Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
Source: Tempo, New Series, No. 133/134 (Sep., 1980), pp. 10-13
Published by: Cambridge University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/945446
Accessed: 10-03-2015 16:51 UTC
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IGOR
MARKEVITCH:
Chronology
A
191 2
Born 27 July in Kiev, the son of Zoia Pokitonow and the pianist Boris Markevitch
(pupil of Pugno and d'Albert, and author of a piano treatise which Alfred Cortot
acknowledged as a major influence).
1914
I916
1921-2
Piano studies with his father (who dies in 1923): subsequently with Paul Loyonnet.
Classical studies at Vevey College.
192
Alfred Cortot hears him play his piano suite Noces. Cortot recommends the suite to
his publishers, Senart, and invites Markevitch to join his piano class in Paris.
1926
Enters the Ecole Normale de Musique, Paris, to study piano with Cortot, and
harmony, counterpoint, and composition with Nadia Boulanger.
1927
Publication of Noces.
1928
1929
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MARKEVITCH: A CHRONOLOGY
II
1930
4 June: Desormiere conducts the world premiere of the Cantata. 'This Cantata'
writes the composer Henri Sauguet, 'achieved an immense success . . . It bears witness
to a very rare mastery, and to a marvellous balance of intelligence and esprit'.
August-September: Markevitch writes to Willy Strecker, the eminent music publisher
and director of Schott (Mainz), offering the Sinfonietta, the Piano Concerto,and the
Cantata for publication. Strecker enthusiastically accepts all three works. With his
courageous support, Schott are to remain Markevitch's exclusive publishers until
political events supervene in 1938.
8 December: Paris premiere of ConcertoGrossois received with great enthusiasm: 'a
door suddenly opens on the future . . . Markevitch has formidable technique and a
truly unique invention' (Darius Milhaud, L'Europe, 13 December).
1931
24 April, Hans Rosbaud conducts the orchestra of Frankfurt Radio in the German
premieres of the ConcertoGrossoand the Piano Concerto(with the composer as soloist).
1932
Is December, the Paris premiere of Rebus(in a programme beginning with Schoenberg-Bach and Satie's Parade, and ending with The Rite of Spring) is a major triumph
for the composer. 'Today, when, according to the phrase of Paul Dukas, "we no
longer find our new talent in the list of the deceased but in the list of the births" we
have had many disappointments . . . So I am in no particular hurry to proclaim the
genius of even the most gifted musicians. But in the case of Markevitch, after the new
work he has just given us, doubt is no longer permissible . . . His music is not
young. He is a little like Menuhin, who, when he was i o, played like a master and
not like a child prodigy. His accomplishments are amazing . . . When anyone congratulates the admirable Nadia Boulanger on having made such a splendid pupil, she
laughs and says that he knew the secrets of counterpoint before he was born. I should
add that Markevitch on every occasion pays homage to his teacher.' (Henry Prunieres,
New YorkTimes, I o January 32).
1933
1934-36
Periodic conducting studies in Switzerland with Hermann Scherchen, who becomes one
of the leading advocates of his music.
1934
4 April: at the ISCM Festival in Florence, Markevitch conducts the Italian premiere of his
Psaume, 'creating a sensation, and shocking the audience into loud shouts of protest'
(Slonimsky, Musicsince 900).
1935
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TEMPO
12
1936
April, marries Kyra, the daughter of Vaslav Nijinsky, and acquires a new home in
Corsier (Switzerland).
8 May, continental premiere of Le Paradis perdu in Brussels: 'Le Paradis perdu achieved
an immense success in Brussels; however, I am not under any illusion about the significance of this success; the battle has only begun, because the stakes are large: in my
view, Paradis marks a turning point in music!'. (Boris de Schloezer, Vendredi,22
May 36.) 'A great work. A very great work, continuing the path which is lined with
such monuments of the lyric stage as Boris, Pelleas, The Rite, and Les Noces'. (Andre
Coeuroy,
1937
1938
1941
Bernard Berenson lends Markevitch a peasant cottage on his Settignano estate near
Florence; this is to be his home for the next six years. His circle of friends now
includes Luigi Dallapiccola (who writes the introductory notes for the premiere of
Lorenzoil magnificoon 12 January) and the conductor Vittorio Gui. In October he
completes what was to be his last original composition, the Variations,Fugue, and Envoi
on a Themeof Handel.
I942
At the end of a 'a hard, a very hard, winter' (as he describes it in a letter to Alex de
Graeff of 7 April 42) he falls seriously ill. While recuperating in a clinic in Fiesole
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MARKEVITCH: A CHRONOLOGY
he senses himself to be 'dead between two lives'. A new life of conducting is already
in its formative stages, and during the coming year he is to give a number of concerts
in Florence.
1943
Recomposes Icare.
October: Germany invades Italy. Markevitch renounces his conducting commitments,
joins cause with the Italian Resistance, and becomes a member of the Committee of
Liberation (CLN).
1944
1946
I947
Acquires Italian citizenship, and following the dissolution of his first marriage, marries
Topazia Caetani. His international conducting career now begins; during the next
30 years he is to hold permanent conducting posts in many cities, including Stockholm, Paris (Lamoureux Orchestra), Montreal, Madrid, Monte Carlo, and Rome;
also conducting courses in Salzburg, Mexico, Moscow, Madrid, Monte Carlo, and
Weimar.
1948
1949
I954
I 956
1958
In a book of interviews with Claude Rostand, confirms his already-stated view that the
time is not ripe for performing his music again.
I969
During another serious illness, plans a course of lectures on Beethoven 9th Symphony
for his conducting pupils. Totalling some 6o hours, the course provides the initiative
for an encyclopedic edition of all the Beethoven symphonies which occupies much of
his time and energies during the 1970's, and is now (summer I98o) being prepared
for publication by Peters-Leipzig.
1978
January: after more than three decades, Markevitch 'returns' to his music, conducting
a concert in Brussels which includes Icare and Le Paradis perdu. 'These works have lost
nothing of their strength and interest, and we see better than before what gives them
their unity and their originality'. (Le Soir, g February 78)
1978-80
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