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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Dvorák: Symphony No. 9 "From the New World"
Kirill Kondrashin, Wiener Philharmonic Orchestra
Klassiek - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 3 mei 1980
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Violin Concerto
Kyung Wha Chung, Wiener Philharmonic Orchestra, Kirill Kondrashin
Klassiek - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 mei 1980
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Liszt: The Piano Concertos / Beethoven: Piano Sonatas Nos.10,19, & 20
Sviatoslav Richter, London Symphony Orchestra, Kirill Kondrashin
Klassiek - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 jan. 2001
The Qobuz Essential Discography16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2
Emil Gilels, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Karel Ancerl, USSR State Symphony Orchestra, Kirill Kondrashin
Klassiek - Released by Praga Digitals on 1 jun. 2017
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Liszt: Piano Concerto No.1; Piano Concerto No.2
Sviatoslav Richter, London Symphony Orchestra, Kirill Kondrashin
Klassiek - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 jan. 2001
The Qobuz Essential Discography16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tchaikovsky, Berlioz & Prokofiev: Romeo & Juliet
Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Kirill Kondrashin, London Symphony Orchestra, Pierre Monteux, Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, Evgueni Mravinski
Symfonieën - Released by Praga Digitals on 1 feb. 2016
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 7 in C Major, Op. 60 "Leningrad" (Live)
Kirill Kondrashin, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra
Klassiek - Released by Urania Records on 15 okt. 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Khachaturian: Masquerade Suite
Kirill Kondrashin, RCA Victor Symphony Orchestra
Klassiek - Released by Classically on 31 jul. 2023
24-Bit 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mahler: Symphony No. 6
Kirill Kondrashin, Leningrad Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra
Klassiek - Released by JSC Firma Melodiya on 1 jan. 2004
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Great Conductors: Kirill Kondrashin Conducts Beethoven & Scriabin Concertos
Leonid Kogan, Dmitri Bashkirov, USSR State Radio Orchestra of Folk Instruments, Kirill Kondrashin
Concertmuziek - Released by Jube Classic on 5 aug. 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Sibelius Concerto for Violin and Orchestra Op. 47
Klassiek - Released by Best Buy Classical on 4 apr. 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 15 in A Major, Op. 141 (Digitally Remastered)
The Symphony Orchestra of the Moscow Philharmonic Society, Kirill Kondrashin
Klassiek - Released by EMG Classical on 29 jun. 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Symphony No. 4 - Mozart: Flute Concerto No. 1
Kirill Kondrashin, Moscow Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra
Klassiek - Released by JSC Firma Melodiya on 1 jan. 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Glazunov: Concerto pour violon, Marche sur un thème russe & Extraits de Raymonda (Mono Version)
David Oïstrakh, USSR State Symphony Orchestra, Kirill Kondrashin
Divers - Released by BNF Collection on 1 jan. 1954
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No.3 / Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No.1
Byron Janis, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Kirill Kondrashin
Klassiek - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 jan. 1962
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rachmaninov: Piano Concertos Nos.2 & 3
Vladimir Ashkenazy, Moscow Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, Kirill Kondrashin, London Symphony Orchestra, Anatole Fistoulari
Klassiek - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 jan. 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Herman Krebbers, Kirill Kondrashin
Klassiek - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 okt. 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No.2; 3 Etude-Tableaux
Vladimir Ashkenazy, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Kirill Kondrashin
Klassiek - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 8 apr. 1964
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10
Kirill Kondrashin, The Symphony Orchestra of the Moscow Philharmonic Society
Klassiek - Released by Denon on 1 jan. 2009
The Qobuz Essential Discography16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Liszt: The Two Piano Concertos/The Piano Sonata
Sviatoslav Richter, London Symphony Orchestra, Kirill Kondrashin
Klassiek - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on 1 jan. 1961
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
David Oistrakh - Concertos and Encores
David Oïstrakh, Vladimir Yampolsky, USSR State Symphony Orchestra, Kirill Kondrashin
Klassiek - Released by Deutsche Grammophon (DG) on 1 jan. 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo