Thanks to François Segré, the principal manager for Codaex France, questions have been sent to Melodiya in Russia. Particularly regarding the date of the magnificent new recording of Myaskovsky's 6th Symphony. Here is the reply of Ksenia, from Melodiya:
"This man is right, that it could not be the 5th of December. There is the mistake in the month, I have checked by the tapes in archive and discovered it was recorded live in the 5th of November 1978. So it is really can be the last recording made before leaving homeland."
So, this is now facts: this recording was made during the concert Kondrashin conducted on November 5, 1978. When we will have thourough details about his planning and schedule we will be able to establish if it was his very last concert in Russia, which is very likely.
This is the first enigma concerning Kondrashin that has been solved. Thanks to every person who involved in that quest.
mardi 27 mai 2008
samedi 17 mai 2008
The Melodiya enigma
Can anybody solve this enigma?
Kondrashin recorded Myaskovsky's 6th Symphony, Op. 23, at least 2 times. The first, released by Russian Disc, and recorded in 1959, has been the only known for many years. Today it is almost impossible to find it (The Russian Disc label had problems with another great Russian musician: this is anoter story). Then Melodiya issued another one (MEL 10 00841), splendid, of a kind of magnetic strength, in 2005. The sound quality, fabulous (though it is obviously a live), suggests a later version than the Russian Disc's, and the timings are slightly different. If the chorus is the same, the excellent ensemble prepared by Yurlov, that very often worked with Kondrashin (for instance, it was invariably with this chorus that he performed and recorded the Babi Yar Symphony by Shostakovich), in 1959 Kondrashin conducted the USSR State Symphony Orchestra, whereas the new disc features a fantastic Moscow Philharmony.
I'm not suggesting that the 1959 version is not interesting. Not in the slightest bit! Granted the poor sound quality, it is a thrilling version, and the USSR State Symphony Orchestra can be proud of having made such fabulous recordings as this one, alongside with the magnificent 5th Symphony by Mahler, or the complete Symphonies by Brahms.
But the Russian Disc version cannot compete with the Melodiya one, because of the recording quality, and because of a superior involvement, the few changes made by Kondrashin beeing undoubtedly excellent: many passages are read with a superior sense of urgency, like, before the chorus intervention, in the last movement, the reexposition of the theme of the 1st movement by the tubas, now quicker and more sinister.
Where does this recording come from? You always have to be careful with a conductor whose recording legacy comes from broadcastings for more than a half of it. There, it seems it is the case. The label Melodiya dates it from December 5, 1978. So, that's a new item we can add to the official discography, thanks God, and thanks to Melodiya.
Then, if you read the jacket of the magnificent Tahra album (501-502) released in 2003 (Berlioz, Schubert, Franck, Sibelius, 4 previously unpublished items), you may have a strange feeling. You will read:
"On Sunday, December 3 1978, Kirill Kondrashin - accompanied by his interpreter and future partner in life Nolda Broekstra - turned up on the doorstep of Piet Heuwekemeijer, former managing director of the Concertgebouw Orchestra. Kondrashin had decided for personal and artistic reasons to seek asylum in Holland and he knew of Heuwekemeijer's experience in arranging residence permits for Eastern European musicians [a note gives a bibliographical reference to Heuwekemeijer's autobiography]. Together they went to a police station in Amsterdam, where the police took away Kondrashin's shoelaces and tie and locked him up in a cell. He eventually got his residence permit and the Concertgebouw Orchestra did everything in its power to provide the welcome guest with a more settled position."
Could Kirill Kondrashin have conduct a concert in Moscow on Tuesday, December 5 1978? Obviously not. Melodiya maintains its information. Asked about Kondrashin's schedule in Amsterdam, the Concertgebouw reveals that he was in Amsterdam for a concert tour that began on November 22. This implies he was there a few days before for some rehearsing sessions. Maybe Kondrashin was off Moscow since November 15, maybe even a few days before (if he had some tour in other cities). A wonderful CD issued by Globe (GLO 6 006) features a contemporary work by Boris Chaïkovsky, a pupil of Shostakovich, Theme and 8 Variations for Orchestra, that had been previously premiered in Dresden, on January 25 1974. Incidentaly, you have to know that meanwhile the world premiered has been released by the label Profil: try it, this is just a magnificent performance. The Globe CD features Moscow previously unpublished performances, among which this Theme and 8 Variations, performed on November 5 1978. As a matter of fact, this is the last trace of a Moscow concert conducted by Kirill Kondrashin.
Thus this new version of Myaskovsky's 6th Symphony provided by Melodiya also becomes extremely interesting for extra musical reasons. When was the recording shot? Maybe it was broadcasted in Russia on December 5 1978. But it can't have been performed there that very day. In fact, granted the severe reactions against Kondrashin after he defected to the West, we may expect that Russian people perfectly know when he left his country. There should be no hesitation about that fact.
In "Richter / Ecrits, conversations" (1998), Bruno Monsaingeon quotes a notice in the kind of diary Richter regularly wrote (pp. 372-373): "Television. Movie about Kyril Kondrashin. (A conductor who fled Soviet Union. I very often did music with him). The simple fact of programing a movie about Kondrashin is positive by itself for our country. Who could have imagined it might ever have been possible?
I learn Kyril ended his life conducting Mahler's 1st Symphony. The movie is not bad, but some elements are tendentiously presented (shots filmed in a Police station, as well as the phonecab where he would have called to tell he would stay in Holland) and lessen its quality. (year 1990)"
It is difficult to imagine that Russian people don't know exactly when Kirill Kondrashin defected to the West. This is one mystery.
When was the Melodiya version of Myaskovsky's 6th Symphony performed and recorded? This is another mystery.
Unfortunaly, there are many others about his life and career. If anybody has informations about it, he will be most welcome.
Kondrashin recorded Myaskovsky's 6th Symphony, Op. 23, at least 2 times. The first, released by Russian Disc, and recorded in 1959, has been the only known for many years. Today it is almost impossible to find it (The Russian Disc label had problems with another great Russian musician: this is anoter story). Then Melodiya issued another one (MEL 10 00841), splendid, of a kind of magnetic strength, in 2005. The sound quality, fabulous (though it is obviously a live), suggests a later version than the Russian Disc's, and the timings are slightly different. If the chorus is the same, the excellent ensemble prepared by Yurlov, that very often worked with Kondrashin (for instance, it was invariably with this chorus that he performed and recorded the Babi Yar Symphony by Shostakovich), in 1959 Kondrashin conducted the USSR State Symphony Orchestra, whereas the new disc features a fantastic Moscow Philharmony.
I'm not suggesting that the 1959 version is not interesting. Not in the slightest bit! Granted the poor sound quality, it is a thrilling version, and the USSR State Symphony Orchestra can be proud of having made such fabulous recordings as this one, alongside with the magnificent 5th Symphony by Mahler, or the complete Symphonies by Brahms.
But the Russian Disc version cannot compete with the Melodiya one, because of the recording quality, and because of a superior involvement, the few changes made by Kondrashin beeing undoubtedly excellent: many passages are read with a superior sense of urgency, like, before the chorus intervention, in the last movement, the reexposition of the theme of the 1st movement by the tubas, now quicker and more sinister.
Where does this recording come from? You always have to be careful with a conductor whose recording legacy comes from broadcastings for more than a half of it. There, it seems it is the case. The label Melodiya dates it from December 5, 1978. So, that's a new item we can add to the official discography, thanks God, and thanks to Melodiya.
Then, if you read the jacket of the magnificent Tahra album (501-502) released in 2003 (Berlioz, Schubert, Franck, Sibelius, 4 previously unpublished items), you may have a strange feeling. You will read:
"On Sunday, December 3 1978, Kirill Kondrashin - accompanied by his interpreter and future partner in life Nolda Broekstra - turned up on the doorstep of Piet Heuwekemeijer, former managing director of the Concertgebouw Orchestra. Kondrashin had decided for personal and artistic reasons to seek asylum in Holland and he knew of Heuwekemeijer's experience in arranging residence permits for Eastern European musicians [a note gives a bibliographical reference to Heuwekemeijer's autobiography]. Together they went to a police station in Amsterdam, where the police took away Kondrashin's shoelaces and tie and locked him up in a cell. He eventually got his residence permit and the Concertgebouw Orchestra did everything in its power to provide the welcome guest with a more settled position."
Could Kirill Kondrashin have conduct a concert in Moscow on Tuesday, December 5 1978? Obviously not. Melodiya maintains its information. Asked about Kondrashin's schedule in Amsterdam, the Concertgebouw reveals that he was in Amsterdam for a concert tour that began on November 22. This implies he was there a few days before for some rehearsing sessions. Maybe Kondrashin was off Moscow since November 15, maybe even a few days before (if he had some tour in other cities). A wonderful CD issued by Globe (GLO 6 006) features a contemporary work by Boris Chaïkovsky, a pupil of Shostakovich, Theme and 8 Variations for Orchestra, that had been previously premiered in Dresden, on January 25 1974. Incidentaly, you have to know that meanwhile the world premiered has been released by the label Profil: try it, this is just a magnificent performance. The Globe CD features Moscow previously unpublished performances, among which this Theme and 8 Variations, performed on November 5 1978. As a matter of fact, this is the last trace of a Moscow concert conducted by Kirill Kondrashin.
Thus this new version of Myaskovsky's 6th Symphony provided by Melodiya also becomes extremely interesting for extra musical reasons. When was the recording shot? Maybe it was broadcasted in Russia on December 5 1978. But it can't have been performed there that very day. In fact, granted the severe reactions against Kondrashin after he defected to the West, we may expect that Russian people perfectly know when he left his country. There should be no hesitation about that fact.
In "Richter / Ecrits, conversations" (1998), Bruno Monsaingeon quotes a notice in the kind of diary Richter regularly wrote (pp. 372-373): "Television. Movie about Kyril Kondrashin. (A conductor who fled Soviet Union. I very often did music with him). The simple fact of programing a movie about Kondrashin is positive by itself for our country. Who could have imagined it might ever have been possible?
I learn Kyril ended his life conducting Mahler's 1st Symphony. The movie is not bad, but some elements are tendentiously presented (shots filmed in a Police station, as well as the phonecab where he would have called to tell he would stay in Holland) and lessen its quality. (year 1990)"
It is difficult to imagine that Russian people don't know exactly when Kirill Kondrashin defected to the West. This is one mystery.
When was the Melodiya version of Myaskovsky's 6th Symphony performed and recorded? This is another mystery.
Unfortunaly, there are many others about his life and career. If anybody has informations about it, he will be most welcome.
Moscow Philharmony broadcasted tours
To many extends Kondrashin's career remains today full of mysteries. Among others it is extremely difficult to restore his schedule with the Moscow Philharmony, an orchestra that, according to Evgeny Svetlanov, "owes everything to Kirill Kondrashin" (and, if Svetlanov said it, he really meant it, since he was particularly sparing of compliments on his colleagues). Even granted the fact that Kondrashin resigned in 1975 from his position as chief musical director of the Moscow Philharmony (after having tried in vain to obtain a substancial salarial augmentation for his musicians to prevent them from seeking other better paid engagements) and that he defected to the West in 1978, it is very hard to believe that so few Radio Archives were broadcasted and released.
If you read the new Moscow Philharmony's internet page, you will discover that Kondrashin federated the Orchestra around a huge and impressive number of symphonic integrals. Under his baton (actually he conducted only with his hands) they performed the complete symphonies by Brahms, Tchaïkovsky, Rachmaninov, Mahler and Shostakovich, but also those by Bruckner (I had always thought that Kondrashin never experienced this composer, which was the favourite one of his Leningrad rival Evgeny Mravinsky), as well as the complete symphonic works by Beethoven, which they performed and toured all along Russian throughout the whole year 1970, on occasion of the 200th birthday of the composer (actually, this was such a taxing and exhausting tour that Kondrashin had a very bad heart attack in early 1971, that left him unable to conduct for a few months, so that everybody thought he would never conduct again).
It is very unlikely that no broadcasting were made of such artistic events: there must be some Radio archives of those complete symphonic series somewhere in Moscow, and maybe some people could copy some of them.
I leave you these reflections: maybe you have heard of some unpublished broadcasted recording. They would be of first importance for the knowledge of Kondrashin's conducting art, granted that his interpretations of Beethoven were very advanced for their time, and that his conception of Tchaïkovsky was accurate enough for publishing a whole book on the topic; moreover, we are left without any recording of any symphony by Rachmaninov (despite the mention of a Concertgebouw broadcasting released by "O O O Classics", which proves absolutely impossible to find), and we only have his Brahms integrale with the Large Radio and TV USSR Symphony Orchestra (which is extremely fine).
So, if you know something, let us know, please.
If you read the new Moscow Philharmony's internet page, you will discover that Kondrashin federated the Orchestra around a huge and impressive number of symphonic integrals. Under his baton (actually he conducted only with his hands) they performed the complete symphonies by Brahms, Tchaïkovsky, Rachmaninov, Mahler and Shostakovich, but also those by Bruckner (I had always thought that Kondrashin never experienced this composer, which was the favourite one of his Leningrad rival Evgeny Mravinsky), as well as the complete symphonic works by Beethoven, which they performed and toured all along Russian throughout the whole year 1970, on occasion of the 200th birthday of the composer (actually, this was such a taxing and exhausting tour that Kondrashin had a very bad heart attack in early 1971, that left him unable to conduct for a few months, so that everybody thought he would never conduct again).
It is very unlikely that no broadcasting were made of such artistic events: there must be some Radio archives of those complete symphonic series somewhere in Moscow, and maybe some people could copy some of them.
I leave you these reflections: maybe you have heard of some unpublished broadcasted recording. They would be of first importance for the knowledge of Kondrashin's conducting art, granted that his interpretations of Beethoven were very advanced for their time, and that his conception of Tchaïkovsky was accurate enough for publishing a whole book on the topic; moreover, we are left without any recording of any symphony by Rachmaninov (despite the mention of a Concertgebouw broadcasting released by "O O O Classics", which proves absolutely impossible to find), and we only have his Brahms integrale with the Large Radio and TV USSR Symphony Orchestra (which is extremely fine).
So, if you know something, let us know, please.
vendredi 16 mai 2008
Lyrical career
Informations prove to be extremely hard to obtain concerning Kondrashin's operatic career. His parents had been musicians of the Bolshoï Orchestra. It is said that he was first appointed at the Staniskavsky Children's Theatre in Moscow from 1931 on, even before attending Boris Khaïkin's Conducting Class at the Conservatory (1932).
Then he was appointed at the Nemirovich-Danchenko Theatre, Moscow, from 1934, where he debuted conducting the French comic opera "Les cloches de Corneville" by Planquette, then a very popular piece.
Granted that Stanislavsky died in 1938, and that he was more and more attentive to opera toward the end of his life, it is very likely that Kondrashin has been in direct contact with him. Several notices assert that, in those times, Kondrashin was exclusevily interested by musical theatre, and that he was rather reticent to conduct anything else.
After having graduated from the Moscow Conservatory with a first award, in 1936, he was appointed at the Maly Tiatr (Little Theatre) in Leningrad, a very famous, kind of experimental musical theatre. In this theatre Samuil Samossud had premiered Shostakovich's two operas, "The Nose" and "Lady Macbeth from the district of Mzensk", and Vsevolod Meyerhold regularly staged new productions, among which, the famous and debated 1935 "Queen of Spades" by Tchaïkovsky, again conducted by chief conductor Samossud. The Administrative Director, Nikolaï Smolich, was himself a famous and creative stage director, and often worked in collaboration with composers. Once again, if we don't have material to prove it, it is very likely that the young Kondrashin immerged in the North city, and attended as much concert and performances as he could, and went to Samossud to express his will to premiere new operas. In a speech he pronounced shortly before his death in New York, Kondrashin evoked his long friendship with Shostakovich and said it had started in Leningrad. At that time, Shostakovich must have been very attentive to young conductors who claimed their enthusiasm toward his operas.
In 1936 Kondrashin could witness the two first big attacks against Shostakovich: the first concerned "Lady Macbeth", and the second, still a mystery, regarded the 4th Symphony. Shostakovich was now prevented from writing operas.
Kondrashin is said to have debuted at the Maly Tiatr with "Madama Butterfly", and then conducted "La fanciulla del West" by Puccini, and works by Pashchenko and Cheremukhin, among others.
When he attended the Great 1938 Conducting Competition, he was awarded an Honor Diploma for his uncommon skill for training orchestras, virtuosity of conducting, and his almost hypnotic effect on the musicians. Samossud himself mentioned the young conductor's qualities in the Competition's report, in the "Pravda".
Kondrashin declined all the offers to be appointed to any orchestra: he simply didn't want to conduct symphonic repertoire. His was so strong a passion for theatre that he sometimes staged himself the productions! Only Herbert von Karajan began to do the same, in the 30s, in Germany. Alongside with his master Boris Khaïkin, Samossud and Shostakovich obtained from Nikolaï Golovanov a concert evening at the Bolshoï Tiatr (the Great Theatre), Moscow, in 1943. We don't know which programme Kondrashin conducted: it was a real triumph!
Kondrashin was immediately offered an appointment as permanent conductor at the Bolshoy. This time he accepted! He didn't long for any other promotion. Aged 29, he already achieved his dream.
We know very few things about his time at the Bolshoï. We know that, alongside with Samossud, he obtained for Shostakovich an appointment as 'operatic consultant' at the Bolshoï: since many of his works were forbidden, this appointment was intended to prevent him from misery.
Kondrashin often worked with the then young stage director Boris Pokrovsky. He conducted productions of Smetana's "Bartered bride", Moniuszko's "Halka" (for which both Pokrovsky and him were awarded a Stalin Gold Medal), then "The Malevolent Power" by Serov, and "Snegurochka" by Rimsky-Korsakov.
He recorded numerous arias with several singers, among which his favourites seem to have been Irina and Leokadiya Maslennikova, Veronika Borisenko, Sergeï Lemeshev, Gyorgy Nelepp, Mikhaïl Shchegolkov, Aleksieï Ivanov, Andreï Ivanov, Maxim Mikhaïlov and Mark Reïzen.
How many complete operas did he record is one of the most difficult questions about him. Glinka's "Ruslan and Ludmila" is the best known, since it immediately proved to be a best-seller (and still is nowadays), because of its impressive musical and vocal quality, and because the recording, for the first time, was really complete. What is puzzling about this recording is the fact that he may not have conducted the work on stage, which seems to be the only case in his discography.
Indeed, the 3 other operas he actually recorded were works he conducted on stage. Rimsky-Korsakov's "Snegurochka" is a magnificent one, and is very difficult to date. Moniuszko's "Halka" and Smetana's "Bartered bride" still prove to be exceedingly difficult to find, but they do exist and contain some magnificent operatic moments.
Persistant rumors regarding a complete "Prince Igor" by Borodin are still impossible to verify, as well as a complete "Malevolent power" by Serov.
The problem is all the more difficult that it is impossible to say if Kondrashin had already recorded some complete operas when he was in Leningrad (this isn't unlikely), and if he performed some for the Radio...
In fact, a very theatrical event occured, that has ever since made his whole operatic career very difficult to document: he resigned from his position as permanent conductor at the Bolshoï Theatre in 1956, to dedicate himself to symphonic repertoire.
Meantime he had started a very successful concert career, as accompagnist to such great solists as David Oïstrakh, Emil Gilels, Yakov Zak, Tatiana Nikolayeva, Leonid Kogran, Daniil Shafran, Sviatoslav Richter and Mstislav Rostropovich.
The circumstances of his resignation are extremely mysterious. The official biographical notices mention that Kondrashin was dissatisfied with the working conditions in opera.
Anyway, this resignation was interpreted as a rupture by both the professional musicians and the public. This is probably why the informations concerning his operatic career (his complete schedule with the complete casts, the comprehensive list of his recordings, his broadcastings, with precise dates) is absolutely unavailable.
If anybody knows something, he will be most welcome...
You must know that Kirill Kondrashin conducted his very last opera evenings in Chicago, October 13 and 15, 1958: it was a production of "Madama Butterfly", the first opera by Puccini he conducted, featuring Renata Tebaldi for her first Cio-Cio-San, Giuseppe Di Stefano and Cornell MacNeil. Kondrashin was invited on the occasion of the triumphant tour with the great Van Cliburn, back from his winning the 1st Prize at the Tchaïkovsky in Moscow. As a great amount of live recordings by Giuseppe Di Stefano have been circulating, I call for any information regarding a recording of those evenings...
Then he was appointed at the Nemirovich-Danchenko Theatre, Moscow, from 1934, where he debuted conducting the French comic opera "Les cloches de Corneville" by Planquette, then a very popular piece.
Granted that Stanislavsky died in 1938, and that he was more and more attentive to opera toward the end of his life, it is very likely that Kondrashin has been in direct contact with him. Several notices assert that, in those times, Kondrashin was exclusevily interested by musical theatre, and that he was rather reticent to conduct anything else.
After having graduated from the Moscow Conservatory with a first award, in 1936, he was appointed at the Maly Tiatr (Little Theatre) in Leningrad, a very famous, kind of experimental musical theatre. In this theatre Samuil Samossud had premiered Shostakovich's two operas, "The Nose" and "Lady Macbeth from the district of Mzensk", and Vsevolod Meyerhold regularly staged new productions, among which, the famous and debated 1935 "Queen of Spades" by Tchaïkovsky, again conducted by chief conductor Samossud. The Administrative Director, Nikolaï Smolich, was himself a famous and creative stage director, and often worked in collaboration with composers. Once again, if we don't have material to prove it, it is very likely that the young Kondrashin immerged in the North city, and attended as much concert and performances as he could, and went to Samossud to express his will to premiere new operas. In a speech he pronounced shortly before his death in New York, Kondrashin evoked his long friendship with Shostakovich and said it had started in Leningrad. At that time, Shostakovich must have been very attentive to young conductors who claimed their enthusiasm toward his operas.
In 1936 Kondrashin could witness the two first big attacks against Shostakovich: the first concerned "Lady Macbeth", and the second, still a mystery, regarded the 4th Symphony. Shostakovich was now prevented from writing operas.
Kondrashin is said to have debuted at the Maly Tiatr with "Madama Butterfly", and then conducted "La fanciulla del West" by Puccini, and works by Pashchenko and Cheremukhin, among others.
When he attended the Great 1938 Conducting Competition, he was awarded an Honor Diploma for his uncommon skill for training orchestras, virtuosity of conducting, and his almost hypnotic effect on the musicians. Samossud himself mentioned the young conductor's qualities in the Competition's report, in the "Pravda".
Kondrashin declined all the offers to be appointed to any orchestra: he simply didn't want to conduct symphonic repertoire. His was so strong a passion for theatre that he sometimes staged himself the productions! Only Herbert von Karajan began to do the same, in the 30s, in Germany. Alongside with his master Boris Khaïkin, Samossud and Shostakovich obtained from Nikolaï Golovanov a concert evening at the Bolshoï Tiatr (the Great Theatre), Moscow, in 1943. We don't know which programme Kondrashin conducted: it was a real triumph!
Kondrashin was immediately offered an appointment as permanent conductor at the Bolshoy. This time he accepted! He didn't long for any other promotion. Aged 29, he already achieved his dream.
We know very few things about his time at the Bolshoï. We know that, alongside with Samossud, he obtained for Shostakovich an appointment as 'operatic consultant' at the Bolshoï: since many of his works were forbidden, this appointment was intended to prevent him from misery.
Kondrashin often worked with the then young stage director Boris Pokrovsky. He conducted productions of Smetana's "Bartered bride", Moniuszko's "Halka" (for which both Pokrovsky and him were awarded a Stalin Gold Medal), then "The Malevolent Power" by Serov, and "Snegurochka" by Rimsky-Korsakov.
He recorded numerous arias with several singers, among which his favourites seem to have been Irina and Leokadiya Maslennikova, Veronika Borisenko, Sergeï Lemeshev, Gyorgy Nelepp, Mikhaïl Shchegolkov, Aleksieï Ivanov, Andreï Ivanov, Maxim Mikhaïlov and Mark Reïzen.
How many complete operas did he record is one of the most difficult questions about him. Glinka's "Ruslan and Ludmila" is the best known, since it immediately proved to be a best-seller (and still is nowadays), because of its impressive musical and vocal quality, and because the recording, for the first time, was really complete. What is puzzling about this recording is the fact that he may not have conducted the work on stage, which seems to be the only case in his discography.
Indeed, the 3 other operas he actually recorded were works he conducted on stage. Rimsky-Korsakov's "Snegurochka" is a magnificent one, and is very difficult to date. Moniuszko's "Halka" and Smetana's "Bartered bride" still prove to be exceedingly difficult to find, but they do exist and contain some magnificent operatic moments.
Persistant rumors regarding a complete "Prince Igor" by Borodin are still impossible to verify, as well as a complete "Malevolent power" by Serov.
The problem is all the more difficult that it is impossible to say if Kondrashin had already recorded some complete operas when he was in Leningrad (this isn't unlikely), and if he performed some for the Radio...
In fact, a very theatrical event occured, that has ever since made his whole operatic career very difficult to document: he resigned from his position as permanent conductor at the Bolshoï Theatre in 1956, to dedicate himself to symphonic repertoire.
Meantime he had started a very successful concert career, as accompagnist to such great solists as David Oïstrakh, Emil Gilels, Yakov Zak, Tatiana Nikolayeva, Leonid Kogran, Daniil Shafran, Sviatoslav Richter and Mstislav Rostropovich.
The circumstances of his resignation are extremely mysterious. The official biographical notices mention that Kondrashin was dissatisfied with the working conditions in opera.
Anyway, this resignation was interpreted as a rupture by both the professional musicians and the public. This is probably why the informations concerning his operatic career (his complete schedule with the complete casts, the comprehensive list of his recordings, his broadcastings, with precise dates) is absolutely unavailable.
If anybody knows something, he will be most welcome...
You must know that Kirill Kondrashin conducted his very last opera evenings in Chicago, October 13 and 15, 1958: it was a production of "Madama Butterfly", the first opera by Puccini he conducted, featuring Renata Tebaldi for her first Cio-Cio-San, Giuseppe Di Stefano and Cornell MacNeil. Kondrashin was invited on the occasion of the triumphant tour with the great Van Cliburn, back from his winning the 1st Prize at the Tchaïkovsky in Moscow. As a great amount of live recordings by Giuseppe Di Stefano have been circulating, I call for any information regarding a recording of those evenings...
Kondrachine
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Simplement pour faciliter les échanges de documentations sur Kondrachine et tout autre communication de source d'information, d'anecdotes, de liens et de commentaires sur les enregistrements, les éléments biographiques...
Participez en ajoutant un commentaire ou bien, devenez auteur sur simple sollicitation, pour ajouter un texte, un lien, un article, une photo ou autre.
Si comme nous, vous êtes un passionné de ce chef, de la musique russe, des enregistrements du maître, rejoignez-nous !
A bientôt !
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