Media Release 7 March 2011
Maestro Mariss Jansons to lead Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in concert at the National Concert Hall
One of the world's greatest musical pairings, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Maestro Mariss Jansons, return to The National Concert Hall, Saturday 26 March 2011 as part of the International Concert Series 2010/2011.
They are joined by Swedish soprano Miah Persson, praised by the New York Times as being “alluring” and The Guardian as “honey-toned…enchanting and sympathetic” for a programme of Symphonies by Shostakovich and Mahler.
In 2006 the orchestra received the Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance for its recording of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 13. It was named the 6th best orchestra in Europe in a survey for Le Monde de la Musique and 6th best orchestra in the world by The Gramophone magazine in 2008.
Proclaimed by Sir Simon Rattle as being ‘the greatest living conductor,’Mariss Jansons took up the baton as chief of the symphony orchestra of Bavarian Radio (BRSO), which is considered to be one of the best in Germany after the Berlin Philharmonic.
Music Director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra from 1997-2004, he also was appointed Principal Conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in 2004. He has become known to audiences worldwide through his acclaimed recordings, concert performances and touring activities, as well as numerous radio and television appearances. He has also served recently as Music Director of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra (1979- 2001), as Associate Principal Conductor of the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra (1985- 2000) and as Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic (1992-97).
The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, in German Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks is the internationally renowned orchestra of the Bayerischer Rundfunk (Bavarian Radio), based in Munich, Germany. The orchestra was founded in 1949, with members of an earlier radio orchestra in Munich. Eugen Jochum was the orchestra's first chief conductor, from 1949 until 1960. Subsequent chief conductors have included Rafael Kubelík, the longest serving of the orchestra's chief conductors, as well as Sir Colin Davis and Lorin Maazel. Since 2003, the orchestra's chief conductor is Mariss Jansons and in 2007 Jansons extended his contract for the second time, now until August 31, 2012.
PROGRAMME Shostakovich Symphony No. 9 Mahler Symphony No. 4 Tickets: €50, €60, €70, €80 (Choir Balcony €40) National Concert Hall Box Office Tel: 01 417 00 00 or www.nch.ie (no booking fees) ENDS For further information please contact: Sinead Doyle, Marketing & PR Manager, National Concert Hall, Tel: 01 417 0057 or 087 1775334.
ABOUT MARISS JANSONS Mariss Jansons was one of the finest conductors to emerge from the former Soviet Union in the last quarter of the twentieth century. Jansons was born while Riga was under military occupation by the Germans who seized it in 1941, a year after its forcible annexation by the U.S.S.R. His father was Arvid Jansons (or Yansons) (1914-1984), the leading Latvian conductor to emerge under the Soviet system after the Baltic nation was retaken by the U.S.S.R. in 1945.
Mariss studied violin, piano, and conducting at the Leningrad Conservatory, graduating with honors. In 1969 he began training in Vienna with conductor Hans Swarowski and in Salzburg with Herbert von Karajan. In 1971 he won the International Herbert von Karajan Foundation Competition in Berlin. He began to work with the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra in 1973 when music director Yevgeny Mravinsky invited him to become associate conductor.
In 1979 he became music director of the Oslo Philharmonic He has guest conducted many of the world's major orchestras. For Chandos Records he led the Oslo orchestra in a complete Tchaikovsky symphony cycle, and led many Shostakovich symphonies for EMI. His reputation is particularly strong as a conductor of great twentieth century symphonic classics, including composers such as Bartók, Honegger, Prokofiev, Rachmaninov, Ravel, Weill, Sibelius, Respighi, Dukas, and Mahler. His recording of Shostakovich's Seventh Symphony with the Leningrad Philharmonic won an Edison Award in 1989.
In 1995, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra announced Jansons' appointment as its eighth music director, effective in 1996. He has led it on successful tours, including a five-city, seven-concert tour of Japan in 1998, a tour of west coast U.S. cities and an international tour in 1999.
In 1995 King Harald V of Norway appointed Jansons Commander with Star of the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit, the highest Norwegian honor ever given to a person not of Norwegian descent, for his services to Norway as director of the Oslo Philharmonic. He was given honorary membership in Britain's Royal Academy of Music in 1999 and in Vienna's Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in 2001.