAeterna Orchestra.

The Cretan lyra is a teardrop-shaped, traditionally threestringed bowed instrument, often accompanied by sympathetic strings. Unlike the violin, its strings are stopped not by pressing with the fingertips, but by touching them with the nails — a technique that produces a distinctive, ethereal tone with whistling overtones. This ancient method of sound production has survived thanks to the lyra’s continued role in Cretan folk traditions, where it was primarily played at social dances, often with bells attached to the bow, and remained outside the domain of professional classical music for centuries.

Kaloudis began his in-depth study and performance practice of the lyra in 2004. Drawing upon his background as a cellist, he expanded the traditional instrument by adding a fourth string, adapting the baroque techniques of the bow thus specially cello techniques for the left hand, but also extending its range and adaptability. His innovations and transcriptions have enabled the classical Cretan lyra to interpret Baroque and Early music repertoire, most notably the Cello Suites by Johann Sebastian Bach, with clarity and emotional depth.

At the Diaghilev Festival, Yiorgos Kaloudis performs two works from this iconic collection. Written during Bach’s time in Kothen, the six suites are often regarded as the Bible of modern cello playing. Each suite blends dance forms with intricate polyphony, offering a sublime balance between technical mastery and expressive power — a balance that Kaloudis brings to life through the voice of a uniquely ancient instrument.

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)

Cello Suite No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1008 (1720–1723)
Prelude
Allemande
Courante
Sarabande
Minuet I / II
Gigue

Cello Suite No. 4 in E-flat major, BWV 1010 (1720–1723)
Prelude
Allemande
Courante
Sarabande
Bourree I / II
Gigue

Esperia

22/06 Perm | House of Music (Shpagin plant), 15:00 & 22:00

Musical Director and Conductor: Teodor Currentzis
Director: Anna Guseva
Chief Choirmaster: Vitaly Polonsky
Choreographer: Anastasia Peshkova

Performers:
musicAeterna Choir
soloists of the musicAeterna Orchestra
musicAeterna Dance company

Details

The concert-performance Esperia, featuring the musicAeterna choir, orchestra soloists, and dance company under the direction of Teodor Currentzis, continues a long-standing tradition of the Diaghilev Festival: the program will remain a mystery until the end of the evening.

This concept of “pure perception” — where the audience experiences the performance without prior knowledge — is especially important for this piece. Esperia is a kind of modern mystery play, touching the deepest human emotions and hopes through sacred music from different styles and eras, subtle choreography, and carefully crafted lighting.