On 14 January, the birthday of the outstanding conductor Mariss Arvidovich Jansons, tribute will be paid to his memory with a performance of Giuseppe Verdi's Requiem at the Mariinsky Theatre. Valery Gergiev will be conducting while the solo roles are to be performed by Tatiana Serjan (soprano), Ekaterina Semenchuk (mezzo-soprano), Sergei Skorokhodov (tenor) and Stanislav Trofimov (bass). The concert begins at 20.00.
Mariss Jansons was born in 1943 in Nazi-occupied Riga to the family of conductor Arvīds Jansons and opera singer Iraida Jansons. In 1956 the family moved to Leningrad. Mariss studied the violin and piano at the Middle Special School of Music of the Leningrad Conservatory where his father was employed. After secondary school, in 1962 he entered the Conservatory, from which he graduated with distinction in piano and conducting. His mentor was Nikolai Rabinovich, a major Soviet conductor and representative of the great St Petersburg (Leningrad) school of conducting. From 1969 to 1972 Jansons continued his studies in Vienna under Hans Swarowsky and in Salzburg under Herbert von Karajan. Jansons' victory at the von Karajan International Conducting Competition in Berlin in 1971 marked an important milestone in his career.
For many years Mariss Jansons worked with the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, Honoured Ensemble of Russia, and was an assistant to Yevgeny Mravinsky who exerted tremendous influence on the young conductor. Mravinsky passed on to his assistant a particular love for the music of Dmitry Shostakovich. From 1979 to 2000 Jansons was Principal Conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, for five years he was Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and for seven years he was Music Director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (1997-2004). From 2003 until his death Mariss Jansons was Principal Conductor of the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks. With that orchestra, interpretations of symphonies by Mahler and Shostakovich received particular acclaim. From 2004 the maestro also led the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. It was only in 2015 that he ceased working with that orchestra, in part due to poor health and partly also as he wished to devote greater attention to opera. At the Salzburg Festival, Jansons appeared as production conductor of the operas Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk by Shostakovich (2017) and The Queen of Spades by Tchaikovsky (2018).
A citizen of the world, Mariss Jansons felt at home in Russia, in St Petersburg, in the "Tolstoy House" on Rubinstein Street where he returned following each and every tour. In Russia Jansons performed regularly, although not as regularly as Russian audiences might have wished. In 2008 he presented a gift to his alma mater, the St Petersburg Conservatory, when he performed Carmen there. At the Mariinsky Theatre, Jansons appeared in 2006 at the Stars of the White Nights festival at a concert marking one century since the birth of Shostakovich. His daughter and granddaughter both work at the Mariinsky Theatre today.
A perfectionist and a workaholic, Jansons is remembered for being incredibly demanding, for his attention to detail and for his thoroughness in preparing for performances. With orchestral musicians, he never allowed himself either tyranny or populism. In many of his interviews, Jansons stressed the fact that the task of a conductor is to reveal that which "lies beneath the symbols and notes". A recipient of numerous prizes and awards, a People's Artist of the RSFSR, an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music in London, an honorary member of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna and a knight of the Order of the Dutch Lion, Mariss Jansons was loved as well as respected by all who were fortunate enough to have met him.
Mariss Jansons died on 1 December 2019.
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