In Marisa Janson’s 80th anniversary program cycle, the theme that has been important in the work of the legendary maestro ever since he entered the world, because both his father – conductor Arvīds Jansons, and mother – soprano Iraida Jansons were closely connected directly with the opera stage, with the magic in which what was happening could to both enchant and frighten the boy, as, for example, in the tragic story of Carmen:
“The opera is generally my second home, because I spent there, taken by my father, or every day from the age of three until the time when we left for St. Petersburg. Maybe that’s why conducting an opera is still an unfulfilled dream of my life”,
so – Mariss Jansons in the interview of journalist Vita Kraujas before his arrival in Riga together with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in November 2014.
M. Janson has always been close to the bright symphonic pages of operas – suites from Richard Strauss’s operas “Rose Cavalier” and “Intermezzo”, opera overtures by Mozart, Rossini, Weber, Smetana, but in this field, above all – Wagner. Together with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, which Janson nurtured into the most outstanding ensemble for two decades, growing with it himself, Wagner’s album was released in 1991 on the record company EMI.
And even though we will not find any productions of Wagner’s opera conducted by him in Janson’s life, the spirit of the composer was one of the companions of the indefatigable maestro – both in programs where Wagner’s name is only one of many, and in those where no other composer is mentioned.
for example, in 2008, the conductor took his Bavarian ensemble to the Royal Festival Hall in London, as well as to the “Easter Festival” in Lucerne, with Richard Wagner’s music program, and a little later, the company released an album of Wagner’s opera music, recorded together with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra Sony Classical.
The dramatic episode of M. Janson’s life is connected with Oslo and the opera genre: during the concert performance of Puccini’s “Bohemia”, he experiences a severe heart attack, almost repeating history, because in a similar situation – at the conductor’s desk of the Halle Orchestra in Manchester in 1984, the life of his father – Arvīd Janson was cut short (The guest concert of the Bavarian Radio Orchestra and Marisa Jansons on November 7, 2014 at the Latvian National Opera, included in the Riga – European Capital of Culture program, was Marisa Janson’s tribute to her father, the great conductor Arvīd Janson, on the 100th anniversary).
10 years later, after the dramatic event in Oslo, but already in Amsterdam, opera enters Marisa Jansson’s life again, with a great musical challenge and emotional amplitude: it is D. Shostakovich’s opera “Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk County”.
In June 2006, Gunda Vaivode, the director of “Klasika” radio, goes to Amsterdam and meets with Marisa Jansson, but the critics say that they experienced a stunning production of Shostakovich’s opera, perhaps – “the biggest success of Dutch opera in the last 10 years” (also released in DVD format ). But this opera, interpreted by M. Jansson, experienced an even greater triumph in the summer of 2017 in Austria, at the Salzburg Festival, we also heard it live, and Gunda Vaivode’s conversation with Marisa Jansson could continue, but in a new, deeper way, and we present fragments of both of these conversations in this broadcast .
When Maris Jansson passed away, the obituary published by the Salzburg Festival recalled, among other things:
“The news of Maris Jansson’s death has caused great sadness in the music world, and the Salzburg Festival is one of many that can only look back with the greatest gratitude on all the star-studded moments he has given the festival for almost thirty years. In Marissa Jansson, we have lost one of the greatest conductors of our time and a true friend.
Marisa Jansson’s life was one big love for music; he was one of those artistic personalities who made the festival so special over the past 100 years.
Mariss Jansson made his debut at the Salzburg Festival in 1990, and since then has performed 44 times with seven different orchestras: To inspire the esteemed festival audience so completely that they rise from their chairs and clap their feet for almost ten minutes is a feat rarely achieved by any of today’s podium stars has succeeded. However, for many years the Salzburg audience had to give up Marisa Jansson as an opera conductor. Only in 2017, in his first position as artistic director, Markus Hinterhauser managed to persuade Marisa Jansson to take on conducting the opera. Dmitri Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk Region, one of the conductor’s favorite operas, was a triumphant success.
When “Lady of Spades” was staged in 2018, the newspaper The courier wrote: “On Sunday, Tchaikovsky’s “Lady of Spades” became another triumph for Marisa Jansson at the helm of the “Vienna Philharmonic”.
He is a genius, a very dramatic, sensitive music storyteller, and for the Salzburg Festival it is an amazing fortune.”
Tchaikovsky’s “The Queen of Spades” was staged by Mariss Jansons together with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and an international team of soloists in the autumn of 2014, taking the performance to the Luxembourg Philharmonic. The website of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra has the following information about this event: “Marisa Jansson’s reputation as an excellent conductor in Tchaikovsky’s music was already established at the beginning of his career. His ability to balance the often overwhelming emotionality of this music with a sense of style and moderation was considered virtually unmatched. Here, Tchaikovsky’s sad inner world and the extremely gloomy, dark sides of his music, as well as the tender, ecstatic moments, which in the end were only an illusion, were fully revealed.
“The Queen of Spades” is also staged in Amsterdam, and we must not forget the performance of Tchaikovsky’s opera “Eugene Onegin” in Amsterdam in 2011: in the newspaper The New York Times critic George Loomis wrote: “The polonaise sounds characteristically and excitingly under the direction of Maris Jansson in the new production of the Dutch Opera, which marks the return of the great conductor to the opera stage. concert hall the orchestra, whose music director is Mr. Janson, here is like a dream of a “pit orchestra”.
Mr. Jansson’s musicality is embedded in every phrase, and he ensures perfect coordination between the singers and the orchestra”.
In 2010, the production of Bizet’s “Carmen” with Elina Garančas in the title role was supposed to take place at the Vienna State Opera, but the health of both Elina and Marisa Jansons failed and the plan was never fulfilled. But in Bizet’s music, both – Elina Garanca and Mariss Jansons have met – at the Amsterdam Royal concert hall in the bright solo concert of Elina Garančas in the hall.
In Marisa Jansson’s concert life and discography there are also many vocal symphonic opuses – from Haydn to Rome and Perth, and in this broadcast also pages of this genre from Haydn harmony fair, Mozart’s “Requiem”, Beethoven’s Mass in Doma Major, Gounod’s “Cecilia’s Mass”, Bruckner’s “Mass” in Faminar, Schoenberg’s “Gurre’s Songs” in the recordings of soloists led by M. Jansson, Bavarian Radio Choir and Symphony Orchestra. But in the end – also from the very last arrangements of M. Jansons – soprano Diana Damrava and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra with the song Morgen (“Morning”) from Richard Strauss’ song album. One of the reviews concluded that this closing song of the album “is the most fitting farewell to Marisa Jansson”.
The broadcast includes recordings of studios, concerts and performances conducted by M. Jansons:
R. Wagner overture “Nuremberg Masterpieces” (Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, 1991, EMI)
Fragments from D. Shostakovich’s opera “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk Region” (Salzburg Festival, 2017, soloists Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra)
Excerpts from P. Tchaikovsky’s opera “The Queen of Spades” (soloists, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra)
Fragments from P. Tchaikovsky’s opera “Eugene Onegin” (Amsterdam, 2011, soloists, Amsterdam Royal concert hall orchestra)
Ž. Bizet Habaner from the opera “Carmen” (soloist Elina Garanca, Royal Concertgebow orchestra)
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Choir:
J. Haidns harmony fair (Saint)
VA Mozart “Requiem” (Blessed)
L. van Beethoven in Mesa Domajor (Saint)
Sh. Gounod’s “Mesa of Cecilia” (Saint)
A. Brukner’s Mesa faminorā (Saint)
A. Šönbergs “Songs of Gurre” (Choir of the Final)
R. Strauss “Tomorrow” (Morning), soloist Diana Damrava
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