View source for Igor Markevitch

{{Short description|Conductor and composer (1912–1983)}}
[[File:Igor Markevitch portrait.jpg|thumb|upright|Igor Markevitch circa 1960]]
'''Igor Borisovich Markevitch''' ({{langx|ru|Игорь Борисович Маркевич}}, ''Igor Borisovich Markevich'', {{langx|uk|Ігор Борисович Маркевич}}, ''Ihor Borysovych Markevych''; 27 July 1912 &ndash; 7 March 1983) was a Russian<ref>{{Cite news |date=March 8, 1983 |title=Igor Markevitch; Innovative Conductor |work=[[St. Louis Post-Dispatch]] |agency=[[United Press International|UPI]] |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/112143255/st-louis-post-dispatch/ |access-date=October 27, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221028030810/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/112143255/st-louis-post-dispatch/ |archive-date=October 28, 2022 |quote=Igor Markevitch, the Russian-born composer and conductor... |via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=March 8, 1983 |title=Composer dies |work=[[Birmingham Mail|Birmingham Evening Mail]] |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/112143284/birmingham-evening-mail/ |access-date=October 27, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221028031103/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/112143284/birmingham-evening-mail/ |archive-date=October 28, 2022 |quote=The Russian-born conductor-composer Igor Markevitch... |via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Pajares |first=Fernando |date=March 8, 1983 |title=Markevitch revolucionó la música |language=Spanish |work=[[El Nuevo Herald|El Miami Herald]] |agency=[[EFE|Agencia EFE]] |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/112143102/el-miami-herald/ |access-date=October 27, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221028031336/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/112143102/el-miami-herald/ |archive-date=October 28, 2022 |quote=De origen ruso y naturalizado italiano... |via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref> [[composer]] and [[conducting|conductor]] who studied and worked in Paris and became a naturalized Italian and French citizen in 1947 and 1982 respectively. He was commissioned in 1929 for a piano concerto by impresario [[Serge Diaghilev]] of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo.

Markevitch settled in Italy during World War II. After the war, he moved to Switzerland. He had an international conducting career from there. He was married twice and had three sons and two daughters.

==Early life==
{{unreferencedsect|date=August 2024}}
He was born in [[Kiev]], [[Kiev Governorate]], [[Russian Empire]] (today Kyiv, [[Ukraine]]) to a family of Ukrainian Cossack ''[[starshyna]]'' who were ennobled in the 18th century. His great-grandfather Andrey Markevitch was a Secretary of State at the time of [[Alexander II of Russia]], Actual Privy Councilor in [[St. Petersburg]] and co-founder of the [[Russian Musical Society]]. Igor was the son of pianist Boris Markevitch and Zoia Pokhitonova (daughter of painter Ivan Pokhitonov). The family moved to [[Paris]] in 1914 when he was two years old. They moved again to [[Switzerland]] in 1916 during [[World War I]] because of his father's failing health (he later died of tuberculosis). The French pianist [[Alfred Cortot]] recognized the boy's talent. He advised him at age 14 in 1926 to go to Paris for training in both composition and piano at the [[École Normale de Musique de Paris|École Normale]], where he studied piano under Cortot and composition under [[Nadia Boulanger]].

==Career==
Markevitch gained important recognition in 1929 when choreographer-impresario [[Serge Diaghilev]] discovered him and commissioned a piano concerto from him. In addition, Diaghilev invited him to collaborate on a ballet with [[Boris Kochno]], a dancer and librettist. In a letter to the London Times, Diaghilev hailed Markevitch as the composer who would put an end to 'a scandalous period of music ... of cynical-sentimental simplicity'.<ref>'Igor Markevitch: A Chronology', ''Tempo 133/4'', p. 10.</ref> The ballet project came to an end with Diaghilev's death on 19 August 1929, but Markevitch's compositions were accepted by the publisher [[Schott Music|Schott]].

He produced at least one major work per year during the 1930s. He was rated among the leading contemporary composers of the time, even to the extent of being hailed as "the second Igor", after [[Igor Stravinsky]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fleisher |first1=Leon and Anne Midgette |title=My Nine Lives: A Memoir of Many Careers in Music |date=2010 |publisher=Anchor Books |location=New York |isbn=9780767931373 |page=119 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q3nvJkPUEfYC |access-date=8 July 2020}}</ref> Markevitch collaborated on the ballet score ''Rébus'' with [[Leonid Massine]] in 1931; and ''[[L'envol d'Icare]]'' in 1932 with [[Serge Lifar]].  Neither was staged, but both scores were performed in concert. ''L'envol d'Icare'', based on the legend of the fall of [[Icarus]], which Markevitch recorded in 1938 conducting the Belgian National Orchestra, was especially radical, introducing [[quarter-tones]] in both woodwinds and strings.<ref>'Icare' by Clive Bennett in ''Tempo No. 133/134'' (September 1980), p. 45.</ref> (In 1943 he revised the work under the title ''Icare'', eliminating the quarter tones and simplifying the rhythms and orchestration.) [[Béla Bartók]] once described Markevitch as "...the most striking personality in contemporary music..." and claimed him as an influence on his own creative work.<ref name="naxos">{{cite web |title=Igor Markevitch |url=https://www.naxos.com/person/Igor_Markevitch_22633/22633.htm |website=Naxos.com |publisher=Naxos Music Group |access-date=8 July 2020}}</ref> An independent version of ''L'envol d'Icare'' for two pianos and percussion, which Bartók heard, is believed to have influenced the latter's own ''Sonata for 2 Pianos and Percussion''.<ref>Bennett, 1980, p. 4.</ref>

Markevitch continued composing as war approached, but in October 1941, not long after completing his last original work, the ''Variations, Fugue and Envoi on a Theme of Handel'' for piano, he fell seriously ill. After recovering, he decided to give up composition and focus exclusively on conducting. His last compositional projects were the revision of ''L'envol d'Icare'' and arrangements of other composers' music. His version of [[Johann Sebastian Bach|J. S. Bach]]'s ''Musikalisches Opfer'' (Musical Offering) is especially notable.

He had débuted as a conductor at age 18 with the [[Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra]]. After presiding at the Dutch premiere of ''Rébus'', Markevitch had studied conducting with [[Pierre Monteux]] and [[Hermann Scherchen]].<ref>Lyndon-Gee, C. Liner notes for Marco Polo CD 8.223666 Complete Orchestral Music Vol 
2, 1996; taken from research by [[David Drew (music critic)|David Drew]], ''[[Tempo (journal)|Tempo]]'' 133-134, September 1980.</ref> As a conductor, he was much admired for his interpretations of the French, Russian and Austro-German repertory, and of twentieth-century music in general.

He settled in Italy, and during the [[Second World War]] was active in the [[Italian resistance movement|partisan movement]]. He married and settled in Switzerland in 1947 following the war. He pursued his conducting career worldwide. He became permanent conductor of the [[Orchestre Lamoureux]] in Paris in the 1950s, conducted the [[RTVE Symphony Orchestra|Spanish RTVE Orchestra]] in 1965, the London Symphony Orchestra in 1966 and was also permanent conductor of the [[Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra]].

In 1970, after ignoring his own compositions for nearly 30 years, Markevitch began to conduct his own music frequently, triggering its slow revival. His last concert was in Kiev, his birthplace. He died suddenly from a [[myocardial infarction|heart attack]] in [[Antibes]] on 7 March 1983, after a concert tour in Japan and Russia.

==Family==
A great-great-grandfather, [[Mykola Markevych]], was a Ukrainian historian, [[ethnographer]], composer and poet. A great-grandfather, [[Andriy Markevitch]], was an activist, [[ethnographer]], lawyer, philanthropist, and musician. His maternal grandfather was well-known painter [[Ivan Pokhitonov]] (1850 – 1923). His brother [[Dimitry Markevitch]] became a noted [[musicologist]] and [[cellist]].

The Ukrainian Markevitch (also spelled in Polish as Markiewicz) family is believed to have originated 300 years ago from a common paternal ancestor and his wife. Their ethnicity is disputed as Polish, [[Ukrainians|Ukrainian]], or [[Serbs|Serbian]], as the patronymic name is widespread among central European peoples.<ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20191024065055/http://muzeysheremetievyh.com/content/212.html]}}, Muzeysheremetievyh {{uk}}</ref><ref>[http://spilka.uaweb.org/library/zydy_kozacy.html]  {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131022075530/http://spilka.uaweb.org/library/zydy_kozacy.html |date=October 22, 2013 }}</ref>

In Budapest on 20 April 1936 Markevitch married [[Kyra Nijinsky]] (19 June 1914 – 1 September 1998), daughter of the great ballet dancer [[Vaslav Nijinsky]] and his wife [[Romola de Pulszky]].<ref>{{cite web|author=Nadine Meisner |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-kyra-nijinsky-1179785.html |title=Obituary: Kyra Nijinsky - Arts & Entertainment |work=The Independent |date=1998-10-22 |access-date=2013-05-07}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mijnstambomen.nl/ballet/kyra.htm |title=Kyra Nijinsky |publisher=Mijnstambomen.nl |date=1936-04-24 |access-date=2013-05-07}}</ref> they had a son Vaslav Markevitch (20 January 1937 – 12 January 2024 <ref>{{cite web|author=Family|title=Obituary|url=https://www.hommages.ch/fr/avis-de-deces/vaslav-markevitch}}</ref>) before they divorced.

Secondly, Markevitch married in Lausanne on 22 July 1947 Donna Topazia [[Caetani]] (1921 – 1990), the only child of Don Michelangelo Caetani dei Duchi di Sermoneta and his wife, the former Cora Antinori.<ref>Informations as to ''Villa Caetani'' playing a significant role in the [[Kidnapping of Aldo Moro|Aldo Moro kidnapping]], now transcend the level of rumours.</ref> Cora Caetani ran the boutique of Jansen, the Paris decorating firm. Their son, [[Oleg Caetani]] (b. 1956), became chief conductor and artistic director of the [[Melbourne Symphony Orchestra]] in Australia. They also had two daughters together: Allegra (b. 1950) and Natalia (Nathalie, b. 1951), and another son, Timour Markevitch (1960–1962).

==Works==

===Compositions===

====Stage====
*''Rébus'', ballet (1931)
*''[[L'envol d'Icare|L'Envol d'Icare]]'', ballet (1932); recomposed as ''Icare'' (1943)

====Orchestral/Concertante====
*Sinfonietta in F major (1928-9)
*Piano Concerto (1929)
*Concerto Grosso (1930)
*''Partita'', for piano and small orchestra (1930–31)
*''Cinéma-Ouverture'' (1931)
*''Hymnes'' (1932–33)
*''Petite Suite, d’après [[Robert Schumann|Schumann]]'', for small orchestra (1933)
*''Cantique d’Amour'' (1936)
*''Le Nouvel Âge'' (1937)
*''Le Bleu Danube'', valse de concert on themes by [[Johann Strauss II|Johann Strauss]] (1944)
*''[[The Musical Offering]], [[BWV]] 1079'' by [[Johann Sebastian Bach]], arranged for triple orchestra (1949–50)

====Vocal/Choral====
*''Cantate'', for soprano, male chorus & orchestra (1929–30) (text by [[Jean Cocteau]])
*''Psaume'', for soprano and small orchestra (1933)
*''Le Paradis Perdu'', oratorio (1934–35) (text by Markevitch after [[John Milton]])
*''Trois Poèmes'', for high voice and piano (1935) (texts by Cocteau, [[Plato]], [[Goethe]])
*''La Taille de l’Homme'', 'concert inachevé' for soprano and 12 instruments (1938–39, unfinished, but Part I complete and performable)
*''Lorenzo il Magnifico'', sinfonia concertante for soprano and orchestra (1940) (texts by [[Lorenzo de Medici]])
*''6 Songs of [[Mussorgsky]]'', arranged for voice and orchestra (1945)

====Chamber/Instrumental====
*''Noces'', suite for piano (1925)
*''Sérénade'', for violin, clarinet and bassoon (1931)
*''Galop'', for 8 or 9 players (1932)
*''Stefan le Poète'', 'Impressions d’Enfance', pour piano (1939–40)
*''Variations, Fugue et Envoi on a Theme of [[Handel]]'', for piano (1941)

===Theory===
*''Die Sinfonien von Ludwig van Beethoven: historische, analytische und praktische Studien'' (''The Symphonies of Beethoven: Historical, Analytical, and Practical Studies'') — published by [[Edition Peters]], Leipzig, 1982

==Sources==
*[https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50710F63C5D0C7B8CDDAA0894DB484D81 ''The New York Times'']
*''Tempo 133/4'' (September 1980) Igor Markevitch double issue.
* Birth centenary exhibition "Igor Markevitch compositeur et chef d'orchestre 1912/2012" Château de Chillon, Switzerland. Catalogue.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{allmusicguide|id=igor-markevitch-mn0002057400}}
*{{discogs artist|Igor Markevitch}}
*[http://www.boosey.com/pages/cr/composer/composer_main.asp?composerid=2789 Igor Markevitch biography] at [[Boosey & Hawkes]]
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20060403002442/http://classical-composers.org/cgi-bin/ccd.cgi?comp=markevitch Igor Markevitch biography] at Classical Composers Database
*[[František Sláma (musician)]] [http://www.frantisekslama.com/en/conductors-part-2 Archive] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160925113121/http://www.frantisekslama.com/en/conductors-part-2 |date=2016-09-25 }}. More on the history of the Czech Philharmonic between the 1940s and the 1980s: ''Conductors''

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{{Modernist composers}}
{{Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra conductors}}
{{Accademia di Santa Cecilia conductors}}
{{Montreal Symphony conductors}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Markevitch, Igor}}
[[Category:1912 births]]
[[Category:1983 deaths]]

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[[Category:20th-century Italian male musicians]]
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[[Category:Naturalised citizens of Italy]]
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[[Category:20th-century French composers]]
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