Led Zeppelin, Valery Gergiev bag Polar Music Prize Legendary British rock group Led Zeppelin and Russian conductor Valery Gergiev Monday received the Polar Music Prize 2006 for their contributions to music

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Led Zeppelin, Valery Gergiev bag Polar Music Prize
Indo-Asian News Service

Stockholm, May 22 (IANS) Legendary British rock group Led Zeppelin and Russian conductor Valery Gergiev Monday received the Polar Music Prize 2006 for their contributions to music.

The awards, each worth one million kronor ($126,000), were presented by Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf at a gala ceremony at the Stockholm Concert Hall.

Led Zeppelin, among the pioneers of rock music, were honoured for "their playful and experimental music combined with highly eclectic elements has two essential themes - mysticism and primal energy".

"These are features that have come to define the genre hard rock," the jury cited.

"Gergiev has been awarded for the way his unique, electrifying musical skills have deepened and renewed our relationship with the grand tradition; and for how he has managed to develop and amplify the importance of artistic music in these modern, changing times," his citation said.

The late Stig Anderson, publisher, lyricist and manager of ABBA, founded the Polar Music Prize in 1989.

Individuals who have been bestowed with the prize since its inception in 1992 are: Sir Paul McCartney, Dizzy Gillespie, Witold Lutoslawski, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Quincy Jones, Mstislav Rostropovitch, Sir Elton John, Joni Mitchell, Pierre Boulez, Bruce Springsteen, Eric Ericson, Ray Charles, Ravi Shankar, Iannis Xenakis, Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan, Isaac Stern, Burt Bacharach, Robert Moog, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Sofia Gubaidulina, Miriam Makeba, Keith Jarrett, B.B. King, György Ligeti, Gilberto Gil and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau.

Gergiev, together with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, performed a concert - Shostakovich Symphony No. 11 at the concert hall.