Vadim Repin Gives Last-Minute Conductor-less Shosta Concerto Premiere

Violin virtuoso Vadim Repin inadvertently gave what's believed to be the conductor-less world premiere of Shostakovich's 1st Violin Concerto at the Trans Siberian Arts Festival, in Novosibirsk on Saturday – after the scheduled conductor Valery Gergiev was delayed in transit.

Finding out just hours before the performance, rather than cancel, Festival Artistic Director Vadim Repin took the perilous decision to press-on regardless.

'Of course, for me there was a question about how to get out of a precarious, very difficult situation,' 42 year old Repin has told the Siberian Times, '... If our Novosibirsk Academic Symphony Orchestra was not the highest possible artistic level, I would have never have taken that risk.'

 Image Credit: Tatyana Lomakina for the Siberian Times