The St. Petersburg Philharmonic announces on its website the death of its former music director and chief conductor Yuri Temirkanov. The great maestro was 84. He led the Russian orchestra for a third of a century, from 1988 until 2022. “It is with deep regret that we announce the passing today of the Philharmonic artistic director, Yuri Temirkanov”, states the website’s announcement.
Temirkanov was also at the helm of the Baltimore Symphony from 2000 until 2006; he held an honorary position with the Royal Philharmonic in London and was until recently a constant presence in Rome at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, where he was named honorary conductor in 2015. In recent years his engagements were often canceled for health reasons. He lived mostly in the UK in his late years.
Unlike his colleague Valery Gergiev, who openly declared his sympathies for Russian president Vladimir Putin, Temirkanov maneuvered with adroitness his relationship with the Kremlin both in Soviet and post-Soviet era. He never joined the Communist Party while head of the Kirov (now Mariinsky) Theatre in St Petersbourg from 1976, neither was he particularly close with Boris Eltsin or Vladimir Putin.
