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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Liszt: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2
Sviatoslav Richter, London Symphony Orchestra, Kirill Kondrashin
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 Dec 1961
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rimsky-Korsakov : Russische Ostern - Franck : Symphony in D Minor
Kirill Kondrashin, Symphonieorchester Des Bayerischen Rundfunks
Symphonic Music - Released by BR-Klassik on 1 Mar 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Kondrashin: The Soviet Years. Mozart, Beethoven
Leonid Kogan, Kirill Kondrashin
Classical - Released by Music Online on 30 Aug 2007
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Violin Masterpieces: Leonid Kogan Plays Lalo, Brahms & Tchaikovsky (Remastered 2017)
Leonid Kogan, Philharmonia Orchestra, Kirill Kondrashin
Classical - Released by Jube Classic on 19 May 2017
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
Nelli Shkolnikova, Vol. 1: Mendelssohn & Tchaikovsky Violin Concertos
Nelli Shkolnikova, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Kirill Kondrashin, Yevgeny Malinin, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra
Classical - Released by DOREMI on 12 Jul 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Shostakovich: Symphonies Nos. 4 & 9 and The Execution of Stepan Razin, Op. 119
Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Vitali Gromadzky, Kirill Kondrashin, USSR Radio Choir
Classical - Released by Urania Records on 27 Jan 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Myaskovsky: Symphony No. 6 - Kondrashin
Classical - Released by Musical Concepts on 6 Mar 2020
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mahler, Tchaikovsky & Others: Orchestral Works
Kirill Kondrashin, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Sviatoslav Richter, Byron Janis
Classical - Released by Urania Records on 1 May 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Balakirev: Symphony No. 1 in C Major - Kalinnikov: Symphony No. 1 in G Minor
Kirill Kondrashin, Moscow Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by JSC Firma Melodiya on 1 Jan 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tchaikovsky: Suite No. 3 - Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances
Kirill Kondrashin, Symphony Orchestra of the Moscow Philharmonic Society
Classical - Released by Denon on 1 Jan 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tchaikovsky: Orchestral Works
Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Daniil Borisovich Shafran, Leonid Kogan, Kirill Kondrashin, Philharmonia Orchestra
Classical - Released by Urania Records on 27 Jan 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Ouvres pour violoncelle et orchestre
Natalia Shakhovskaya, Unknown Artist, Moscow State Symphony Orchestra, Lev Markiz, Kirill Kondrashin
Classical - Released by Russian Compact Disc on 4 Oct 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Listz - Concerto per pianoforte
Kirill Kondrashin, London Symphony Orchestra
Classical - Released by MAMANOQUIERE on 21 Apr 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Shostakovich Symphony No. 15 (Single)
Classical - Released by Best Buy Classical on 4 Nov 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tchaikovsky: Chamber Works, Vol. 6
David Oïstrakh, Sviatoslav Knushevitsky, Vladimir Yampolsky, USSR State Symphony Orchestra, Lev Oborin, Kirill Kondrashin
Classical - Released by DOREMI on 1 Jan 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances, Op. 45 (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 -
Tchaikovsky: Serenade for Strings in C Major, Op. 48, TH 48 & Suite No. 3 in G Major, Op. 55, TH 33 (Live)
Kirill Kondrashin, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra
Classical - Released by Urania Records on 15 Oct 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mahler: Symphony No. 3 in D Minor - Prokofiev: Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of the October Revolution, Op. 74
Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Valentina Levko, Yurlov State Capella, Kirill Kondrashin, Moscow State Chamber Choir, female section, Moscow State Children's Choir
Classical - Released by Urania Records on 27 May 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Shostakovich - Symphony No. 13
Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Kirill Kondrashin
Classical - Released by Everest Records on 24 Mar 1965
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Prokofiev: Concerto pour piano No. 3 - Shostakovich: Ouverture de fête (Mono Version)
Emil Gilels, Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra, Kirill Kondrashin
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1958
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Saint-Saëns: Concerto pour piano No. 5 "Égyptien" (Mono Version)
Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Kirill Kondrashin, Sviatoslav Richter
Miscellaneous - Released by BNF Collection on 1 Jan 1955
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo