The Riga Jurmala Music Festival has announced the commissioning of a documentary dedicated to honouring the great Latvian conductor Mariss Jansons (1943-2019), due for broadcast in early 2022. 'Mariss Jansons: A Tale of Four Orchestras' will be directed and conceived by Peter Maniura, the Gramophone Award-winning television producer and director with more than 25 years’ experience in music and arts broadcasting at the BBC, the European Broadcasting Union and independently. Watch a preview here:

The Jansons story will be told through the eyes of the musicians from the four ensembles of which Jansons was either Music Director or Chief Conductor: the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Paying tribute to the legacy of a conductor that marked each of them, the orchestras will contribute specially filmed performances.

In addition to archival material featuring performances by and interviews with Jansons, new interviews with the orchestra musicians and others will provide insight into why Jansons was so profoundly appreciated both on and off the conducting podium. Latvian Television and the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) have already provided support by filming and providing access to their rich archives.

'Maestro Jansons was universally revered as one of the greatest of all conductors and a magical human being who transformed the orchestras he worked with and touched the lives of countless music lovers around the world,' said Zane Čulkstēna, CEO of the Riga Jurmala Music Festival. 'We are delighted that Peter Maniura is directing and we are grateful to the four orchestras who have so willingly expressed their support and involvement in this project.' To which, Maniura added: 'Mariss Jansons was a great conductor and this new film will reveal fresh insights into the music-making and the man by delving into his relationships with the four great orchestras that were most important in his life, in four very different cities: Oslo, Pittsburgh, Amsterdam and Munich. His extended family - the orchestral musicians who played for him and the conductors who learnt from him - will furnish unique and personal perspectives on his musical genius and contribute new tribute performances to celebrate his art and legacy.'