Kirill Kondrashin
Kiril Petrovich Kondrashin was internationally the best-known conductor of the Soviet Union and also the most prominent one to emigrate from that country. He was known for vigorous and solid performances of a wide repertory, particularly the Russian masters.
He was brought up with music, as his family included several orchestral musicians. He took piano lessons, and the family got him lessons in musical theory at the Musical Teknikum with Nikolai Zhilyayev, who had a strong influence on him. While still a student, he made his conducting debut in 1931 at the Children's Theater. He entered the Moscow Conservatory in 1934, where he studied conducting with Boris Khaikin. He graduated in 1936, but by then had obtained a job as assistant conductor at the Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theater in 1934, debuting with the operetta Les cloches de Corneville by Planquette.
In 1936 he was conductor at the Maly Opera Theater in Leningrad, retaining that post until 1943. Along with other artists who were deemed important to the war effort, he was evacuated from besieged Leningrad after the German invasion of Russia. In 1943, he became a member of the conducting staff of the Moscow Bolshoi Theater, which was also in a wartime home outside the capital. He remained with the Bolshoi until 1956, making marked improvement in his interpretation that he attributed to working with the experienced conductors of the Bolshoi and to his being entrusted with several important new productions.
Meanwhile, a demand was building for him as a concert conductor. He received Stalin Prizes in 1948 and 1949. When he left the Bolshoi, it was with the intention of centering his career on the podium rather than in the pit. His fame grew greatly in 1958, when he led the orchestra in the prizewinning appearances of American pianist Van Cliburn at the Tchaikovsky International Competition. Cliburn charmed both his home country and his Russian hosts, and the resulting LP record of the Tchaikovsky First Piano Concerto, conducted by Kondrashin, was a long-time best seller. This led to his American and British debuts, making Kondrashin the first Soviet conductor to appear in the U.S.
In 1960 he was named artistic director of the Moscow Philharmonic, and as such participated in another piano concerto blockbuster recording with a U.S. piano star, the great Prokofiev Third Concerto recording for Mercury with Byron Janis, still considered by many the greatest interpretation of that brilliant work on disc. Kondrashin's performances were bright and dramatic, tending to programmatic interpretations that commentators saw as the legacy of his theater career. He was the U.S.S.R.'s finest interpreter of Mahler, leading all the symphonies with unusual restraint and with the expressive and dramatic qualities of the music seemingly enhanced by understatement.
He left the Moscow Philharmonic in 1975, turning to guest conducting. As a result of high demand outside the U.S.S.R., he decided to emigrate in 1978. He was named permanent conductor of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw in 1979, and immediately began making a notable series of recordings with them, but died in that city only two years later.
© TiVo
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Shostakovich & Kondrashin: Complete Symphonies
Kirill Kondrashin, Moscow Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra
Klassik - Erschienen bei JSC Firma Melodiya am 01.01.2006
Qobuz’ Schallplattensammlung16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade; Strauss: Don Juan (Herman Krebbers Edition, Vol. 14)
Herman Krebbers, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Kirill Kondrashin
Klassik - Erschienen bei Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. am 25.08.2023
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Liszt: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 - The Mercury Masters, Vol. 6
Byron Janis, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Kirill Kondrashin, Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra, Gennady Rozhdestvensky
Klassik - Erschienen bei Decca Music Group Ltd. am 01.01.1963
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No.3 / Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No.1
Martha Argerich, Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Riccardo Chailly, Symphonieorchester Des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Kirill Kondrashin
Klassik - Erschienen bei Decca Music Group Ltd. am 01.01.1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Edvard Grieg & Antonín Dvořák: Piano Concertos
Sviatoslav Richter, Kirill Kondrashin, Vaclav Smetacek
Klassik - Erschienen bei Praga Digitals am 01.05.2012
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5 by Kirill Kondrashin
Kirill Kondrashin, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra
Klassik - Erschienen bei Alexandre Bak - Classical Music Reference Recording am 14.03.2023
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 3; Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 1 - The Mercury Masters, Vol. 4
Byron Janis, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Kirill Kondrashin
Klassik - Erschienen bei Decca Music Group Ltd. am 01.01.1962
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mahler : Symphony No. 6 in A Minor
SWR Sinfonieorchester des Südwestrundfunks, Kirill Kondrashin
Symphonien - Erschienen bei SWR Classic am 06.09.2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No.3; Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No.1
Byron Janis, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Kirill Kondrashin
Klassik - Erschienen bei Decca Music Group Ltd. am 01.01.1962
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Dmitri Shostakovich: Symphony No. 13 "Babi Yar" - Sergei Prokofiev: October (excerpts)
Kirill Kondrashin, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Vitaly Gromadsky, RSFSR Academic Choir
Symphonien - Erschienen bei Praga Digitals am 01.04.2014
Gramophone Editor's Choice24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Masquerade Suite; The Comedians; Capriccio italien; Capriccio espagnol
Klassik - Erschienen bei Living Stereo am 01.12.1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-Flat Minor, Op. 23, TH 55 & Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35, TH 59 (Live)
Kirill Kondrashin, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Sviatoslav Richter, David Oïstrakh
Klassik - Erschienen bei Urania Records am 15.10.2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rachmaninoff: The Bells & Symphonic Dances by Kirill Kondrashin (2023 Remastered)
Kirill Kondrashin, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, State Symphony Capella of Russia
Klassik - Erschienen bei Alexandre Bak - Classical Music Reference Recording am 21.09.2023
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 8 by Kirill Kondrashin
Kirill Kondrashin, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra
Klassik - Erschienen bei Alexandre Bak - Classical Music Reference Recording am 01.06.2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mahler: Symphonies Nos. 1, 5, 9
Kirill Kondrashin, Alexander Sladkovsky
Klassik - Erschienen bei JSC Firma Melodiya am 02.12.2016
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mahler Symphony No. 5
Klassik - Erschienen bei Best Buy Classical am 24.03.2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10 - Balakirev: Islamey (Live at the Royal Festival Hall, London)
New Philharmonia Orchestra, Kurt Sanderling, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Kirill Kondrashin
Klassik - Erschienen bei Ica Classics am 24.02.2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 4 by Kirill Kondrashin
Kirill Kondrashin, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra
Klassik - Erschienen bei Alexandre Bak - Classical Music Reference Recording am 18.06.2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3 - Prokofiev: Sonata for Piano No. 8
Evgeny Mogilevsky, Kirill Kondrashin, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra
Klassik - Erschienen bei JSC Firma Melodiya am 01.01.1992
Qobuz’ Schallplattensammlung16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mahler: Symphony No. 7
Kirill Kondrashin, Leningrad Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra
Klassik - Erschienen bei JSC Firma Melodiya am 01.01.2004
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade; Capriccio Espagnol; Russian Easter Overture
Herman Krebbers, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Kirill Kondrashin, London Symphony Orchestra, Igor Markevitch
Klassik - Erschienen bei Decca Music Group Ltd. am 01.01.1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo