A performance by the Annecy Classic choir, led by Patrick Marco, opened the proceedings on the fifth day of the festival. The program consisted of religious songs written by West-European composers of the 17^th-20^th centuries.

Each year the festival includes an original session entitled Evening Piano Eliane Richepin — a very special page in the festival’s history. In her honour a special «marathon-concert» of piano music is organized and the audience has the chance to encounter new performers.

In the hall of Annecy’s Castle Museum a program of piano solos was being performed by young musicians, who were already making a name for themselves: Rémi Geniet (France), Luka Okros (Georgia) and Jong-Hai Park (South Korea), who had been one of the finalists at the Queen Elizabeth International Music Competition in Belgium (2010), where he had won the «SOS talents» Prize.

Jong-Hai Park impressed the audience with his charismatic style of playing, his incredible technique and profound musicality. The pianist played Beethoven’s highly complex Heroic Variations, Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 12 and Prokofiev’s Sonata No. 7 with a mystical second part — Andante caloroso — and a fast and furious toccata by way of finale.

The evening concert was played by the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Yuri Temirkanov. The solo part in Beethoven’s Violin Concerto was played by the Greek violinist, Leonidas Kavakos, well-known for his original interpretations.

In the second part of the evening concert Yuri Temirkanov conducted fragments from Sergei Prokofiev’s ballet Romeo and Juliet. The music was highly dramatic and expressive, bringing out the angular melodic shape of Prokofiev’s ballet themes. It would be highly appropriate here to draw attention to the dazzling performances of the soloists and the orchestra’s leader. By way of an encore the orchestra performed the final adagio — Amoroso — from Prokofiev’s music for the ballet Cinderella. This outstanding music by Prokofiev was full of optimism, love and belief in life.

Victor Alexandrov, the AVC Charity Foundation music reviewer