MOSCOW Russia's famed pianist and conductor Yevgeny Svetlanov died overnight at the age of 73, prompting a flood of tributes Saturday from top cultural figures.

Svetlanov, previously the chief conductor of Russia's Bolshoi Theater and the State Symphony Orchestra and the composer of numerous symphonies, was acclaimed as one of the most distinguished conductors to have emerged in Soviet-Era Russia.

His major work, including powerful interpretations of the music of Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Sergei Rakhmaninov, was recorded in the 1960s, when Svetlanov was conducting the Soviet Union's State Symphony Orchestra.

Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his condolences to Svetlanov's family, mourning "Our culture's irreplaceable loss" of "A truly great conductor, a subtle connoisseur of Russian music."

Culture Minister Mikhail Shvydkoi said that the composer deserved to be buried at Moscow's elite Novodevichy Cemetery to lie in the company of such national figures as Anton Chekhov and Dmitry Shostakovich.

Shvydkoi, who two years ago fired Svetlanov from his job as chief conductor of the State Symphony Orchestra, which he had led since 1965, defended his decision.

"Great musicians are not always great administrators," he said.

Bolshoi Theater chief conductor Alexander Vedernikov for his part said the world-famous Theater would host a memorial ceremony to mark Svetlanov's life achievements.

"A whole era has ended with him, there is no one who can exactly match his greatness. Yevgeny Svetlanov was so strikingly individual that some of his interpretations cannot simply be performed in any other way," said Vedernikov.