Jansons was born inRiga, Latvia—thenunder German occupation during theSecond World War—to Iraida Jansons, thediva of theRiga Opera, andArvīds Jansons, conductor of the opera orchestra.[12] Iraida, who was Jewish, gave birth to her son in hiding after being smuggled out of theRiga Ghetto, where her father and brother were murdered by the Nazis. As a child, Jansons first studied violin with his father.[13]
In 1956, Arvīds was appointed assistant conductor toYevgeny Mravinsky at theLeningrad Philharmonic. Jansons joined his father in Leningrad, where he began to study conducting, and soon entered theLeningrad Conservatory.[12] In 1968,Herbert von Karajan visited the Soviet Union, and he singled out Jansons andDmitri Kitayenko from a group of young conductors. Karajan offered Jansons the opportunity to study with him in Berlin, but the Soviet authorities blocked the offer.[12] In 1969, Jansons continued his training withHans Swarowsky inVienna, and then inSalzburg with Karajan.[12] In 1971, Jansons won the second prize at the "Herbert von Karajan" International Conducting Competition.[7][14] Karajan invited Jansons to be his assistant with theBerlin Philharmonic, but the Soviet authorities blocked Jansons from ever hearing about the offer.[12]
In 1973, Jansons was appointed Associate Conductor of the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1979, he was appointed Music Director of theOslo Philharmonic, with which he performed, recorded and toured extensively. Jansons resigned his Oslo position in 2000 after disputes with the city over the acoustics of theOslo Concert Hall.[15]
In 1997, Jansons became the music director of thePittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. His initial contract was for three years, but his subsequent contract renewals were evergreen contracts that required yearly renewal. In June 2002, he announced his resignation, which would become effective in 2004.[18]
In April 1996, Jansons nearly died from a severe heart attack while conducting the final pages ofLa bohème in Oslo.[19] He recuperated in Switzerland. Later, surgeons in Pittsburgh fitted animplanted defibrillator in his chest to give his heart an electric jolt if it failed.[20] (Jansons's father had died at a 1984 concert, conducting theHallé Orchestra.[21]) Jansons stated that he suffered fromjet lag, and this was one reason that he left his American position.[22]
At the start of the 2003-2004 season, Jansons began his tenure as Chief Conductor of theBavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (BRSO),[23] for an initial contract of three years.[24] His commitment with the BRSO was for ten weeks per season.[25] In September 2006, Jansons extended his initial BRSO contract to August 2009.[26] In July 2007, he further extended his contract with the BRSO to August 2012.[27] In April 2011, he extended his BRSO contract to August 2015 in Munich.[28] In June 2013, the BRSO further extended Jansons's contract through August 2018.[29] In May 2015, the BRSO announced another extension of Jansons's contract through 2021.[30] In July 2018, the orchestra announced a further extension of his contract through 2024.[31] He regularly campaigned for the construction of a new concert hall for the orchestra.[10] On 8 November 2019, he conducted his final orchestral concert, atCarnegie Hall with the BRSO andDiana Damrau.[32]
In October 2002, Jansons was named the sixth Chief Conductor of theRoyal Concertgebouw Orchestra (RCO) of Amsterdam, effective 1 September 2004, succeedingRiccardo Chailly.[14][33] His initial Amsterdam contract was for three years,[34] and his commitment in Amsterdam was for twelve weeks per season. In April 2014, the orchestra announced that Jansons was to stand down as chief conductor after the 2014–2015 season.[35][36] He conducted his final concert as chief conductor of the RCO on 20 March 2015, in the presence ofKing Willem-Alexander andQueen Maxima.[37] He subsequently held the title of conductor emeritus of the KCO until his death.[2]
In 2006, Jansons conducted theVienna PhilharmonicNew Year's Concert for the first time. Also in January 2006, he was awardedMIDEM's Artist of the Year Award in Cannes. In October 2007, Jansons (who wasLutheran[38]) conducted Beethoven'sNinth Symphony with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra forPope Benedict XVI and 7,000 other listeners in the papal audience hall (Auditorio Paul VI). Jansons conducted theVienna New Year's Concert for the second time in 2012, and for the third and final time in 2016.
Jansons was married twice. He and his first wife, Ira, had a daughter, called Ilona, who became a pianist. The marriage ended during his tenure in Oslo. Jansons and his second wife Irina (née Outchitel),[7] a formerspeech therapist, had a home in Saint Petersburg, where Jansons kept his collection of scores.[39] He held both Latvian and Russian citizenship.[20]
Jansons died during the night of 30 November 2019 / 1 December 2019 at his home in theTolstoy House, Saint Petersburg, as a result of a longstanding heart condition, aged 76.[5][6][40][41]
In January 2006 he was awarded aMidem, a Cannes Classical Award as Artist of the Year. In 2007 he was honoured by the German Phono Academy with theEcho Klassik as Conductor of the Year. In 2011, he was awarded the same title by the German journalOpernwelt.[45]
In November 2017,[49] theRoyal Philharmonic Society awarded Jansons the RPS Gold Medal, withMitsuko Uchida presenting the medal to Jansons during a concert with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks) on 24 November 2017 at theBarbican Hall.[50] Jansons was the 104th recipient of the RPS Gold Medal.
In 2018, Jansons was awarded Honorary Membership of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra,[51] and in June 2018 of theVienna Philharmonic.[52]
On 14 April 2019, Jansons received theHerbert von Karajan Prize at the Salzburg Easter Festival.[53] In 2019, he received the Opus Klassik award in the category "Lifetime Achievement”.[54]
In 2020, the BRSO posthumously awarded its Karl Amadeus Hartmann Medal to Jansons.[55]
^abThe family confirms that the death was in the early hours of 1 December 2019. The two last orchestras that Mariss Jansons led as music director also confirm that the date of his death was on 1 December 2019.[1][2][3][4][5][6]
^Martin Cullingford, "Jansons confirmed as Royal Concertgebouw head".Gramophone, 17 October 2002.
^Guido van Oorschot, "Mariss Jansons to Succeed Riccardo Chailly at the Concertgebouw Orchestra". andante.com (overall website now defunct), 16 October 2002.
^"Preisverleihung 2013" (Press release). Ernst von Siemens Musikpreis. 4 June 2013. Archived fromthe original on 27 December 2013. Retrieved16 June 2013.
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