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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Brahms: Concerto pour violon, Op. 77 (Mono Version)
David Oïstrakh, USSR State Radio Symphony Orchestra, Kirill Kondrashin
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1955
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Bruch: Concerto pour violon No. 1 - Lalo: Symphonie espagnole (Mono Version)
David Oïstrakh, Kirill Kondrashin, USSR State Symphony Orchestra
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1958
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Taneyev: Suite de concert pour violon et orchestre - Glazunov: Concerto pour violon et orchestre (Mono Version)
David Oïstrakh, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Kirill Kondrashin
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1961
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Kabalevsky: The Comedians, Op. 26
Kirill Kondrashin, RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by Vinyle Numérique on 31 Jul 2023
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Khachaturian: Masquerade Suite
Kirill Kondrashin, RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by Vinyle Numérique on 31 Jul 2023
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Glinka: Ivan Soussanine & Rouslan et Ludmila, extraits (Mono Version)
Ivan Petrov, Maxim Mikhailov, Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra, Kirill Kondrashin
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1957
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Rimsky-Korsakov: Capriccio espagnol, Op. 34 (Mono Version)
USSR State Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra, Kirill Kondrashin
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1954
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Glazunov: Concerto pour piano No. 1 (Mono Version)
Sviatoslav Richter, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Kirill Kondrashin
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1956
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77 (Stereo Version)
Leonide Kogan, Philharmonia Orchestra, Kirill Kondrashin
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1960
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: Symphony Nos. 1 & 4
Kirill Kondrashin, Moscow RTV Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by Denon on 1 Jan 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Balakirev: Symphony No. 1 in C Major (Digitally Remastered)
Orchestra of the Moscow Philharmonic Society
Classical - Released by EMG Classical on 13 Feb 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mahler: Symphony No. 7 'Das Lied der Nacht'
Kirill Kondrashin, The Symphony Orchestra of the Moscow Philharmonic Society
Classical - Released by Denon on 1 Jan 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Kirill Kondrashin in concert
Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Kirill Kondrashin
Classical - Released by Globe on 19 Aug 2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: Violin Concerto, Op. 77 - Symphony No. 1
Kirill Kondrashin, RTV Moscow Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by Denon on 1 Jan 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tchaikovsky: Orchestral Suite No.3, Op. 55 (Digitally Remastered)
Orchestra of the Moscow Philharmonic Society, Kirill Kondrashin, Igor Oïstrakh
Classical - Released by EMG Classical on 1 Jan 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ravel: La Valse, poème chorégraphique pour orchestre: I. Mouvement de Valse Viennoise (Digitally Remastered)
Symphony Orchestra of the Moscow Philharmonic Society, Kirill Kondrashin
Classical - Released by EMG Classical on 9 Dec 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms: Violin Concerto, Op. 77 - Symphony No. 1 (RTV Moscow Symphony Orchestra, Kyril Kondrashin)
Classical - Released by Denon on 1 Jan 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Symphony No. 1 in C Major Finale: Allegro Moderato
Classical - Released by Digital Music Group, Inc. on 9 Nov 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms & Liszt: Works (Live)
Sviatoslav Richter, Borodin Quartet, London Symphony Orchestra, Kirill Kondrashin
Classical - Released by Russian Compact Disc on 15 Oct 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Kondrashin: The Soviet Years. Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn
Kirill Kondrashin, David Oïstrakh
Classical - Released by Music Online on 30 Aug 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ravel, Beethoven & Godard: Violin Works
David Oïstrakh, USSR State Symphony Orchestra, Sviatoslav Knushevitsky, Kirill Kondrashin, Lev Oborin
Classical - Released by Russian Compact Disc on 20 Aug 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo