The Mariinsky Orchestra is a unique theatre orchestra with an intense concert schedule. It is ranked among world’s best orchestras according to a survey among top music critics of major European, American and Asian magazines.
The orchestra is over two hundred years old. It was founded by Catarino Camillo Cavos, who then led the musicians for nearly 50 years, and Konstantin Lyadov. The Mariinsky Orchestra flourished under Eduard Napravnik, who expanded the theatre’s repertoire by over 100 productions, bringing the orchestra up to the European performing standards. Napravnik’s effort was continued by outstanding Soviet conductors including Vladimir Dranishnikov, Ariy Pazovsky, Yevgeny Mravinsky, Sergey Yeltsin, Boris Khaikin, Pavel Feldt, Konstantin Simeonov, and Yuri Temirkanov.
Throughout the history of the orchestra, it has been conducted by Hector Berlioz, Richard Wagner, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Gustav Mahler, Arthur Nikisch, Hans von Bülow, Sergei Rachmaninov, Willem Mengelberg, Otto Klemperer, Bruno Walter, Erich Kleiber, and Arnold Schoenberg.<<cut>>
Despite performing daily at the theatre’s three stages, the orchestra still manages to meet its tight tour schedule.
Since 1988, the orchestra has been directed by Valery Gergiev. With the maestro’s arrival, the orchestra’s repertoire has expanded significantly. In addition to operas (first and foremost the tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen as well as all of Wagner’s other operas starting with Lohengrin performed in German, all of Prokofiev and Shostakovich’s operas, the lion’s share of Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky’s opera legacy, both of Musorgsky’s versions of Boris Godunov and operas by Richard Strauss, Janáček, Mozart, Verdi, Berlioz, Puccini and Donizetti), the orchestra’s repertoire has come to include symphonic works and other genres of philharmonic music. The orchestra has performed every symphony by Beethoven, Brahms, Mahler, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev and Shostakovich and various works by composers such as Stravinsky, Messiaen, Dutilleux, Henze, Shchedrin, Tishchenko, Gubaidulina, Kancheli, Karetnikov and Raskatov among many others.