Mariss JANSONS, conductor

Mariss Jansons ranks among the most outstanding podium personalities of our time. His orchestral accomplishments are not only recognized world-wide by his vigorous concert and touring activities along with television and radio broadcasts but also documented on a sizable number of recordings.

Mariss Jansons has been Chief Conductor of the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and the Bavarian Radio Chorus since the 2003/2004 concert season, following Eugen Jochum, Rafael Kubelik, Sir Colin Davis and Lorin Maazel as the fifth Chief Conductor of these two renowned Bavarian Broadcasting ensembles. In 2004 Mariss Jansons additionally assumed the position of Chief Conductor of the Koninklijk Concertgebouworkest in Amsterdam.

Born in 1943 in the Latvian capital of Riga, he grew up in the Soviet Union as the son of conductor Arvid Jansons, studying violin, viola and piano and completing his musical education in conducting with high honors at the Leningrad Conservatory. Further studies followed with Hans Swarovsky in Vienna and Herbert von Karajan in Salzburg. In 1971 Mariss Jansons won the Conducting Competition sponsored by the Karajan Foundation in Berlin. His work was also significantly influenced by the legendary Russian conductor Yevgeny Mravinsky, who engaged Mariss Jansons as his assistant at the Leningrad Philharmonic in 1972. Over the succeeding years, Mariss Jansons remained closely linked with this orchestra, today’s St. Petersburg Philharmonic, as a regular conductor until 1999 as well as conducting the orchestra during that period on tours throughout the world.

Besides his conducting assignments, Mariss Jansons also served for almost thirty years, from 1971 to 2000, as professor of conducting at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. He is the recipient of Honorary Doctorates from the Music Academies in Oslo and Riga.

From 1979 to 2000, Mariss Jansons set standards as Chief Conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic, which he shaped into an international top orchestra. Besides this, he was Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra (1992-1997) and Music Director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (1997-2004). In addition, he has successfully collaborated with every major orchestra in the world – among others the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the Boston Symphony, the Israel Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Tonhalle-Orchester in Zurich and the Dresden Staatskapelle. High on the list here are the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras. Jansons has successfully conducted these orchestras regularly in Vienna and Berlin, as well as on tour throughout Europe, the United States and Japan.

As Chief Conductor, Mariss Jansons has given a sizable number of concerts with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks at home and abroad, enthusiastically cheered by audiences and highly praised by the critics. Jansons and the orchestra have made guest appearances in the major musical capitals of Europe including the Proms in London, the Lucerne Festival, in Vienna, Berlin, Amsterdam, Madrid, Zurich, Brussels and Rome. The Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and the Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks under Mariss Jansons’s direction are invited every year to serve as orchestra in residence at the Easter Festival in Lucerne. In the autumn of 2005 Jansons and orchestra undertook their first tour to Japan and China and received the prize “Best Concerts of the Season” from the Japanese press. In 2006 Mariss Jansons and the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks gave several enthusiastically received concerts at New York’s Carnegie Hall. An extensive concert tour took the musicians back to Japan in the autumn of 2007, with three concerts in Suntory Hall in Tokyo as well as Taipeh, to mention just two eminent sites.

Mariss Jansons’s work with young musicians has a special significance for him. He has conducted the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra on a European tour and worked with the Attersee Institute Orchestra, with which he appeared at the Salzburg Festival. In Munich he gives regular concerts with various Bavarian Youth Orchestras and the Academy of the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks.

Mariss Jansons is Artistic Director of the Masterprize Composing Competition in London.

Mariss Jansons’s discography includes recordings for EMI, Deutsche Grammophon, SONY, BMG, Chandos and Simax featuring works by Beethoven, Brahms, Berlioz, Bartok, Britten, Dukas, Dvorak, Grieg, Henze, Honegger, Mahler, Mussorgsky, Prokofiev, Rachmaninov, Ravel, Respighi, Saint-Saens, Shchedrin, Shostakovich, Schoenberg, Sibelius, Stravinsky, Strauss, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, Webern and Weill. Many of his recordings have received prestigious international prizes. The first huge success was his Tchaikovsky cycle with the Oslo Philharmonic for Chandos, a reference recording, which enjoys cult status today. The recording of Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony with the Leningrad Philharmonic won the 1989 Edison Prize. SONY BMG has thus far released five CD’s under the title “Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks Live” featuring works by Tchaikovsky (Fourth and Sixth Symphony, First Piano Concerto), Schoenberg (“Verkloerte Nacht”), Webern (“Im Sommerwind”), Stravinsky (“Firebird Suite”), Shchedrin (Fifth Piano Concerto), Bartok (Concerto for Orchestra, The Miraculous Mandarin] Concert Suite) and Ravel (Suite no. 2 from “Daphnis et Chloe”).

In 2006 EMI Classics released the complete recording of all Shostakovich Symphonies under the direction of Mariss Jansons, in which a number of major orchestras participated, and which was completed by the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks. This album received a number of awards, among them the annual prize from the German recording critics, the annual prize from Le Monde de la Musique, as well as prizes for the “Recording of the Year” and the “Best Symphonic Recording” from the 2007 MIDEM in Cannes. The recording of Symphony No. 13 with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks was awarded, among other accolades, a Grammy in the category “Best Orchestral Performance”.

Mariss Jansons has received a large number of international prizes and honors. He is an Honorary Member of the Society of the Friends of Music in Vienna as well as an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music in London. For his devoted service to the Oslo Philharmonic, he received the Royal Norwegian “Commander with Star” Order of Merit, the highest award this nation confers on a foreigner, as well as that country’s Anders Jahre Prize. In 2003 Jansons was awarded the Hans von Buelow Medal of the Berlin Philharmonic, and in 2004 the Royal Philharmonic Society in London honored him with the title “Conductor of the Year”. In 2006 he was declared “Artist of the Year” at the MIDEM International Music Trade Fair., besides which he received the “Three Stars” medal, the highest honor awarded by the Republic of Latvia. In 2007 the City of Vienna awarded him its Gold Medal. The same year Mariss Jansons also received the Bavarian Order of Merit, the European Conducting Prize from the European Cultural Foundation “Pro Europa” as well as being named “Conductor of the Year” by ECHO KLASSIK.

On January 1, 2006, Mariss Jansons first conducted the Vienna Philharmonic’s tradition-rich New Year’s Concert, which was telecast by 60 stations on every continent and seen by more than fifty million televiewers.