Igor Markevitch: Difference between revisions

Igor Markevitch (July 27, 1912 - March 7, 1983) was a Ukrainian composer and conductor.

Life

Born in Kiev, his family moved to Switzerland in 1914. His musical gifts were first noted by Alfred Cortot, who took him to Paris in 1926 for training as a composer and pianist, where he would study under Nadia Boulanger. He gained recognition in 1929 with the performance of his Concerto Grosso in Paris. Béla Bartók once described Markevitch as "...the most striking personality in contemporary music..." and cited him as an influence on his own composing [1].

Markevitch made his debut as a conductor at age 18 with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. As a conductor, Markevitch was well-respected for his interpretations of the French and Russian repertory (such as Tchaikovsky) and of twentieth-century music. He settled in Italy and became an Italian citizen. During the Second World War he was active with the partisan movement. He would relocate to London in 1953, and since 1965 he worked for the Spanish RTVE Orchestra. He died suddenly in Antibes on March 7, 1983.

His brother Dimitry Markevitch was a notable musicologist and cellist.

Works

Compositions

Works by Igor Markevitch include:

• Partita (1931) for piano and small orchestra
• L'Envol d'Icare(1932) Ballet for orchestra
• Le Paradis Perdu (1934-35) Oratorio for soloists, chorus and orchestra
• Lorenzo il Magnifico (1940) for soprano and orchestra

Theory

• Historical, analytical and practical studies of Beethoven symphonies (Die Sinfonien von Ludwig van Beethoven: historische, analytische und praktische Studien; published by Edition Peters, Leipzig, 1982) - popular literature for conductors, although disputed.

External links

• Biography at Boosey & Hawkes
• Naxos biography
• Online biography
• Another online biography