in ancient amphitheaters, the case when sound and historical buildings take the meaning of a well-known expression to a completely different level. architecture is music frozen in stone. this music is what burst from his heart, as if by itself, when the trumpeter of the mariinsky theater symphony orchestra timur martynov just saw the majestic panorama of the ancient city of ephesus. energy even in the stones that have been preserved here, i even like to touch them, because some part of this energy is tangible. the rehearsal is being watched the rightful owners of the large amphitheater, cats. artists.

the acoustics are amazing, we didn't even need to amplify anything specially, the sound is already excellent. the orchestra under the direction of maestro valery gergiev is in this ancient theater for the first time, it was built in the third century bc. the time of the ancient greek scientists euclid and archimedes, the time when the great wall of china was just beginning to be built, the time when people came here to see ancient comedies and tragedies, and later gladiator fights. it was here that he preached apostle paul. the scale of the structure amazed not only its contemporaries. the building could accommodate 25,000 spectators. for comparison, this is like half of the roman colosseum, which, by the way, was built several centuries later. all the magic began with

the onset of darkness. the artists brought only the best: rimsky-korsakov, musorsky, tchaikovsky. from the first notes, we feel the tension from the confrontation between the montecchi and capulet clans. this is the overture of romeo and juliet, and then the entire amphitheater was covered with its magic wing by stravinsky's firebird. for the orchestra playing in ruined ancient cities is a common thing, one might say, only during the current turkish tour the musicians performed in another ancient amphitheater in aspendes, maestro gergiev knows this venue very well, it is not the first time he has given a concert here. i was even there, right at the top, there are such high arches and from there i listened to my orchestra, the orchestra of the mariinsky theater, which is still here today, i was amazed. here are

the highest walls about 30 meters and a huge number of devices, such projections that help the sound to remain here, not go completely into the sky, these walls have seen the birth and collapse of empires, the repertoire is up to par, bolero awakens in listeners both the highest and the most unstoppable. incredible impression that the mariinsky theatre is here in the open air, in an ancient amphitheater, it is nice to see our russian culture here in antalya. this is simply amazing, an extraordinary performance in an amazing place with a thousand-year history, my family and i have never had such impressions. now the orchestra plans to visit turkey more often and for longer, and today the musicians went on a big tour of six cities in china, in any country the approach to choice.