Performance of symphonic orchestras from Krasnodar, Volgograd, Kabardino-Balkariya and Rostov-on-Don followed.

Thousands of people gathered on the Central Square, holding candles in their hands. At times there were more people than seats available, and at times the concert was more emotional than expected.

Music of Verdi, pieces by Mozart, Piazzolla, Puccini, Bellini and also Ossetian composers Atsamaz Makoev and Zhanna Plieva were included in the concert’s program.

The mourning concert began with a minute of silence and ended with the letting off white balloons into the sky, as many as the number of the victims of the Georgian aggression.

A year ago on August 21, 2008, the Mariinsky theater orchestra, under the leadership of maestro Valery Gergiev, gave a concert in front of the destroyed parliament building in Tskhinval in memory of the victims of the Georgian-South Ossetian military conflict.