Igor Markevitch facts for kids
Igor Borisovich Markevitch (born July 27, 1912 – died March 7, 1983) was a famous composer and conductor. He was born in Russia but later became a citizen of Italy and France. He studied and worked in Paris for many years.
A famous ballet leader, Serge Diaghilev, asked him to write a piano concerto in 1929. During World War II, Markevitch lived in Italy. After the war, he moved to Switzerland. From there, he traveled the world as a conductor. He had two wives and five children.
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Early Life and Education
Igor Markevitch was born in Kiev (now Kyiv, Ukraine) in 1912. His family had a long history in Ukraine. His great-grandfather, Andrey Markevitch, was an important government official. He also helped start the Russian Musical Society. Igor's father was a pianist, and his mother was the daughter of a painter.
In 1914, when Igor was two, his family moved to Paris. They moved again to Switzerland in 1916 because his father was very sick. His father later died from tuberculosis.
Discovering His Talent
A famous pianist named Alfred Cortot noticed Igor's musical talent. When Igor was 14, Cortot told him to go back to Paris. There, Igor studied piano with Cortot and composition with Nadia Boulanger at the École Normale de Musique de Paris.
His Musical Journey
Igor Markevitch became well-known in 1929. This was when Serge Diaghilev, a famous ballet director, discovered him. Diaghilev asked Markevitch to write a piano concerto. He also invited him to work on a ballet with Boris Kochno, a dancer.
Diaghilev believed Markevitch would bring new life to music. Sadly, Diaghilev died in August 1929, and the ballet project stopped. However, a music publisher named Schott Music still accepted Markevitch's compositions.
A Rising Composer
During the 1930s, Markevitch created at least one major musical work each year. People thought he was one of the best composers of his time. Some even called him "the second Igor," after the famous composer Igor Stravinsky.
Markevitch worked on two ballets, Rébus (1931) and L'envol d'Icare (1932). Neither of these ballets was fully staged. However, their music was performed in concerts. L'envol d'Icare was based on the story of Icarus. It was very modern for its time, using unusual musical notes called quarter-tones.
The famous composer Béla Bartók called Markevitch "the most striking personality in contemporary music." Bartók even said Markevitch influenced his own music.
From Composing to Conducting
Markevitch kept composing as World War II began. In 1941, he finished his last original work for piano. Soon after, he became very ill. After he got better, he decided to stop composing new music. Instead, he chose to focus only on conducting orchestras.
His last projects as a composer were revising L'envol d'Icare. He also arranged music by other composers. His version of Johann Sebastian Bach's Musikalisches Opfer (Musical Offering) is especially famous.
A World-Renowned Conductor
Markevitch first conducted an orchestra at age 18. This was with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. He later studied conducting with Pierre Monteux and Hermann Scherchen. As a conductor, he was admired for his performances of French, Russian, and German music. He was also known for conducting twentieth-century music.
During World War II, he lived in Italy and helped the Italian resistance movement. After the war, in 1947, he moved to Switzerland. From there, he traveled the world to conduct. He became the main conductor of the Orchestre Lamoureux in Paris in the 1950s. He also conducted the RTVE Symphony Orchestra in Spain and the London Symphony Orchestra. He was also the main conductor of the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra.
In 1970, after almost 30 years, Markevitch started conducting his own music again. This helped his compositions become popular once more. His very last concert was in Kiev, the city where he was born. He died suddenly from a heart attack in Antibes on March 7, 1983. This happened after a concert tour in Japan and Russia.
Family Life
Igor Markevitch came from a family with many talented people. His great-great-grandfather, Mykola Markevych, was a Ukrainian historian, writer, and composer. His great-grandfather, Andriy Markevitch, was a lawyer and musician. His grandfather, Ivan Pokhitonov, was a well-known painter. Igor's brother, Dimitry Markevitch, became a famous music expert and cellist.
The Markevitch family is believed to have started about 300 years ago. Their background is sometimes debated, as the name is common in many Central European countries.
Marriages and Children
On April 20, 1936, Igor Markevitch married Kyra Nijinsky in Budapest. Kyra was the daughter of the famous ballet dancer Vaslav Nijinsky. Igor and Kyra had one son, Vaslav Markevitch, born in 1937. They later divorced.
On July 22, 1947, Markevitch married Donna Topazia Caetani in Lausanne. She was the daughter of a duke. They had two daughters, Allegra (born 1950) and Natalia (born 1951). They also had two sons, Oleg Caetani Markevitch (born 1956) and Timour Markevitch (1960-1962). Oleg later became a chief conductor in Australia.
Musical Works
Compositions
- Noces, suite for piano (1925)
- Sinfonietta in F major (1928-9)
- Piano Concerto (1929)
- Cantate for soprano, male chorus & orchestra (1929–30) (text by Jean Cocteau)
- Concerto Grosso (1930)
- Partita for piano and small orchestra (1930–31)
- Serenade for violin, clarinet and bassoon (1931)
- Rébus, ballet (1931)
- Cinéma-Ouverture (1931)
- Galop for 8 or 9 players (1932)
- L'envol d'Icare, ballet (1932); recomposed as Icare (1943)
- Hymnes for orchestra (1932–33)
- Petite suite d’apres Schumann for small orchestra (1933)
- 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)
- Cantique d’amour for orchestra (1936)
- Le nouvel âge, sinfonia concertante for orchestra with 2 pianos (1937)
- La Taille de l’homme, 'concert inachevée' for soprano and 12 instruments (1938–39, unfinished)
- Stefan le poète, 'impressions d’enfance' pour piano (1939–40)
- Lorenzo il magnifico, sinfonia concertante for soprano and orchestra (1940) (texts by Lorenzo de Medici)
- Variations, Fugue et Envoi on a Theme of Handel for piano (1941)
- Le Bleu Danube, valse de concert on themes by Johann Strauss (1944)
- 6 Songs of Mussorgsky arranged for voice and orchestra (1945)
- The Musical Offering, BWV 1079 by Johann Sebastian Bach arranged for triple orchestra (1949–50)
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
See also
In Spanish: Ígor Markévich para niños
