Iranian composer and conductor Ali (Alexander) Rahbari, 67, and Russian conductor and opera company director Valery Abisalovich Gergiev, 62, are to collaborate in several projects.
Rahbari, who resigned from Tehran Symphony Orchestra in March, told Mehr News Agency that he visited Gergiev in Vienna "after he invited me for cooperation and to conduct the Saint Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra in Mariinsky Opera Hall as guest conductor."
Gergiev's friendship with Rahbari goes back to when a young Rahbari led the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in 1979 and served as assistant to Austrian conductor Herbert von Karajan (1908-1989).
Rahbari's collaboration will have a key role in highlighting Iranian music artists. "Final dates and the schedule will be announced in three months," he said.
The two musicians will come together after 38 years. "In 1977, both Gergiev and I won medals at the International Contest of Young Conductors (Concours International de Jeunes Chefs D’Orchestre) in Besancon, France, which is one of my most pleasant memories. I also remember that both of us received special attention from von Karajan, the principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic. He invited us to conduct the orchestra and assigned me as his assistant."
"Thanks to the valuable support by von Karajan, Gergiev could serve as an artistic director of the orchestra in the Netherlands, Britain and Russia; while I became involved in various activities as conductor and artistic director of orchestras."
Close Cooperation
"It's the first time we may be able to have close cooperation. In view of the support extended to Gergiev by the Russian President Vladimir Putin, I believe this could be a proper beginning for a series of valuable collaborative activities in the field of music," Rahbari added.
Gergiev's high global profile is based on his spellbinding effect on audiences and musicians alike. In Russia, he is an emblem of nationhood as well as cultural prowess.
