Valery Gergiev to open Edinburgh International Festival

Russian maestro Valery Gergiev will be conducting Prokofiev’s film score of Eisenstein’s historical epic Alexander Nevsky (1938) at the opening of this year’s Edinburgh International Festival. The Royal Scottish Orchestra and pianist Daniil Trifonov will be performing Prokofiev’s third piano concerto. Gergiev is the honorary president of the festival, an appointment made in 2011. His relationship with the festival began in 1991 when he brought the Kirov Opera, now the Mariinsky Opera, to the Edinburgh Playhouse.

Gergiev will be joined by other luminaries such as punk poet Patti Smith and Philip Glass, who will together perform a homage to beat poet Allen Ginsberg using words and music. Separately, Glass will celebrate the 50th anniversary of French filmmaker Jean Cocteau’s death by performing his own score for the film La Belle et la Bête.

Other highlights include a crowdsourced orchestral work composed by MIT’s Tod Machover; a tribute to Frank Zappa focusing on his orchestral music; and the UK debut of LA Dance Project, a contemporary dance company headed by Benjamin Millepied, the choreographer and star of the film Black Swan.

Launching the programme, festival director Jonathan Mills said: “It is the role of artists to think differently, to offer us provocations and inspiring contrasts to our everyday lives.

The festival runs from 9 August to 1 September.