Kent Nagano
Given the impact of his career upon music, it seems incredible that Kent Nagano almost became a lawyer. Nagano has proven himself a powerhouse in the operatic and orchestral realms, championing the music of the 20th and 21st centuries. He is best known for his long association with the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, the Opéra National de Lyon, and the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, as well as a critically acclaimed recording career.
Nagano was born in Berkeley, California, on November 22, 1951. Despite thorough musical training beginning at age six and obvious talent, Nagano simultaneously worked toward degrees at the University of California, Santa Cruz in sociology and music in 1974 before moving on to San Francisco State University in 1976 to study law. There, composition courses with Grosvenor Cooper and Roger Nixon turned him toward music, and an encounter with Laszlo Varga -- former first cellist of the New York Philharmonic under Walter, Mitropoulos, and Bernstein -- prompted him toward conducting. Though he no longer composes, Nagano has said, "While I seemed to be quite able from the point of view of craftsmanship, I was not very good at the creative aspects! However, having the skills of composition only increases the admiration that one can have for the exceptionally talented who have composed great works." His apprenticeship was spent under Sarah Caldwell at the Opera Company of Boston from 1977 to 1979, where he eventually became an assistant conductor.
In 1978, Nagano was named music director of the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, a post he held until 2009. It was with the Berkeley Symphony in 1982 where he led the first American performance of Pfitzner's opera Palestrina. As assistant conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, he stood in, without rehearsal, to conduct Mahler's Symphony No. 9 in 1984. An adventurous spirit and a major interpretive grasp were clearly at work. These traits were confirmed when Olivier Messiaen tapped Nagano to assist Seiji Ozawa in preparing the world premiere of his sprawling, luminous opera Saint François d'Assise in 1984, a work Nagano later recorded. His years as musical director of the Opéra National de Lyon (1988 to 1998) were marked by a number of distinguished premieres (including Peter Eötvös' opera Three Sisters, which he commissioned) and recordings, including Debussy's abandoned opera Rodrigue et Chimène, John Adams' Death of Klinghoffer, Busoni's comic opera double bill of Arlecchino and Turandot, and his testament, the unfinished Doktor Faust (with alternate completions by Philipp Jarnach and Antony Beaumont). As music director of the Hallé Orchestra from 1991 until 2000, he recorded John Adams' El Niño and the four-act version of Britten's Billy Budd.
Nagano was named the principal conductor and music director of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin in 2000. The following year, he took up the role of principal conductor of the Los Angeles Opera and transitioned to become the company's first-ever music director in 2003. In 2006, Nagano stepped down from his positions with the Los Angeles Opera and Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester to take up the post of music director for both the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal and the Bavarian State Opera. He still maintains a relationship with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester, whose members named him Honorary Conductor. He exited his Bavarian State Opera at the end of his contract in 2013, taking up the general music director and chief conductor posts for the Hamburg State Opera in 2015, with a contract extension through 2025. Nagano left the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal in 2020, which named him conductor emeritus in 2021.
Nagano is married to pianist Mari Kodama, and together they issued a complete recording of Beethoven's works for piano and orchestra.
© Adrian Corleonis & Keith Finke /TiVo
-
Danse Macabre
Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Kent Nagano
Klassiek - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 30 sep. 2016
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Rachmaninoff Live – The Piano Concertos & The Paganini Rhapsody (Live)
Rachmaninoff International Orchestra, Mikhail Pletnev, Kent Nagano
Klassiek - Released by EuroArts Music International on 26 apr. 2024
24-Bit 192.0 kHz - Stereo -
Kaija Saariaho: L'Amour de loin (Kent Nagano)
Klassiek - Released by harmonia mundi on 27 jul. 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Piano Concertos 0-5
Mari Kodama, Kent Nagano, Berlin Deutsches Symphony Orchestra
Klassiek - Released by Berlin Classics on 11 okt. 2019
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
Messiaen: Orchestral Works (Live)
Symphonieorchester Des Bayerischen Rundfunks
Klassiek - Released by BR-Klassik on 1 okt. 2021
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
The John Adams Album
Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Kent Nagano
Klassiek - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 13 sep. 2019
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mikhail Pletnev - Concerti & Encores (Live)
Mikhail Pletnev, Verbier Festival Orchestra, Iván Fischer, Kent Nagano
Klassiek - Released by Verbier Festival Gold on 23 sep. 2022
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Kent Nagano - Stravinsky (Live)
Verbier Festival Orchestra, Hallé Choir, Kent Nagano
Klassiek - Released by Verbier Festival Gold on 21 apr. 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Chopin: Concertos Nos. 1 & 2
Charles Richard-Hamelin, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Kent Nagano
Concertmuziek - Released by Groupe Analekta, Inc on 22 feb. 2019
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Schumann: Concertstück - Wagner: Siegfried Idyll - Strauss: Metamorphosen
Kent Nagano, Bayerisches Staatsorchester , Johannes Dengler, Franz Draxinger, Rainer Schmitz, Maximilian Hochwimmer
Klassiek - Released by Farao Classics on 1 aug. 2012
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Prokofiev: L'Amour des trois oranges
Kent Nagano, Orchestre de l'Opéra de Lyon, Michele Lagrange, Jean-Luc Viala
Klassiek - Released by Warner Classics on 1 jan. 1989
Gramophone Record of the Year16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Prokofiev: Peter and the Wolf
Kent Nagano, Sophia Loren, Russian National Orchestra
Symfonieën - Released by PentaTone on 21 aug. 2020
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Saint-Saëns : Complete Violin Concertos
Andrew Wan, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Kent Nagano
Concertmuziek - Released by Groupe Analekta, Inc on 23 okt. 2015
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Chopin & Loewe Piano Concertos
Mari Kodama, Russian National Orchestra, Kent Nagano
Concertmuziek - Released by PENTATONE on 1 okt. 2003
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Saint-Saëns - Liszt - Saariaho - Moussa (Deluxe Edition)
Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Kent Nagano, Olivier Latry
Klassiek - Released by Groupe Analekta, Inc on 23 okt. 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Gustav Mahler : Symphonie n° 8 "Des mille" (Kent Nagano)
Symfonische muziek - Released by harmonia mundi on 7 jun. 2011
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Richard Strauss: Eine Alpensinfonie
Göteborgs Symfoniker, Kent Nagano
Klassiek - Released by Farao Classics on 12 aug. 2016
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Messiaen: Saint Francois D'Assise
Klassiek - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 1 jan. 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto & Piano Concerto No. 1
Christian Tetzlaff, Nicolai Lugansky, Russian National Orchestra, Kent Nagano
Concertmuziek - Released by PENTATONE on 1 sep. 2003
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Mussorgsky: Boris Godunov (1869 Version) [Live]
Alexander Tsymbalyuk, Maxim Paster, Mika Kares, Sergei Skorokhodov, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Kent Nagano
Opera - Released by BIS on 6 sep. 2019
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
R. Strauss: Ein Heldenleben - Tod und Verklärung
Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Kent Nagano
Klassiek - Released by Farao Classics on 1 dec. 2017
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo