THE VICTORY CONCERT ON MAMAEV KURGAN
The Russian Concert Agency and the Rossiya TV channel held a unique concert under the artistic direction of People’s Artist of the USSR Yuri Bashmet on June 24, 2020. The Victory Concert took place in the hero-city of Volgograd on the Mamaev Kurgan and became the central event of the Year of Memory and Glory dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War.
Mamaev Kurgan is a sacred place of glory and sorrow, where the course of the Great Patriotic War was turned and the road to Victory began, as the invaders’ offensive was smothered in the gory battle. Held on this historic site, the solemn concert paid tribute to the eternal glory of the war heroes.
The large-scale wing decorations were carefully integrated into the complex of historical monuments of the memorial “To the Heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad” and placed at the foot of its main symbol, the statue “The Motherland Calls,” that had just reopened after restoration.
Yuri Bashmet and the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Russia, Denis Matsuev, Igor Butman, Ildar Abdrazakov, Hibla Gerzmava, Konstantin Khabensky, Sergey Garmash, Sergey Bezrukov, Mikhail Porechenkov, Alexander Petrov, Irina Pegova, Polina Agureeva, Dima Bilan, Sergey Mazaev, Nikolay Rastorguev and the “Lyube” band, and others came on stage that night to pay tribute to the heroes and their heroic deeds.
“It is hard to put into words what one feels here. There are children from different regions in my orchestra. I think they will remember this atmosphere for the rest of their lives and will pass this memory on to their children. They worked heroically at the rehearsal; nobody asked for a pause. Maybe they didn’t quite understand what Victory Day was. But when they saw such a colossal monument and people’s attention to it, they felt the importance of the event, ” says maestro Yuri Bashmet.
The project was directed by Viktor Kramer. The concert program included the widely loved songs of the war years: “The Last Battle,” “Blue Kerchief,” “Dark Night,” “Eh, Roads,” “Let’s Have a Smoke,” “On the Nameless Height’, “Our Tenth Paratroop Battalion,” “Cranes,” “The Sacred War,” and others. Famous poems by Alexander Tvardovsky, Robert Rozhdestvensky, and Samuil Marshak were recited during the concert. A special system of unique visual effects, including a full-scale 3D mapping of the Motherland sculpture and a dance performance on the water, made the concert particularly atmospheric, spectacular, and solemn. The concert ended with a grandiose fireworks display accompanied by bell ringing.
The Victory concert on Mamaev Kurgan was broadcast live on the Rossiya 1 TV channel to be watched by more than ten million viewers.
The concert was organized by the Russian Concert Agency and the Rossiya TV channel with the support of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and the Presidential Grants Fund.