Michail Jurowski

Michail Vladimirovich Jurowski (; 25 December 1945 – 19 March 2022) was a Russian conductor who worked internationally, based in Germany for most of his career. He was particularly interested in the works of Dmitri Shostakovich, in concerts and recordings.

Jurowski grew up in a musical family, where his father Vladimir Mikhailovich Yurovsky was a composer, and many prominent Russian musicians were family friends. He first worked in Moscow, but was from 1978 a regular guest conductor at the Komische Oper Berlin, then in East Berlin. With a 1989 contract for the Staatsoper Dresden, he moved to Germany with his family. He was music director of the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie from 1992, and the Norddeutsche Philharmonie Rostock from 1999, followed by positions with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and the WDR Rundfunkorchester Köln. He worked as a guest worldwide, including Scandinavia and Argentina.

His recordings include the first recordings of Dmitri Shostakovich's unfinished opera The Gamblers after Nikolai Gogol, completed by Krzysztof Meyer in 1981, and of Anton Rubinstein's Moses. He was instrumental in founding the International Shostakovich Days in Gohrisch. His sons Vladimir and Dmitri are also conductors.

Life and career

Moscow Jurowski was born in Moscow, the son of composer Vladimir Michailovich Jurowski. Shostakovitch was a friend of the family, and as a boy, he played four-hand piano music with him. Other friends of the Jewish family were Aram Khachaturian, Mikhail Romm, David Oistrach, and moved to Germany in 1990. He conducted in 1995 the premiere recording of Dmitri Shostakovich's unfinished opera The Gamblers after Nikolai Gogol, completed by Krzysztof Meyer in 1981, sung in Russian by soloists of the Bolshoi Theatre, with the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie. From 1997, he served as Intendant of the Volkstheater Rostock as well as the Norddeutsche Philharmonie Rostock. In the 1990s, he worked in Berlin, where he settled, at all three opera houses, with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Jurowski was instrumental in founding the International Shostakovich Days in Gohrisch had three children, Vladimir, a conductor, Generalmusikdirektor of the Bavarian State Opera, In 2015, Jurowski published an autobiography, covering as a gifted storyteller his meetings with great musicians.

Recordings Jurowski made several first recordings, some in series such as orchestral works by Berthold Goldschmidt, and symphonies by Ture Rangström and Wilhelm Peterson-Berger. He recorded rarely performed music such as Franz Lehár's opera Tatjana, Serge Prokofiev ballet Auf dem Dnjepr, Giacomo Meyerbeer's incidental music to Struensee, Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik 2001 Grammy nominations for three CD productions of Orchestral Music by Rimsky-Korsakov with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin