Mariss Ivars Georgs Jansons (14 January 1943 – 1 December 2019[a]) was a Latvian conductor, best known for his interpretations of Mahler, Strauss, and Russian composers such as Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, and Shostakovich.
Born in Riga, Latvia, Jansons moved to Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg) in 1956, where he studied conducting, and he received further training in Austria.
[12] Iraida, who was Jewish, gave birth to her son in hiding after being smuggled out of the Riga Ghetto, where her father and brother were murdered by the Nazis.
[12] In 1968, Herbert von Karajan visited the Soviet Union, and he singled out Jansons and Dmitri Kitayenko from a group of young conductors.
[18] In April 1996, Jansons nearly died from a severe heart attack while conducting the final pages of La bohème in Oslo.
Later, surgeons in Pittsburgh fitted an implanted defibrillator in his chest to give his heart an electric jolt if it failed.
[22] At the start of the 2003-2004 season, Jansons began his tenure as Chief Conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (BRSO),[23] for an initial contract of three years.
[32] In October 2002, Jansons was named the sixth Chief Conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (RCO) of Amsterdam, effective 1 September 2004, succeeding Riccardo Chailly.
[35][36] He conducted his final concert as chief conductor of the RCO on 20 March 2015, in the presence of King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima.
[20] Jansons died during the night of 30 November 2019 / 1 December 2019 at his home in the Tolstoy House, Saint Petersburg, as a result of a longstanding heart condition, aged 76.
[5][6][40][41] Jansons was awarded various international honours for his achievements, including Commander of the Royal Norwegian Order of Merit from King Harald of Norway and memberships in the Royal Academy of Music in London and the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (Society of Music Friends) in Vienna.
On 4 October 2013, Jansons received the Grand Merit Cross with Star of the Federal Republic of Germany.
[47] On 1 November 2013, Jansons was awarded Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion and received it from Dutch Minister of Education, Culture and Science Jet Bussemaker.
[48] In November 2017,[49] the Royal Philharmonic Society awarded Jansons the RPS Gold Medal, with Mitsuko Uchida presenting the medal to Jansons during a concert with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks) on 24 November 2017 at the Barbican Hall.
[52] On 14 April 2019, Jansons received the Herbert von Karajan Prize at the Salzburg Easter Festival.