Kirill Kondrashin, who died in Amsterdam in 1981 aged 77, was the leading classical music composer of the Soviet Union. A master technician, his international career blossomed in 1958 after he conducted the orchestra that accompanied Van Cliburn when he won the first Tchaikovsky International Competition. Their recording of the composer's 'First Piano Concerto' was a huge hit and a subsequent tour of Europe and North America meant that Kondrashin became the first Soviet conductor to perform in the West. His recordings of works by Rachmaninov, Mahler and Shostakovich are still regarded highly.
Born in Moscow to a musical family, he became interested in conducting in his teens and studied at the Moscow Conservatory. He conducted at the Young People's Theatre and the Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Music Theatre and went on to Leningrad's Maliy Opera Theatre and the Bolshoi Theatre in the then Soviet capital. After five years as artistic director of the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, in 1978 he defected to the West and settled in the Netherlands. He became permanent conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam and in 1980 was named chief conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Munich. He sadly passed away the following year.
