Kiril Kondrashin
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Kirill Petrovich Kondrashin (Russian: Кири́лл Петро́вич Кондра́шин, Kirill Petrovič Kondrašin; March 6, 1914 – March 7, 1981), was a Soviet conductor.
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[edit] Early life
He was born in Moscow and studied at the Moscow Conservatory from 1931-1936 under another Soviet conductor Boris Khaikin (who was just 3 years older than Kondrashin himself) and conducted at the Maliy Theatre in Leningrad from 1938 to 1942 and the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow from 1943. He gained the attention from Shostakovich when he played his Symphony No.1 and began their friendship. In 1947 he was awarded the Stalin medal.
[edit] Main career
In the first International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1958, he was the conductor for Van Cliburn, who won the first prize of the competition. After the competition, he toured to United States with Cliburn to perform the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No.3 and Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No.1 (which they played in the competition), and became the first conductor to visit America since the Cold War began. Millions of the recording of the two concertos were sold in a short time in America. He was also the artistic director of the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra from 1960 to 1975. During the period he premiered Shostakovich Symphony No.4 and No.13[1]. He had several performances in Europe and America with other famous Russian musicians like Rostropovich, Oistrakh and Sviatoslav Richter.
[edit] Exile to Western Europe
He left the Soviet Union in 1978 by demanding political asylum from the Dutch Government while touring in Holland, and the Soviet regime then immediately banned all his previous recordings. He took the post of Permanent Guest Conductor of Amsterdam's Concertgebouw Orchestra in 1978 and remained in that position until his death. He died in Amsterdam from a heart attack on the day after he conducted the Norddeutscher Rundfunk.
[edit] References
| Preceded by Samuil Samosud |
Music Directors, Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra 1960–1975 |
Succeeded by Dmitri Kitaenko |
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