Igor Markevitch
Igor Markevitch was a leading conductor, known for brilliant performances, especially of twentieth century music. He was also a composer who attracted some interest in his own day. His parents left Kiev when he was two years old. Markevitch was brought up in Vevey, Switzerland. He took piano lessons from his father and then with Paul Loyonnet and also started to compose. The pianist Alfred Cortot saw some of his piano compositions and recommended that the boy study in Paris. In 1925 he enrolled in Cortot's piano class at the École Normale de Musique. He studied harmony, counterpoint, and composition with Nadia Boulanger. The ballet impresario Serge Diaghilev commissioned him to write a piano concerto and a ballet. The concerto premiered in London in 1929, but Diaghilev's death in August of that year caused Markevitch to stop work on the ballet, instead recycling materials from it into a cantata, premiered with great success in Paris on June 4, 1930. Later that year, another new work, a Concerto Grosso, received even greater acclaim. The ballet, Rébus, was first staged in December 1931, and was hailed as a great composition. The next ballet, L'envol d'Icare (June 1933), was once again highly praised. But after this Markevitch began to receive criticism for his use of unrelieved dissonance and his novel use of instruments.
Meanwhile, Markevitch had begun to conduct, debuting on the podium with the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra in 1930. He studied conducting with Hermann Scherchen in 1935. His composing activities dropped off as he increased his conducting. He spent World War II in Italy, having acquired Italian citizenship. In 1944 he was appointed music director of the Maggio Musicale Orchestra in Florence. He began conducting full time, coming into demand as a guest conductor, and held a variety of directorships or principal conducting appointments with the Stockholm Symphony Orchestra (1952-1955), the Montreal Symphony Orchestra (1956-1960), the Havana Philharmonic Orchestra (1957-1958), the Concerts Lamoureux of Paris (1957-1961), the Spanish Radio and Television Orchestra (1965-1969), the Monte Carlo Orchestra (1967), and the orchestra of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome (1967-1972). His American debut was with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1955. He also began giving conducting master classes, especially in Monte Carlo, from 1969.
He was known for his performance of the Russian repertory and twentieth century music. He had a quick temper, reflected in his music in sharp emotional shifts, yet the music was meticulously prepared and nearly always followed the composer's directions with exceptional care. In the late '90s, his recordings came back into demand in re-release, and even his compositions were finding a small but interested market and were praised anew for their originality.
© TiVo
Similar artists
-
Mussorgsky: Songs; Tcherepnin: Tati-Tati; L. Mozart: Toy Symphony; Bizet: Jeux d'enfants
Ussr Symphony Orchestra, Igor Markevitch
Classical - Released by Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. on 27 Aug 2021
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6; Francesca da Rimini (Igor Markevitch – The Deutsche Grammophon Legacy: Volume 13)
Berliner Philharmoniker, Orchestre Lamoureux, Igor Markevitch
Classical - Released by Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. on 1 Jan 1956
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 'Eroica' (Igor Markevitch – The Deutsche Grammophon Legacy: Volume 5)
Symphony of the Air, Igor Markevitch
Classical - Released by Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. on 1 Jan 1957
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi : Messa da Requiem (30 avril 1953)
Orchestre National de la RTF - Igor Markevitch - Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
Classical - Released by Ina Archives on 20 Jan 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Berlioz: La Damnation de Faust (Igor Markevitch – The Deutsche Grammophon Legacy: Volume 10)
Richard Verreau, Consuelo Rubio, Michel Roux, Pierre Mollet, Orchestre Lamoureux, Igor Markevitch
Classical - Released by Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. on 1 Jan 1960
The Qobuz Essential Discography16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Igor Stravinski - Piotr Ilyitch Tchaïkovski - Benjamin Britten
Classical - Released by CD Accord on 1 Jan 2002
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven & Gluck: Orchestral Works
Symphony of the Air, Orchestre Lameroux, Igor Markevitch
Classical - Released by Urania Records on 1 Oct 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Albert Roussel, Francis Poulenc, Henri Dutilleux - Florilège de la Musique Classique Moderne et Contemporaine - Highlights of Modern and Contemporary Classical Music - Vol. 19
Classical - Released by ISIS on 31 Mar 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mahler: Symphony No. 1 in D Major "Titan" & Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen
Gustav Mahler, Igor Markevitch, Orchestre National de France, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI di Torino, Eugenia Zareska, Carl Schuricht
Classical - Released by Stradivarius on 30 Jan 1989
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi : Messa da Requiem (07 Mai 1959)
Orchestre National de la RTF - Igor Markevitch
Opera - Released by Ina, musique(s) on 3 Feb 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Brahms & Beethoven: Piano Concertos (Live)
Claudio Arrau, Orchestre National de France, Concertgebouworkest, Paul Kletzki, Igor Markevitch, Carl Schuricht
Classical - Released by Archipel on 25 May 2010
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Glinka · Una Vita per lo Zar
Boris Christoff, Nicolai Gedda, Igor Markevitch, Orchestra dell'Associazione dei Concerti di Lamoreux
Classical - Released by G.O.P. on 30 Nov 2022
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Beethoven: Orchestral Works
Igor Markevitch, Orchestre Lamoureux
Classical - Released by Artemisia on 6 Nov 2020
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Master of Classic Music, Borodin - Mussorgsky - Glière, Polovetzian Dances from "Prince Igor" Night on the Bare Mountain Sailors Dance from "The Red Poppy"
Igor Markevitch, Choeurs et Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Française, Orchestre National de la Radioffusion française
Classical - Released by Oscardigital on 18 Aug 1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Igor Markevitch in Italy (Live)
Orchestra Sinfonica di Torino della RAI, Igor Markevitch
Classical - Released by Andromeda on 3 Jun 2022
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Verdi: Requiem (Live in Moscou, 1960)
Classical - Released by Ica Classics on 30 Apr 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Berlioz, Mussorgsky & Mozart: Orchestral Works
Berlin Deutsches Symphony Orchestra, Berliner Philharmoniker, Igor Markevitch
Classical - Released by Andromeda on 1 Jul 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The World's Greatest Symphonies, Vol. 3
Igor Markevitch, Arturo Toscanini
Classical - Released by Documents 2 on 25 Nov 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Markevitch Conducts Verdi, Brahms, Mussorgsky, Stravinsky and Others
Classical - Released by Urania on 9 Feb 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Darius Milhaud - Florilège de la Musique Classique Moderne et Contemporaine - Highlights of Modern and Contemporary Classical Music - Vol. 18
Igor Markevitch, Georges Prêtrte
Classical - Released by ISIS on 31 Mar 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Victoria: Magnificat; Espla (Y Triay): De Profundis
Classical - Released by Universal Music Australia Pty. Ltd. on 1 Jan 1967
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo