gaskros.ru
Soviet and Russian conductor, pianist, teacher at the Moscow Conservatory Gennady Rozhdestvensky has passed away at the age of 87
One of the greatest contemporary musicians, for over 60 years Rozhdestvensky performed with various orchestras in Russia and abroad.
Gennady Rozhdestvensky was born in Moscow in 1931. He studied the piano with Lev Oborin and conducting with his father, distinguished Soviet conductor and teacher Nikolai Anosov. Rozhdestvensky had his debut conducting of The Sleeping Beauty by Tchaikovsky at the Bolshoi Theatre when he was 20 years old. Later he has become a principal conductor, and then a General Music Director at the main national music theater. In particular, Rozhdestvensky has executed the first performance of the original version of Prokofiev’s opera The Gambler at the Bolshoi Theatre.
In other times, Rozhdestvensky was appointed a principal conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, and the Stockholm Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Several major Russian pieces, such as operas Boris Godunov and the Nutcracker ballet he has conducted at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, while The Queen of Spades was staged at the Paris Opera.
Best 20th century composers, including Sergey Prokofiev, Dmitry Shostakovich, Alfred Schnittke, Rodion Shchedrin, John Tavener have dedicated music pieces to the conductor. World premieres of these compositions were performed by an orchestra led by Rozhdestvensky.
Rozhdestvensky is often called “one of the most recorded conductors of all time”, with well over 400 records.
The conductor was the recipient of the French Legion of honour, of the Japanese Order of the Rising Sun, and an Honorary Member of the Stockholm and British Academies. Just two years ago Gennady Rozhdestvensky he was awarded with yet another award, the 7th International Shostakovich Prize by the Staatskapelle Dresden.
Russkiy Mir
