The show must go on...even without world renown conductor Valery Gergiev

One night before the finale, organisers heard that the world famous conductor could not make it due to force majeure. The artistic director of the art festival, celebrated violinist Vadim Repin, took the decision to perform Dmitri Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No 1 for the first time without a conductor.

'Of course, for me there was a question about how to get out of a precarious, very difficult situation,' he said. 'This is - the concert-closing event, which all were waiting with special awe, and I was waiting for - because the programe we chose to follow, is one of the pinnacles of musical literature - Dmitri Shostakovich's Violin Concerto.'

'If our Novosibirsk Academic Symphony Orchestra was not the highest possible artistic level, I would have never have taken that risk.' Repin hailed the concert as a 'musical feat'. 

Natalya Yermakova, an employee of the Novosibirsk Philharmonic, said: 'Indeed the concert was held without a conductor - and it was really amazing. They did this. Of course, it was a difficult task too. The musicians were soaking wet with sweat as they left the stage. But they produced a really great work. I am very proud of them and I am very proud to work with such a professionals.'

Gergiev was delayed in New York conducting the Munich Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall. He was a late substitute for Lorin Maazel, its music director, who was ill.

Gergiev is the orchestra's music director designate, scheduled to take over in 2015. He stepped in despite being dogged in New York by protests over Crimea.