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Igor Also available in this series: MARKEVITCH Complete Orchestral Works • 3 Cantique d’Amour • L’Envol d’Icare • Concerto Grosso Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra • Lyndon-Gee

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Igor Markevitch (1912-1983) Christopher Lyndon-Gee Complete Orchestral Works • 3 Christopher Lyndon-Gee was recently honoured as one of only three hundred conductors included in Naxos’s 600- This third volume of the complete orchestral works of himself “dead between two lives”. But this alone cannot page book and CD compilation A to Z of Conductors, covering the entire history of the art-form from Hans von Igor Markevitch includes the first recordings of fully explain the reasons for his abandoning Bülow and Arthur Nikisch to the present day. Christopher Lyndon-Gee was nominated for Grammys in 1998 for Cantique d’Amour and Concerto Grosso; L’Envol composition; and his autobiography Être et avoir été, ‘Best Orchestral Performance’ for the first volume of his groundbreaking series of the complete works of Igor d’Icare was previously recorded by the composer in published in 1980, obfuscates and misleads even as it Markevitch (originally released on Marco Polo); in 2003 for the world première recording of George Rochberg’s 1938 on poorly-preserved 78 rpm shellac discs. Other makes a show of revealing the writer’s inner life. Symphony No. 5 on Naxos American Classics; and again in 2007 for Hans Werner Henze’s Violin Concertos Nos. 1 than that single recording and a handful of radio Markevitch is dissimilar to the “conductor- and 3, with Peter Sheppard Skærved and the Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra (now the Deutsche Radio- broadcasts, the present series is the first ever made of composer” model exemplified by Furtwängler, Philharmonie). Other recordings have been listed among The Gramophone ‘Editor’s Choice’ in London, Fanfare the arrestingly original orchestral music of a composer Klemperer, Weingartner and many others between the magazine ‘Outstanding CDs of the Year’, Penguin Guide to Compact Discs’ multiple Rosettes and Key Recordings hailed in the 1930s as one of the most challenging wars. On the contrary, he emerged first as a listings, and he won the Pizzicato prize in Luxembourg. He was named ‘Artist of the Year’ by the Australian voices of his time, yet subsequently ignored — not least phenomenally gifted adolescent composer exalted by National Critics Circle in 1994, and won the Sydney Opera Critics ‘Best Conductor’ award the same year. by himself. Thus these discs may offer the beginnings of his contemporaries on the basis of an astoundingly Acclaimed recent releases include George Rochberg’s Symphony No. 1 in its première recording (Naxos 8.559214); an opportunity to decipher the mystery that is Igor assured series of early scores, turning to conducting volume 2 of the complete works of Edgard Varèse (8.557882), including the massive original version of Amériques, Markevitch. almost reluctantly when required by his own work and for an orchestra of 155 players; and the completion of the Markevitch complete works project, the oratorio The singular precedent of Rossini, who retired from by the hardships of post-war life. Yet, after changing Le Paradis perdu, released in 2008. Frequently invited to conduct at the Warsaw Autumn Festival, he conducted the composition of opera at the age of 38 to become a course to this new career exclusively as conductor at four world premières on a single concert at the Jubilee, Fiftieth anniversary Festival in 2007 — new symphonies by restaurateur, but continued to write salon music and thirty, he all but denied the existence of his own music the Slovakian composer Roman Berger; Lithuania’s leading female composer Onute Narbutaite; and the Polish sacred works, seems hardly comparable. Markevitch’s until nearly seventy years old. When questioned in 1958 composers Jerzy Kornowicz and Aleksand’r Lason. In 2006 he led the closing concert at the November 2006 ‘Pawel renunciation at 29 of his identity as a composer is a about his early life as composer, he diffidently replied: Szymanski Festival’, also in Warsaw, featuring six of the major works of Poland’s leading composer of today. unique case in the history of music. To quote David “I would say to you, very frankly, that I am objective In 2008, a four-DVD set including this complete concert was released worldwide by Polskie Wydawnictwo Drew, “It is a silence like no other in the music of this enough to claim that there is music which needs to be Audiowizualne. As a composer, Lyndon-Gee was honoured by the Onassis Foundation Prize in 2001, has won the century or before”. heard before mine, and for which the need is more ‘Sounds Australian’ award three times, the Adolf Spivakovsky Prize, and the MacDowell Fellowship twice. At first glance the eclipse during his lifetime of urgent. Apart from that, if my works are good enough, In 2006, his setting from Dante’s Paradiso, ‘Frammento del Dante’, was premièred in Florence by the Echo- Markevitch’s reputation as a composer appears due, they can wait; and if they cannot wait, it is pointless to Klassiek prize-winning German ensemble SingerPur; Musik für SaitenInstrumente has had recent performances in more than any other single factor, to the dimensions of play them.” several countries (including Vladivostock, in far eastern Russia); and ‘Over Litton’, after a poem of Edward Storey, his success as a conductor. What has yet to be fully The facts of his “first life” are remarkable enough. was premièred in Wales as a 25th anniversary Presteigne Festival Commission before being taken up widely in New explained, however, is why his life divides so Born in Ki’ev on 27th July, 1912, he moved with his York, Australia and elsewhere. In progress are forthcoming commissions of a set of songs for Lute and Tenor voice, dramatically and uncompromisingly into two halves – family to Paris in 1914, before settling in Switzerland. Lieder des Morgensterns; a new work for SingerPur on a text from Milton; a String Quartet; a second string clearly a conscious decision on his part, and one whose As early as the age of thirteen, he played his piano suite orchestra work for the German conductor Eckart Schloifer, ‘… und unter den Blättern saß Er, weinend’; a work for true reasons this intensely private man seems to have Noces to Alfred Cortot, who recommended the work to ‘Harpsichord Unlimited’ in New York, Etudes canoniques; and a Symphony respectfully dedicated to the aboriginal sought to keep hidden. Markevitch’s last original his publishers and invited the boy to study with him. In heritage of Australia, Symphony of Dreamtime. Lyndon-Gee studied conducting under Rudolf Schwarz in London, composition was written in 1941 at the age of 29, and he January 1929, before his seventeenth birthday, he and Franco Ferrara in Rome, where Leonard Bernstein heard him conduct a student concert, subsequently inviting never again returned to the creative endeavours that had enraptured Dyagilev with his Sinfonietta in F, leading in him to study at Tanglewood. Here he later worked also under Maurice Abravanel, Erich Leinsdorf and others. He brought him such renown and adulation when barely in a matter of months to the young composer completing worked as Bruno Maderna’s assistant at La Scala, Milan, later becoming second conductor at the Teatro Regio in his twenties. The trauma of the Second World War and playing his new Piano Concerto at Covent Garden Turin, working also with the RAI orchestra in that city. He was co-founder with composer Lorenzo Ferrero of the marks a sharp dividing line during which the composer (in concert form between L’Après-midi d’un faune and Ensemble Fase Seconda, who premièred dozens of commissioned new works throughout Italy, Germany, France appears to have undergone a mental, as well as physical Renard, at what the influential social columns of and at many international festivals. As composer, he studied with Goffredo Petrassi in Rome, Luciano Berio, crisis, for in 1942 Markevitch suffered a serious illness London’s Sketch referred to as a “rehearsal party” for a Sylvano Bussotti and Jean Martinon. Britain’s great musicologist Arthur Hutchings remains a powerful guiding while living in Tuscany, and in a letter of the same year select group of intelligentsia including, apparently, influence, several decades on. written during his recuperation declared that he sensed Virginia Woolf). Soon after, he started work on a major

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Het Gelders Orkest (Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra) ballet score, L’Habit du Roi (The Emperor’s New rhythms of adolescence that he felt a stranger had been Clothes), to be choreographed by Lifar with décor by born within, an alien persona that guided him beyond Based in Arnhem, the Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra gives some hundred symphony concerts each season in the Picasso. In short, he was at seventeen launched by any of his desires. province of Gelderland, in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht, and abroad, including tours to Spain, Austria, Dyagilev on a path that brought worldwide fame as a It is undoubtedly more than coincidental that at Germany and Hungary. In 2007 the orchestra toured Japan for the first time and returns there in 2009. From the composer by the time he was twenty. nineteen Markevitch should have turned to the Icarus 2003-2004 season Martin Sieghart took over as Chief Conductor and artistic adviser of the orchestra. Ken-ichro “I was his last discovery” were Markevitch’s words myth for his first truly individual work, L’Envol d’Icare, Kobayashi was appointed Permanent Conductor from the 2006-2007 season, and Nikolai Alexeev Permanent Guest in a revealing 1972 interview with the New York dance a score which he continued to re-work in various forms Conductor in 2002. Former Chief Conductors include Lawrence Renes, Roberto Benzi and Yoav Talmi. Other critic John Gruen; and indeed, the manner in which for more than a decade. Icarus, who flew too close to the conductors who have regularly made guest appearances with the orchestra in the past years include Bernard Klee, Dyagilev, “the greatest agent-provocateur that ever sun and fell to earth embodies a vivid image of the fate Hans Vonk, Jaap van Zweden and Roy Goodman. Soloists such as Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Leif Ove Andsnes, Zoltan existed”, took him up must at least in part have been a of the young composer, swept along by the frenetic Koscis, Nicolai Znaider and Akiko Suwanai are also among those who have performed with the orchestra. journey into nostalgia for the impresario. Markevitch Paris of the 1930s. Indeed, the most striking passage of Recordings by the Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra include the symphonies of Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Brahms and could hardly have entered more fully into the world of Icare is the lengthy, hypnotic, ecstatic-obsessive Berlioz, with an enthusiastic reception by the press in both Japan and The Netherlands for recordings of Mahler’s the Ballets-Russes, as he went on to marry Nijinsky’s “Death” that concludes the work, occupying nearly one- Sixth Symphony and Das Lied von der Erde. daughter Kyra, though this marriage soon degenerated. third of its duration. So much so that during their wartime life in Italy, The series of large-scale works that followed over Bernard Berenson rather amusingly related that Igor and the following brief eight years is a succession of Kyra used to visit him alternately, since “when they masterpieces in constantly changing languages. Rébus were together their artistic temperaments tended to and Le Nouvel Âge both embody a Prokofiev-like explode”. They were estranged four years into this nine- grittiness married to that motoric “moto perpetuo” year marriage, and Markevitch soon married again, quality that so typifies the music of Albert Roussel, but though not before he and Kyra had had a son, Vaslav in a more pointed harmonic framework, and continuing (nicknamed “Funtyki”, or “small pound weight” by the exploration of multiple simultaneous polyrhythms Berenson), named in honour of his grandfather. that are Markevitch’s trademark. The all-too-brief The music of this extraordinary young man betrays Cantique d’Amour is a ravishing Skryabinesque essay in no hint of immaturity: both in style and technique it is evocative color, yet curiously emotionally detached. complete, utterly assured and deeply original. His Psaume and the cantata-symphony Lorenzo Il Magnifico Cantate of 1930, written on a text of Cocteau (and are massive and bold. The early works Sinfonietta, including music rescued from the sketches for L’Habit Concerto Grosso and Partita are memorable for far more du Roi), brought forth the comment from Henri Sauget, than merely their youthful assurance of execution; their “…it bears witness to a very fine mastery, and to a harmonic language probes beyond the conventional in a marvellous balance of intelligence and esprit”. This very personal manner, especially in their searchingly eighteen-year old, indeed, was hailed throughout Europe original polytonal and polyrhythmic treatments. as perhaps the brightest hope in the musical firmament L’Envol d’Icare remains the singular work among of that time. Only three years later Darius Milhaud these masterpieces, whether for its ascetic, pointillistic wrote of the première of L’Envol d’Icare: “this work scoring; its visionary use of quarter-tone tuning, …will probably mark a date in the evolution of music.” harmonically so precisely calculated; its brilliant Was this adulation more than the young composer exploitation of complex rhythmic simultaneities; or the could bear? Had Dyagilev put pressure on him, sheer unique sound-world that it evokes from the conscious or unconscious, to be the new Stravinsky, orchestra. Above all, for the poise and emotional charge exactly thirty years on? His autobiography reveals a of its hypnotic “Death”. sense that the overnight glory which assailed him as The achievement of Igor Markevitch bridges Dyagilev’s protégé caused such a break with the normal important gaps in our understanding of the period

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between the wars. His language is aggressively (Nuptials) to Alfred Cortot (himself a composer). Cortot réponses à cette question, chaque destinée étant une réédition superior al de Szyfer, logrando un clima muy tenso y dramático individual. Not neo-classical, it has classical restraint arranges for its publication, and invites Markevitch to de quelque mythe, où l’âme humaine se signifie ou trouve une con los instrumentos de percusión tradicionales.” and a poise that is almost frigidly disciplined. In an study with him. identification.” 15 Serge Lifar, Manifeste du Choréographe, in Comœdia, 2 July æsthetic distant from the transmuted romanticism that 4 Op. cit. p. 245: “… le mythe d’Icare apparaissait riche 1935; quoted in op. cit. p. 252: “La musique était admirable, propels the music of Berg and Schoenberg, he initiated 1926-28 d’éléments spirituels susceptibles d’être assimilés à l’idée de son union avec la danse séduisante, mais je sentais an exploration of dissonance (through polytonality) that Studies piano with Cortot, and harmony and l’architecture qu’ils animeraient.” parfaitement qu’il me serait impossible de faire coïncider mon the perspective of the 1990s can readily identify as a counterpoint with Nadia Boulanger at the École 5 Op. cit. p. 237: “… j’ai été amené à déceler dans le mythe rhythme avec celui de Markevitch.” fertile harmonic path. Dissatisfied with what he seems Normale de Musique in Paris. d’Icare . . . une des significations les plus modernes et 16 John Gruen, op cit pp. 5 - 6; in particular the reference to to have perceived as the indulgent prettiness of dramatiques que je sache: arriver brûlé. … Poussé par Serge Lifar, My Life, Paris 1965. impressionism, he sought a purity and detachment of 1929 l’ambition, le sujet, consumé en route, atteint son but pour 17 See Bartók’s letter (late 1930s?) to Markevitch reproduced in style which were rare in this interbellum period of Markevitch completes his diplomas at the École constater que ses ailes ne le portent plus.” the New York Philharmonic program books for the orchestra’s excess. Normale, commencing his Sinfonietta for Orchestra as 6 Op. cit. p. 238: “La caractéristique des sons était de ne jamais concerts at Carnegie Hall with Leonard Bernstein on April 10, Igor Markevitch has so recently begun to emerge part of his qualifying work. Now sixteen, he plays the disparaître complètement. Comme ces cloches ou ces cristaux 11 and 15, 1958: “J’ai nécessité du temps pour étudier et from the shadows in his “first incarnation” as a Sinfonietta and Noces to Dyagilev, who soon after qui paraissaient résonner pour l’éternité, les accords se comprendre toute la beauté de votre partition, et je pense qu’il composer that an outline of the major events of this commissions two new works from him: a Piano prolongeaient, s’enchevêtrant les uns aux autres, et formaient faudra beaucoup d’années pour qu’on l’apprecie … Vous êtes early phase of his life will be illuminating; not least, Concerto, which receives a concert première des lignes mélodiques pures et abstraites. . . . [ça] m’a fait la personnalité la plus frappante de la musique contemporaine because it shows him in constant, intimate contact with sandwiched between ballets at the Covent Garden prendre conscience du rhythme de la mort et de son mouvement et je me réjouis, Monsieur, de profiter de votre influence.” — “I innumerable other, and hitherto better-known major season of the Ballets Russes in July (with Markevitch d’apparence immobile.” would need more time to study and understand the beauty of figures of the century. himself as soloist); and L’Habit du Roi (The Emperor’s 7 Op. cit. p. 241: “… chaque son étant un monde complet avec your score, and I believe that many years may be necessary New Clothes), a ballet with scenario by Boris Kochno une infinité d’harmoniques différents, l’audition de toute note before it is fully appreciated … You are the most striking Chronology and designs by Picasso. peut se comparer à une comète qui illumine le ciel par le trajet personality in contemporary music and I rejoice, Sir, in being Only briefly before Dyagilev’s death on 19th qu’elle y allume.” able to benefit from your influence.” 1912 August, Markevitch accompanies him to Baden-Baden 8 Op. cit. p. 247: “Les idées qui changent la face du monde 18 Être et avoir été p. 247: “… ce grattement de pattes, ces Born in Ki’ev, 27th July, to the pianist Boris Markevitch for the world première of Hindemith and Brecht’s approchent sur les pattes de colombes.” piétinements d’oiseaux, ces moires d’ailes, ce pigeonnier de (a student of Eugene d’Albert) and to Zola Pokitonova. Lehrstück; and to Munich for performances of Tristan 9 Pierre Souvtchinsky, Icare, in La Revue musicale, July 1932: gifles et d’impatiences …” und Isolde and Die Zauberflöte conducted by Richard cit. in Être et avoir été p. 244: “La création chez Markevitch 19 Être et avoir été p. 462: “(Il y eut même des malheureux qui 1914 Strauss. With Dyagilev dead, L’Habit du Roi is dépend directement de l’inspiration auditive de la «chose qui crurent voir [sic] dans la Mort d’Icare une évocation de Java … )” The Markevitch family flees Russia for Paris. abandoned, but some of its music is incorporated into s’entend», sans intervention préalable d’éléments 20 Être et avoir été p. 461: “En fait, l’accession d’Icare à la Markevitch grows up speaking primarily French, and Cantate with a new text specially written by Jean psychologiques ou formels.” connaissance peut être considérée comme paraphrase de will eventually write his autobiography Être et avoir été Cocteau. 10 Être et avoir été, p. 244: “… effets réellement nouveaux et [la l’Adagio de cette dernière sonata, qui a représenté pour moi, in French in 1980. création] d’une sensibilité nouvelle.” depuis mon adolescence, une des créations sonores le plus 1930 11 Op. cit. p. 243: “… certains accords ne pouvaient être perçus proches de la perfection où celle-ci se retrouve elle-même.” 1916 Roger Désormière (who conducted Markevitch in his avec exactitude …” 21 Être et avoir été p. 462: “… pour qui comprend cette page, la The family settles in La-Tour-de-Peilz (Vevey), Piano Concerto the previous year) presents the 12 Op. cit. p. 243: “… la seule fonction était de corriger ce que Mort d’Icare devient transparente.” Switzerland. enormously successful première of Cantate in Paris on fausse l’oreille …” 22 Op. cit. p. 236: “ La chute commence lorsque l’absurde n’est 4th June. 13 Op. cit. p. 249: “… [une tendance] à libérer autant que plus considéré comme tel. Dans Icare on retrouve quelque part 1921-23 In August, the publishing house of Schott (Mainz) possible la choréographie de la sujétion de la musique.” ses ailes, comme les restes d’un serpent qui a fait peau neuve. Igor studies piano with his father until the latter’s death accepts the Sinfonietta, the Piano Concerto and Cantate 14 See transcript of an interview with Harold Gramatges Ce sont les signes de renouveau.” in 1923. for publication. conducted by Christopher Lyndon-Gee in Havana on February 23 Op. cit. p. 398: “Tu as fait des éléments d’une vie qui passe, 8th December: world première in Paris of Concerto 4, 1994; a brief reference to this work is also to be found in ceux d’une musique éternelle.” 1925 Grosso, reviewed as follows by no less than Darius Alejo Carpentier, La Musica en Cuba, Mexico City 1946, p. 24 Conversations with Claude Rostand in Point d’Orgue, Paris, The thirteen-year-old Igor plays his piano suite Noces Milhaud in L’Europe of 13th December: 266: “El Icaro de Gramatges, debemos señalarlo, es bastante 1959.

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young artist was growing up within a certain scurrying fugato for pizzicato strings. The entry of the “Markévitch’s Concerto Grosso was one of those great 1934 environment, absorbed everything that was happening brass powerfully develops the “wedge” motif, culled rendings of the musical skies, a door suddenly opening Psaume is greeted by a riot at its Italian première in within it, and reflected pluralistic aspects of his from Bach’s famous E minor organ fugue, of which on the future which allows an as yet unknown climate to Florence. surroundings as might a camera interpret the Markevitch will make such dramatic use in Rébus in the enter. Igor Markévitch has a formidable technique and a temperature of light through a variety of filters. Indeed, following year. The structure of this movement is truly unique invention.” 1934-36 the Concerto Grosso is more of a challenge to the styles masterly, culminating in a set of variations by way of a Markevitch undertakes occasional conducting study of his contemporaries than an extension of their own lengthy coda. Immediately reminiscent of the opening 1931 with Hermann Scherchen in Switzerland; Scherchen endeavours; its innovations and daring rhythmic play of the Andante, the variations commence unassumingly Composes the Sérénade (January - March), perhaps his becomes one of the principal advocates of his music. are tantamount to a glove or handkerchief cast down by with the solo flute, illustrating just how closely the most “Stravinskian” work, for the newly-formed a supremely confident new entrant to the lists. principal melodic motifs of the entire piece are tied Parisian ensemble Sérénade. 1935 Milhaud’s La Création du monde of the previous together. Moreover, this magnificent passage, gathering On 24th April Hans Rosbaud conducts the German Substituting for Scherchen, Markevitch conducts the year, for instance, introduces the saxophone to the momentum by inexorable small degrees, is also a premières of Concerto Grosso and Piano Concerto with world première of his oratorio Le Paradis perdu instrumental lexicon of European art music, yet gives it premonition of Rébus; in the following year, the the orchestra of Frankfurt Radio (the latter work with (Paradise Lost) at Queen’s Hall, London on 20th nowhere near the same prominence as does Concerto identical compositional idea will reappear as a separate the composer as soloist). December. Grosso. Whereas Milhaud “buries” his alto saxophone movement in the latter work, subtly re-orchestrated and The world première of Rébus in Paris on 15th within the strings in slow-moving cantabile melody, with an entirely new conclusion. Even in its first December is hailed as a major triumph for the 1936 Markevitch uses the dominating soprano instrument in manifestation, however, the characterisation and composer. Writing in The New York Times for 10th Marries Kyra, daughter of Vaslav Nijinsky, in April. agile, whirligig display. “driving force” of this music are uniquely Markevitch’s January, 1932, Henri Prunières declares: They decide to live in Corsier, Switzerland. The initial concertino episode of the work’s first own. “I am in no particular hurry to proclaim the genius movement, for example, is set for the grouping of The first performance of the work was given at the of even the most gifted musicians. But in the case of 1937 saxophone, bassoon, trombone and solo violin. It is the Salle de la Conservatoire, Paris on 8th December, 1930, Markevitch, after the new work he has just given us, Conducts L’Envol d’Icare at the Venice Biennale in saxophone that first introduces the rhythmically by the Orchestre Symphonique de Paris under its doubt is no longer permissible … his music is not September, remarking to fellow-composer Alex de clashing triplet-across-the-bar that is to become such a dedicatee, Roger Desormière. young. He is a little like Menuhin, who, when he was Graeff : “I rejoice to hear it again, but I am nervous to hallmark of Markevitch’s style. ten, played like a master and not like a child prodigy.” conduct it for the first time . . . it is so terribly difficult.” In later concertino sections, contrasting orchestral © 1996 & 2009 Christopher Lyndon-Gee Hailed by many as the “second Igor”, Markevitch is Stravinsky (whose Jeu de Cartes is on the same groups are presented in turn, with the triplet rhythmic now persona non grata with Stravinsky. programme) is in the audience, and retreats from his counterpoint next heard in the horns against an 8/8 Reproduction of brief quotations permitted with earlier hostility to Markevitch, expressing admiration unison bass-line in bass clarinet and cellos. Later again, acknowledgement. For permission to use longer citations, 1933 for the score. the saxophone is heard once more, doubling tutti violins please contact Naxos Rights International Ltd. After being asked by Mengelberg to conduct the Dutch against basses, tuba, trombone and trumpet. première of Rébus with the Concertgebouw Orchestra in 1938 The Andante of Concerto Grosso grows directly out 1 David Drew, Igor Markevitch: The Early Works and Beyond, February, Markevitch takes conducting lessons from Contriving a commission fee as a New Year’s Day gift, of a short meno mosso section of the first movement; the in Tempo, N° 133/134, Boosey & Hawkes, London, September Pierre Monteux (who directs the remainder of this Piatigorsky requests a cello concerto. one moment in the work that distantly recalls the music 1980, p. 38; reported from a conversation between Drew and concert). At this stage he sees conducting as a task The world première in Warsaw on 21st January of for Es sungen drei Engel in Hindemith’s Mathis der Markevitch. purely in relation to his own music. The American Le Nouvel Âge marks a new triumph for the composer. Maler. The triadic nature of this theme is designed to 2 John Gruen reported these remarks to the present writer in première of Rébus follows in April, given by Serge On his way back from Poland, Markevitch visits upset any sense of tonality created by the sforzando close New York, April 3, 1996: Markevitch made these informal Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony. Nijinsky for the first time in the sanatorium at of the Allegro con brio on G. At the same time, its strong comments preceding the tape-recorded part of his 1972 On 26th June Désormière conducts the tumultuous Kreuzlingen; Kyra describes this meeting, and its effect F major implications are constantly upset by an attraction interview with Gruen. But see also the transcipt of that première in Paris of L’Envol d’Icare (The Flight of on her father as “a marvel”. Performed at the Palais des to tritone relationships, which feature most prominently interview, dated August 6, 1972 : New York Public Library Icarus), declared by Milhaud to be “a date in the Beaux-Arts in Brussels in April, Le Nouvel Âge is in a striking solo for piccolo towards the end. Dance Collection ms. MGZMT 3-176. evolution of music”. Le Corbusier and Cocteau, as well acclaimed by an audience of two thousand. In response The Finale is thematically a direct extension of the 3 Être et avoir été, p. 236: “… le sujet d’Icare provoqua en moi as many musicians of importance are among the to this performance, Léon Kochnitsky writes in the May first movement, beginning with a boldly original un choc. Pourquoi ? Mon existence n’a cessé de me fournir des audience. issue of La Revue Musicale:

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“It is often said that a gulf exists between “dead between two lives” during his recuperation in Great energy is unleashed in the second section (con last sonata, which, ever since my adolescence contemporary composers and the masses who are avid Fiesole; indeed, during the coming year he embarks on a impeto, ma a rigore del tempo), by rhythmic devices of had represented for me one of the most perfect for music. For Markevitch this gulf does not exist; in serious activity as conductor, giving a number of considerable contrapuntal complexity; the ear can with creations in sound. 20 that lies true genius.” concerts in Florence. reasonable ease focus separately on four main stands: a In June Markevitch begins a collaboration with melody of four beats to the bar played by the trumpets … for those who understand this page, the Stravinsky’s one-time librettist C.-F. Ramuz on La 1943 against a treading bass of six beats; and running Death of Icarus becomes transparent. 21 Taille de l’Homme, a “concert” for soprano and In October, Germany invades Italy. Markevitch counterpoints of twelve and eighteen beats each ensemble designed to last an entire evening. Owing to renounces his conducting commitments to join the measure. Further subdivisions feature in the timpani and In Etre et avoir été, Markevitch, comparing his worsening conditions in Europe, and the end of his Partisans, becoming a member of the Committee of untuned percussion. subject to Faust, speaks of Icarus observing his own publishing contract in Germany, he supplements his Liberation of the Italian Resistance (the Partigiani). He The third section is a sheer outburst of joy: clear, death: income by giving lectures, piano recitals and radio recomposes L’Envol d’Icare as Icare, abandoning the bright, triadic music in first inversion B major, the broadcasts in Switzerland and abroad. quarter-tones of the original work and re-orchestrating trumpet melody now modulated by the addition of the The fall takes place only when the absurd is no in a less “astringent” manner. scordatura violins. Timpani and growling bass-register longer considered as such. In Icarus the wings are 1939 chords signal Icarus’ fate. in some sense found again, like the cast-off skin Between the outbreak in September of World War II, 1944 of a serpent. They are the signs of renewal. 22 and Christmas, completes fifty minutes (the first, and A further serious illness. Où l’on apprend la chute d’Icare (News of Icarus’s fall) only “half” ever finished) of La Taille de l’Homme. Eight measures only, but a shattering moment of And he quotes the reaction of his wife, Kyra, to the 1946 suspended tension: Markevitch calls for the music of L’Envol, following its triumphant world 1940 During a return visit to Switzerland writes Made in extraordinary (for the time) effect of air blown loosely première on 26th June, 1933: Visits Florence with Kyra, where he composes the Italy, a political study inspired in part by his experiences through trumpet mouth-pieces together with scordatura “vocal symphony” Lorenzo Il Magnifico on texts by with the Florentine Partigiani which meets with chords in flutes and violins. (In the 1943 revision of this You have taken the elements of transient Lorenzo de’ Medici himself. Markevitch has failed to considerable success on its publication in Italy, France passage, its ethereal, suspendu quality is badly existence and made them into the components comply with Swiss residency laws, and is thus and Britain. compromised by the addition of a wholly alien, of an eternal music. 23 technically stateless upon Mussolini’s declaration of “plaintive” cello melody.) war. He therefore remains in Italy, where Kyra teaches 1947-77 dance. Is naturalised as an Italian citizen in 1947. Following the La mort d’Icare (Icarus’s death) Concerto Grosso (Concerto Grosso) dissolution of his first marriage, he marries Topazia A slow moto perpetuo with an air of suppressed energy, La-Tour-de-Peilz, Switzerland, August - October 1930 1941-47 Caetani, descendant of a distinguished Roman full of obsessively repeated melodic cells in constantly The Markevitches live in the “villino” (little Villa), artistocratic line. varying semiquaver metres, all the more penetrating Markevitch’s musical style was never overtly influenced provided by the art historian Bernard Berenson – who His international conducting career over this thirty- because of its restraint. Though the ending is purified by by the neoclassicism of Les Six or of Stravinsky. In this describes the house as a “cottage in my grounds” – on year period will take Markevitch to music directorships chords from which the scordatura instruments are now youthful work there are however occasional glimpses of his Villa I Tatti estate at Settignano, three miles outside in Stockholm (1952-55), Montreal (1956-60), Havana absent, it is perhaps denied finality by a tonally the Hindemith whose Concerto for Orchestra, Op. 38 Florence. Dallapiccola is among his circle of friends. In (1957-58), Paris (the Concerts Lamoureux, 1957-61), ambiguous timpani stroke reminiscent of the ending of (which Nadia Boulanger had analysed in her October 1941 he completes for the pianist Nikita Madrid (1965-69), Monte Carlo, and the Santa Cecilia Also sprach Zarathustra. composition class) made such an impression that the Magaloff, another Florence resident, his Variations, Orchestra in Rome. He also holds conducting courses in The composer scornfully dismissed those who then sixteen-year-old composer Fugue and Envoi on a Theme of Handel for solo piano, Salzburg, Mexico, Moscow, Madrid, Monte Carlo and believed they heard “an evocation of Java” 19 in the destined to be his last original composition. Weimar. modal melodies and detached repetitiveness of this slept with the score, and many times each night magical conclusion. Rather, it was for him a personal [I] would put on the light to re-read it and 1942 1978 response to the transcendence of the Adagio of remind myself of what his music was saying. 24 He falls seriously ill towards the end of a “hard, hard Markevitch has effectively suppressed his music for 35 Beethoven’s C minor Piano Sonata, Opus 111: winter” (as he describes it to Alex de Graeff in a letter of years when he receives an invitation from Hervé Thys to Icarus’s arrival at [self]-knowledge can be But these are shadings more than “influence”, for the 7th April, 1942). The composer senses himself to be conduct Icare and Le Paradis perdu for the Royal considered as a paraphrase of the Adagio of this word in this case means no more than saying that a

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the music was admirable, the idea of its union percussion, this is rhythmically highly-charged, based Philharmonic Society in Brussels. The concert is a Cantique d’Amour (Hymn to Love) with dance seductive, but I had a clear sense around a motoric ostinato. Despite the obvious allusion success, and leads to over one hundred performances in (Corsier, Switzerland, October - 4th December, 1936) that it would be impossible for me to bring my of the title, the intersections of numerous fifteen countries during the following three years. rhythm into accord with that of Markevitch.” 15 countermelodies give this a most un-Stravinskian sound. In connection with the Brussels performances When, after an interval of nearly forty years, Markevitch (which Markevitch conducts himself), David Drew, then again heard Cantique d’Amour towards the end of his Lifar’s attitude became the centre of a lively (and Icare attrape deux colombes; il étudie leur vol Director of New Music at Boosey and Hawkes music life, he gently rebuked it for having too much “magic” unresolved) debate in the pages of the Revue Musicale (lcarus traps two doves; he studies their flight) publishers, London, makes contact with Markevitch. and for sounding “too good”. 1 and elsewhere about the nature of the relationship Begins and ends with music, largely for xylophone and Progressively over the next few years, Drew persuades This short composition, orchestrated with a between music and dance. Many (as testified by John timpani, of a tentative character, featuring unpredictable Markevitch to unearth his entire œuvre, for which luxuriant vocabulary worthy of Ravel, feather-bedded Gruen in The Private World of Ballet) 16 simply felt that accelerandi and ritardandi that are clearly designed to Boosey and Hawkes offer a new and comprehensive with harmony redolent of Skryabin, is unique in his “the symbol” Lifar had a grossly inflated view of portray unpredictable avian behaviour. The lengthy publication contract. output. Its rich language was soon rejected for the himself as Nijinsky’s successor, to which rôle he was central allegro section features a highly complex Nevertheless, the present series of recordings, astringent, almost violently energetic classicism of Le woefully inadequate. interplay, of four quaver beats against six against nine, commenced eighteen years later in December 1995, are Nouvel Age as he prepared to enter his own New Age, Markevitch did not let go of L’Envol. In 1933 he with additional frequent semiquavers, and superimposed the première recordings of all but a handful of works an age of performing the music of others, untrammelled commenced a version for two pianos and three percussion triplets. The rhythmic counterpoint of these irrational which are preserved from 1930s radio broadcasts, and a by what had become the burden of his own creativity. (completed by Christopher Lyndon-Gee for publication by rhythms is given focus by a refrain melody in the technically poor recording on 78s of L’Envol d’Icare Cantique d’Amour was commissioned, like Partita Boosey & Hawkes, and recorded for Largo in 1993). piccolo. Not forgetting that Skryabin included birdsong dating from 1938. and Hymnes, by Winnaretta Singer, the Princesse de Bartók paid homage to this trail-blazing score when in his Second Symphony (but Markevitch was Polignac, and first performed in Rome in May 1937 by composing his own Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion essentially un-Russian, having left Kiev when he was 1980 the Augusteo Orchestra under Mario Rossi. six years later. 17 In the midst of the war, in 1943, three), the vivid depiction of bird-calls intriguingly Publication by Gallimard of the composer’s Subsequently, it was not heard again until 1980. It is a Markevitch re-orchestrated the work entirely, abbreviating anticipates Messiaen. autobiography, Être et avoir été (Being and having simple arch with coda, beginning and ending in a its title to the simple Icare. This version, however, Jean Cocteau’s description vividly evokes the music been). To some extent a roman à clef, the book reveals meandering forest of bird-song within an evocation of represents a loss of faith in his startling ideas of 1932, as it itself: much even as it hides or obfuscates more. wind and filtered light. The apex of the arch, a violently abandons the visionary quarter-tones, simplifies many of In this year Markevitch undertakes revision of some energetic storm of passion full of rushing scales in the the rhythmic counterpoints, and ruins the suspended drama … these foot-scratchings, these bird-stampings, of his 1930s compositions, in preparation for a series of strings and soaring melodies in the trumpets, soon of the Chute d’Icare with the addition of a plangent, but these wing-strokes, this pigeon-house of performances in Brussels. subsides into the languor of the opening. rather obvious melody in the cellos. impatient slaps. 18 It is the coda that looks forward to Le Nouvel Âge; The sections of The Flight of lcarus are as follows: 1983 chords in harmonics in the violas and cellos, doubled by Icare se fait fixer des ailes aux épaules et s’essaye à Only a short time after his first, triumphant return visit celesta and glockenspiel, locked on the same unresolved Prélude (Prelude) voler (Icarus has wings affixed to his shoulders, to Ki’ev, his city of birth, Markevitch suddenly falls ill, dominant seventh that will conclude the later work. This A short slow introduction, highlighting the quarter-tone and attempts flight) dying in Antibes on 7th March. is an ending that subsumes the lushness of the music re-tuned instruments: the resulting complex harmonies A brief recapitulation of the Prélude, pivoting on the that preceded it into a conclusion that is both exquisitely (the “ICARUS”-chord from the fourth measure quarter-tone tuned “ICARUS”-chord, and leading with © 1996 and 2009 Christopher Lyndon-Gee poised and infinitely “cold”. onwards) are calculated with remarkable acuteness of an air of mystery into the Flight. Cold is a word that has sometimes come to mind in effect. The composer introduces the important role that response to the music of this man; the same man who in is to be played by untuned membrane percussion L’Envol d’Icare (The Flight of Icarus) 1972 would tell dance critic John Gruen “No, I don’t instruments - indeed, sounds which are indistinct as to In 6/4 throughout, marked allegramente, this is an want to talk about my life, or my music — I don’t want pitch form the principal thematic material of the work. incandescent invention of enormous driving force. The the world to know!”. 2 The same man who quelled the music is in three main sections; the first alternates passion of his “love-song” within a work which remains Jeux des Adolescents (Eveil de la Connaissance) relatively straightforward 6/4 and 3/2 metres, with essentially detached. (Adolescent Games: Awakening Knowledge) strong accents given by the xylophone to a simple motif Introduced by ringing four-note chords in the tuned constantly rising in register.

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L’Envol d’Icare (The Flight of Icarus) realisation that his wings will no longer carry contemporaries, who spoke of its “magic” sonorities; not forgetting that Skryabin had pioneered writing of (La Tour-de-Peilz, Switzerland, July - Sept 1932) him. 5 Cocteau, comparing lcarus to Le Sacre du Printemps, this kind, for the still novel use of irrational values of called it a work which might have “fallen from the four against nine, creating random cross-rhythms in the The quarter-tone tuning of five instruments of the Further, though, it was an incident uncharacteristic of moon”, and quoted Nietzsche’s observation that “the music for Icarus traps two doves. orchestra of L’Envol d’Icare yields harmonies like those the composer’s later asceticism of life, when he was ideas which change the face of the world make their Why then was this extraordinary score never in no other work, whose effect inhabited the composer’s prevailed upon (probably by Cocteau) to share an opium entrance on doves’ feet.” 8 These doves’ feet, of course, performed as a ballet? There is no evidence that there inner hearing with an imaginative acuity that creates an pipe, that led to heightened perceptions about time, the refer neatly to the section of the music where Icarus was any serious falling-out with Serge Lifar, more a unforgettable sound-world. unity of physical and spiritual perceptions, and the studies the flight of doves — something which parting of the æsthetic ways. Lifar had reacted with The Flight of Icarus was undoubtedly the single work nature of sound itself. Markevitch himself did “with passion” while composing enthusiasm when the composer played him the score in which Igor Markevitch saw himself most vividly the score. In an article in La Revue Musicale of July towards the end of 1932, and had initiated a reflected. The period of 1932-33, when he planned the work [In this state] the characteristic of sounds was 1932, which curiously pre-dates the appearance of The collaboration with Brancusi on the designs. Lifar’s ideas with Serge Lifar, sketched initial musical ideas, and that of never disappearing entirely. Like these Flight of Icarus but was enthusiastically endorsed by “evolved ceaselessly” in the succeeding months, and, assembled the fair copy of the score became for Markevitch bells or crystals that seemed to resonate for an Markevitch as evidence of its progress, Pierre although holding exclusive rights to the work, early in an odyssey of profound self-examination, above all eternity, chords were prolonged, mingling with Souvtchinsky comments that 1933 he readily accepted a proposal for a concert centering on the motifs of the fall and death of Icarus. each other, and forming pure and abstract performance of the orchestral score under Roger Some quotations from the composer’s melodic lines.” … “[I became] aware of the Markevitch’s manner of creating proceeds Desormière at Salle Gaveau, which took place on 26th autobiography, Etre et avoir été, published by rhythm of death, of the movement within its directly from the auditory inspiration of the June that year. Gallimard in 1980, illuminate his state of mind: seemingly immobile appearance. 6 “heard object”, without any preliminary Then, the impetus seems to have dried up. interference of psychological or formal Markevitch alludes to Lifar’s wish to “liberate … the subject of Icarus caused me with a jolt Whether through courage, shame, or simply the ignorance elements. 9 choreography as far as possible from the constraints of [to ask] Why? My existence has never ceased to of a twenty-year-old, he sought no medical help, but music”. 13 Lifar must have found the concert performance draw from me responses to this question, each merely spent an extended summer holiday at Cap Ferrat Markevitch reacted that he believed he had indeed of the orchestral Icarus unnerving or intimidating; he destiny being a reliving of some myth in which getting over the ill effects of the drug, bolstered by the discovered “… truly new effects … and a truly new may perhaps have retained vivid recollections of the the human spirit finds meaning or company of his friends the Szigetis and the Piatigorskys. sensibility” 10 — by which he doubtless meant an choreographic disaster that was Nijinsky’s world identification. 3 This was also the time when the sketches of The Flight of innovative language that threw off the ubiquitous première of Le Sacre du Printemps twenty years earlier. Icarus were written. He persisted in searching deeply for a influences of Stravinsky. He doubtless feared similar ignominy, and commenced and, music that would recapture the purity and resonance of his Thus the most singular features of the startlingly a search for alternative ways of mounting his subject, recent experience, placing into question for him the most original Flight of Icarus, are above all, its use of creating a complete choreography without music. Once … the myth of Icarus seemed rich in spiritual fundamental concepts of music itself. Anticipating, if quarter-tone scordature in one flute, two solo violins this was finished, he approached first Honegger, then elements well capable of being assimilated anyone, those most dissimilar composers John Cage and and two solo cellos within the orchestra; and the the Belgian conductor-composer Szyfer to supply a within the architecture to which they gave birth. 4 Giacinto Scelsi, he remarks on the extraordinary richness pervasive presence of complex polyrhythms. It is not score for percussion alone, following his dictated of the sympathetic vibrations heard within the piano, hard to imagine that the microtonal retunings resulted in rhythms. None of these attempts succeeded; but finally, Perhaps most personally revealing of all, particularly in finding that: some way from the “oriental” experience of the opium in 1943, in Havana, the great Cuban ballerina Alicia the light of Markevitch’s mystifying abandonment of pipe, though Markevitch is at pains to describe that Alonso reproduced Lifar’s choreography that she had composition after 1941, are these remarks: … each sound being an entire world with an “certain chords could not be perceived in an exact learnt while with the Ballets Russes, to a fine new score infinity of different harmonics, hearing each manner”, 11 and that the sole function of the re-tuned ICARO, for seven percussionists and piano, written in … I was led to discern in the myth of Icarus one single note can be compared to [witnessing] a instruments was to “correct that which tricked the ear”. 12 fifteen days by her compatriot Harold Gramatges. 14 of the most modern and dramatic meanings of comet which illuminates the sky along its own The polyrhythms are the most singularly personal Lifar, whether sensing his own inadequacy to cope which I know: the arrival consumed by fire trajectory. 7 stylistic trait of the work, both for the manner in which with Markevitch’s music, or genuinely convinced that [author’s emphasis in bold]. … Pressed Markevitch draws multiple cross accents within either the dance or the music was “condemned” by the onwards by ambition, the subject is devoured The originality and compelling unity of the resulting “simple” metrical structures — such as the 6/4 against impossibility of their synthesis, explained in July 1935, during his path; he attains his goal only in the score were immediately recognised by Markevitch’s 3/2 against 4/4 = 12/8 in the “Flight” passage — and, in his Manifesto of a Choreographer that:

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L’Envol d’Icare (The Flight of Icarus) realisation that his wings will no longer carry contemporaries, who spoke of its “magic” sonorities; not forgetting that Skryabin had pioneered writing of (La Tour-de-Peilz, Switzerland, July - Sept 1932) him. 5 Cocteau, comparing lcarus to Le Sacre du Printemps, this kind, for the still novel use of irrational values of called it a work which might have “fallen from the four against nine, creating random cross-rhythms in the The quarter-tone tuning of five instruments of the Further, though, it was an incident uncharacteristic of moon”, and quoted Nietzsche’s observation that “the music for Icarus traps two doves. orchestra of L’Envol d’Icare yields harmonies like those the composer’s later asceticism of life, when he was ideas which change the face of the world make their Why then was this extraordinary score never in no other work, whose effect inhabited the composer’s prevailed upon (probably by Cocteau) to share an opium entrance on doves’ feet.” 8 These doves’ feet, of course, performed as a ballet? There is no evidence that there inner hearing with an imaginative acuity that creates an pipe, that led to heightened perceptions about time, the refer neatly to the section of the music where Icarus was any serious falling-out with Serge Lifar, more a unforgettable sound-world. unity of physical and spiritual perceptions, and the studies the flight of doves — something which parting of the æsthetic ways. Lifar had reacted with The Flight of Icarus was undoubtedly the single work nature of sound itself. Markevitch himself did “with passion” while composing enthusiasm when the composer played him the score in which Igor Markevitch saw himself most vividly the score. In an article in La Revue Musicale of July towards the end of 1932, and had initiated a reflected. The period of 1932-33, when he planned the work [In this state] the characteristic of sounds was 1932, which curiously pre-dates the appearance of The collaboration with Brancusi on the designs. Lifar’s ideas with Serge Lifar, sketched initial musical ideas, and that of never disappearing entirely. Like these Flight of Icarus but was enthusiastically endorsed by “evolved ceaselessly” in the succeeding months, and, assembled the fair copy of the score became for Markevitch bells or crystals that seemed to resonate for an Markevitch as evidence of its progress, Pierre although holding exclusive rights to the work, early in an odyssey of profound self-examination, above all eternity, chords were prolonged, mingling with Souvtchinsky comments that 1933 he readily accepted a proposal for a concert centering on the motifs of the fall and death of Icarus. each other, and forming pure and abstract performance of the orchestral score under Roger Some quotations from the composer’s melodic lines.” … “[I became] aware of the Markevitch’s manner of creating proceeds Desormière at Salle Gaveau, which took place on 26th autobiography, Etre et avoir été, published by rhythm of death, of the movement within its directly from the auditory inspiration of the June that year. Gallimard in 1980, illuminate his state of mind: seemingly immobile appearance. 6 “heard object”, without any preliminary Then, the impetus seems to have dried up. interference of psychological or formal Markevitch alludes to Lifar’s wish to “liberate … the subject of Icarus caused me with a jolt Whether through courage, shame, or simply the ignorance elements. 9 choreography as far as possible from the constraints of [to ask] Why? My existence has never ceased to of a twenty-year-old, he sought no medical help, but music”. 13 Lifar must have found the concert performance draw from me responses to this question, each merely spent an extended summer holiday at Cap Ferrat Markevitch reacted that he believed he had indeed of the orchestral Icarus unnerving or intimidating; he destiny being a reliving of some myth in which getting over the ill effects of the drug, bolstered by the discovered “… truly new effects … and a truly new may perhaps have retained vivid recollections of the the human spirit finds meaning or company of his friends the Szigetis and the Piatigorskys. sensibility” 10 — by which he doubtless meant an choreographic disaster that was Nijinsky’s world identification. 3 This was also the time when the sketches of The Flight of innovative language that threw off the ubiquitous première of Le Sacre du Printemps twenty years earlier. Icarus were written. He persisted in searching deeply for a influences of Stravinsky. He doubtless feared similar ignominy, and commenced and, music that would recapture the purity and resonance of his Thus the most singular features of the startlingly a search for alternative ways of mounting his subject, recent experience, placing into question for him the most original Flight of Icarus, are above all, its use of creating a complete choreography without music. Once … the myth of Icarus seemed rich in spiritual fundamental concepts of music itself. Anticipating, if quarter-tone scordature in one flute, two solo violins this was finished, he approached first Honegger, then elements well capable of being assimilated anyone, those most dissimilar composers John Cage and and two solo cellos within the orchestra; and the the Belgian conductor-composer Szyfer to supply a within the architecture to which they gave birth. 4 Giacinto Scelsi, he remarks on the extraordinary richness pervasive presence of complex polyrhythms. It is not score for percussion alone, following his dictated of the sympathetic vibrations heard within the piano, hard to imagine that the microtonal retunings resulted in rhythms. None of these attempts succeeded; but finally, Perhaps most personally revealing of all, particularly in finding that: some way from the “oriental” experience of the opium in 1943, in Havana, the great Cuban ballerina Alicia the light of Markevitch’s mystifying abandonment of pipe, though Markevitch is at pains to describe that Alonso reproduced Lifar’s choreography that she had composition after 1941, are these remarks: … each sound being an entire world with an “certain chords could not be perceived in an exact learnt while with the Ballets Russes, to a fine new score infinity of different harmonics, hearing each manner”, 11 and that the sole function of the re-tuned ICARO, for seven percussionists and piano, written in … I was led to discern in the myth of Icarus one single note can be compared to [witnessing] a instruments was to “correct that which tricked the ear”. 12 fifteen days by her compatriot Harold Gramatges. 14 of the most modern and dramatic meanings of comet which illuminates the sky along its own The polyrhythms are the most singularly personal Lifar, whether sensing his own inadequacy to cope which I know: the arrival consumed by fire trajectory. 7 stylistic trait of the work, both for the manner in which with Markevitch’s music, or genuinely convinced that [author’s emphasis in bold]. … Pressed Markevitch draws multiple cross accents within either the dance or the music was “condemned” by the onwards by ambition, the subject is devoured The originality and compelling unity of the resulting “simple” metrical structures — such as the 6/4 against impossibility of their synthesis, explained in July 1935, during his path; he attains his goal only in the score were immediately recognised by Markevitch’s 3/2 against 4/4 = 12/8 in the “Flight” passage — and, in his Manifesto of a Choreographer that:

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the music was admirable, the idea of its union percussion, this is rhythmically highly-charged, based Philharmonic Society in Brussels. The concert is a Cantique d’Amour (Hymn to Love) with dance seductive, but I had a clear sense around a motoric ostinato. Despite the obvious allusion success, and leads to over one hundred performances in (Corsier, Switzerland, October - 4th December, 1936) that it would be impossible for me to bring my of the title, the intersections of numerous fifteen countries during the following three years. rhythm into accord with that of Markevitch.” 15 countermelodies give this a most un-Stravinskian sound. In connection with the Brussels performances When, after an interval of nearly forty years, Markevitch (which Markevitch conducts himself), David Drew, then again heard Cantique d’Amour towards the end of his Lifar’s attitude became the centre of a lively (and Icare attrape deux colombes; il étudie leur vol Director of New Music at Boosey and Hawkes music life, he gently rebuked it for having too much “magic” unresolved) debate in the pages of the Revue Musicale (lcarus traps two doves; he studies their flight) publishers, London, makes contact with Markevitch. and for sounding “too good”. 1 and elsewhere about the nature of the relationship Begins and ends with music, largely for xylophone and Progressively over the next few years, Drew persuades This short composition, orchestrated with a between music and dance. Many (as testified by John timpani, of a tentative character, featuring unpredictable Markevitch to unearth his entire œuvre, for which luxuriant vocabulary worthy of Ravel, feather-bedded Gruen in The Private World of Ballet) 16 simply felt that accelerandi and ritardandi that are clearly designed to Boosey and Hawkes offer a new and comprehensive with harmony redolent of Skryabin, is unique in his “the symbol” Lifar had a grossly inflated view of portray unpredictable avian behaviour. The lengthy publication contract. output. Its rich language was soon rejected for the himself as Nijinsky’s successor, to which rôle he was central allegro section features a highly complex Nevertheless, the present series of recordings, astringent, almost violently energetic classicism of Le woefully inadequate. interplay, of four quaver beats against six against nine, commenced eighteen years later in December 1995, are Nouvel Age as he prepared to enter his own New Age, Markevitch did not let go of L’Envol. In 1933 he with additional frequent semiquavers, and superimposed the première recordings of all but a handful of works an age of performing the music of others, untrammelled commenced a version for two pianos and three percussion triplets. The rhythmic counterpoint of these irrational which are preserved from 1930s radio broadcasts, and a by what had become the burden of his own creativity. (completed by Christopher Lyndon-Gee for publication by rhythms is given focus by a refrain melody in the technically poor recording on 78s of L’Envol d’Icare Cantique d’Amour was commissioned, like Partita Boosey & Hawkes, and recorded for Largo in 1993). piccolo. Not forgetting that Skryabin included birdsong dating from 1938. and Hymnes, by Winnaretta Singer, the Princesse de Bartók paid homage to this trail-blazing score when in his Second Symphony (but Markevitch was Polignac, and first performed in Rome in May 1937 by composing his own Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion essentially un-Russian, having left Kiev when he was 1980 the Augusteo Orchestra under Mario Rossi. six years later. 17 In the midst of the war, in 1943, three), the vivid depiction of bird-calls intriguingly Publication by Gallimard of the composer’s Subsequently, it was not heard again until 1980. It is a Markevitch re-orchestrated the work entirely, abbreviating anticipates Messiaen. autobiography, Être et avoir été (Being and having simple arch with coda, beginning and ending in a its title to the simple Icare. This version, however, Jean Cocteau’s description vividly evokes the music been). To some extent a roman à clef, the book reveals meandering forest of bird-song within an evocation of represents a loss of faith in his startling ideas of 1932, as it itself: much even as it hides or obfuscates more. wind and filtered light. The apex of the arch, a violently abandons the visionary quarter-tones, simplifies many of In this year Markevitch undertakes revision of some energetic storm of passion full of rushing scales in the the rhythmic counterpoints, and ruins the suspended drama … these foot-scratchings, these bird-stampings, of his 1930s compositions, in preparation for a series of strings and soaring melodies in the trumpets, soon of the Chute d’Icare with the addition of a plangent, but these wing-strokes, this pigeon-house of performances in Brussels. subsides into the languor of the opening. rather obvious melody in the cellos. impatient slaps. 18 It is the coda that looks forward to Le Nouvel Âge; The sections of The Flight of lcarus are as follows: 1983 chords in harmonics in the violas and cellos, doubled by Icare se fait fixer des ailes aux épaules et s’essaye à Only a short time after his first, triumphant return visit celesta and glockenspiel, locked on the same unresolved Prélude (Prelude) voler (Icarus has wings affixed to his shoulders, to Ki’ev, his city of birth, Markevitch suddenly falls ill, dominant seventh that will conclude the later work. This A short slow introduction, highlighting the quarter-tone and attempts flight) dying in Antibes on 7th March. is an ending that subsumes the lushness of the music re-tuned instruments: the resulting complex harmonies A brief recapitulation of the Prélude, pivoting on the that preceded it into a conclusion that is both exquisitely (the “ICARUS”-chord from the fourth measure quarter-tone tuned “ICARUS”-chord, and leading with © 1996 and 2009 Christopher Lyndon-Gee poised and infinitely “cold”. onwards) are calculated with remarkable acuteness of an air of mystery into the Flight. Cold is a word that has sometimes come to mind in effect. The composer introduces the important role that response to the music of this man; the same man who in is to be played by untuned membrane percussion L’Envol d’Icare (The Flight of Icarus) 1972 would tell dance critic John Gruen “No, I don’t instruments - indeed, sounds which are indistinct as to In 6/4 throughout, marked allegramente, this is an want to talk about my life, or my music — I don’t want pitch form the principal thematic material of the work. incandescent invention of enormous driving force. The the world to know!”. 2 The same man who quelled the music is in three main sections; the first alternates passion of his “love-song” within a work which remains Jeux des Adolescents (Eveil de la Connaissance) relatively straightforward 6/4 and 3/2 metres, with essentially detached. (Adolescent Games: Awakening Knowledge) strong accents given by the xylophone to a simple motif Introduced by ringing four-note chords in the tuned constantly rising in register.

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“It is often said that a gulf exists between “dead between two lives” during his recuperation in Great energy is unleashed in the second section (con last sonata, which, ever since my adolescence contemporary composers and the masses who are avid Fiesole; indeed, during the coming year he embarks on a impeto, ma a rigore del tempo), by rhythmic devices of had represented for me one of the most perfect for music. For Markevitch this gulf does not exist; in serious activity as conductor, giving a number of considerable contrapuntal complexity; the ear can with creations in sound. 20 that lies true genius.” concerts in Florence. reasonable ease focus separately on four main stands: a In June Markevitch begins a collaboration with melody of four beats to the bar played by the trumpets … for those who understand this page, the Stravinsky’s one-time librettist C.-F. Ramuz on La 1943 against a treading bass of six beats; and running Death of Icarus becomes transparent. 21 Taille de l’Homme, a “concert” for soprano and In October, Germany invades Italy. Markevitch counterpoints of twelve and eighteen beats each ensemble designed to last an entire evening. Owing to renounces his conducting commitments to join the measure. Further subdivisions feature in the timpani and In Etre et avoir été, Markevitch, comparing his worsening conditions in Europe, and the end of his Partisans, becoming a member of the Committee of untuned percussion. subject to Faust, speaks of Icarus observing his own publishing contract in Germany, he supplements his Liberation of the Italian Resistance (the Partigiani). He The third section is a sheer outburst of joy: clear, death: income by giving lectures, piano recitals and radio recomposes L’Envol d’Icare as Icare, abandoning the bright, triadic music in first inversion B major, the broadcasts in Switzerland and abroad. quarter-tones of the original work and re-orchestrating trumpet melody now modulated by the addition of the The fall takes place only when the absurd is no in a less “astringent” manner. scordatura violins. Timpani and growling bass-register longer considered as such. In Icarus the wings are 1939 chords signal Icarus’ fate. in some sense found again, like the cast-off skin Between the outbreak in September of World War II, 1944 of a serpent. They are the signs of renewal. 22 and Christmas, completes fifty minutes (the first, and A further serious illness. Où l’on apprend la chute d’Icare (News of Icarus’s fall) only “half” ever finished) of La Taille de l’Homme. Eight measures only, but a shattering moment of And he quotes the reaction of his wife, Kyra, to the 1946 suspended tension: Markevitch calls for the music of L’Envol, following its triumphant world 1940 During a return visit to Switzerland writes Made in extraordinary (for the time) effect of air blown loosely première on 26th June, 1933: Visits Florence with Kyra, where he composes the Italy, a political study inspired in part by his experiences through trumpet mouth-pieces together with scordatura “vocal symphony” Lorenzo Il Magnifico on texts by with the Florentine Partigiani which meets with chords in flutes and violins. (In the 1943 revision of this You have taken the elements of transient Lorenzo de’ Medici himself. Markevitch has failed to considerable success on its publication in Italy, France passage, its ethereal, suspendu quality is badly existence and made them into the components comply with Swiss residency laws, and is thus and Britain. compromised by the addition of a wholly alien, of an eternal music. 23 technically stateless upon Mussolini’s declaration of “plaintive” cello melody.) war. He therefore remains in Italy, where Kyra teaches 1947-77 dance. Is naturalised as an Italian citizen in 1947. Following the La mort d’Icare (Icarus’s death) Concerto Grosso (Concerto Grosso) dissolution of his first marriage, he marries Topazia A slow moto perpetuo with an air of suppressed energy, La-Tour-de-Peilz, Switzerland, August - October 1930 1941-47 Caetani, descendant of a distinguished Roman full of obsessively repeated melodic cells in constantly The Markevitches live in the “villino” (little Villa), artistocratic line. varying semiquaver metres, all the more penetrating Markevitch’s musical style was never overtly influenced provided by the art historian Bernard Berenson – who His international conducting career over this thirty- because of its restraint. Though the ending is purified by by the neoclassicism of Les Six or of Stravinsky. In this describes the house as a “cottage in my grounds” – on year period will take Markevitch to music directorships chords from which the scordatura instruments are now youthful work there are however occasional glimpses of his Villa I Tatti estate at Settignano, three miles outside in Stockholm (1952-55), Montreal (1956-60), Havana absent, it is perhaps denied finality by a tonally the Hindemith whose Concerto for Orchestra, Op. 38 Florence. Dallapiccola is among his circle of friends. In (1957-58), Paris (the Concerts Lamoureux, 1957-61), ambiguous timpani stroke reminiscent of the ending of (which Nadia Boulanger had analysed in her October 1941 he completes for the pianist Nikita Madrid (1965-69), Monte Carlo, and the Santa Cecilia Also sprach Zarathustra. composition class) made such an impression that the Magaloff, another Florence resident, his Variations, Orchestra in Rome. He also holds conducting courses in The composer scornfully dismissed those who then sixteen-year-old composer Fugue and Envoi on a Theme of Handel for solo piano, Salzburg, Mexico, Moscow, Madrid, Monte Carlo and believed they heard “an evocation of Java” 19 in the destined to be his last original composition. Weimar. modal melodies and detached repetitiveness of this slept with the score, and many times each night magical conclusion. Rather, it was for him a personal [I] would put on the light to re-read it and 1942 1978 response to the transcendence of the Adagio of remind myself of what his music was saying. 24 He falls seriously ill towards the end of a “hard, hard Markevitch has effectively suppressed his music for 35 Beethoven’s C minor Piano Sonata, Opus 111: winter” (as he describes it to Alex de Graeff in a letter of years when he receives an invitation from Hervé Thys to Icarus’s arrival at [self]-knowledge can be But these are shadings more than “influence”, for the 7th April, 1942). The composer senses himself to be conduct Icare and Le Paradis perdu for the Royal considered as a paraphrase of the Adagio of this word in this case means no more than saying that a

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young artist was growing up within a certain scurrying fugato for pizzicato strings. The entry of the “Markévitch’s Concerto Grosso was one of those great 1934 environment, absorbed everything that was happening brass powerfully develops the “wedge” motif, culled rendings of the musical skies, a door suddenly opening Psaume is greeted by a riot at its Italian première in within it, and reflected pluralistic aspects of his from Bach’s famous E minor organ fugue, of which on the future which allows an as yet unknown climate to Florence. surroundings as might a camera interpret the Markevitch will make such dramatic use in Rébus in the enter. Igor Markévitch has a formidable technique and a temperature of light through a variety of filters. Indeed, following year. The structure of this movement is truly unique invention.” 1934-36 the Concerto Grosso is more of a challenge to the styles masterly, culminating in a set of variations by way of a Markevitch undertakes occasional conducting study of his contemporaries than an extension of their own lengthy coda. Immediately reminiscent of the opening 1931 with Hermann Scherchen in Switzerland; Scherchen endeavours; its innovations and daring rhythmic play of the Andante, the variations commence unassumingly Composes the Sérénade (January - March), perhaps his becomes one of the principal advocates of his music. are tantamount to a glove or handkerchief cast down by with the solo flute, illustrating just how closely the most “Stravinskian” work, for the newly-formed a supremely confident new entrant to the lists. principal melodic motifs of the entire piece are tied Parisian ensemble Sérénade. 1935 Milhaud’s La Création du monde of the previous together. Moreover, this magnificent passage, gathering On 24th April Hans Rosbaud conducts the German Substituting for Scherchen, Markevitch conducts the year, for instance, introduces the saxophone to the momentum by inexorable small degrees, is also a premières of Concerto Grosso and Piano Concerto with world première of his oratorio Le Paradis perdu instrumental lexicon of European art music, yet gives it premonition of Rébus; in the following year, the the orchestra of Frankfurt Radio (the latter work with (Paradise Lost) at Queen’s Hall, London on 20th nowhere near the same prominence as does Concerto identical compositional idea will reappear as a separate the composer as soloist). December. Grosso. Whereas Milhaud “buries” his alto saxophone movement in the latter work, subtly re-orchestrated and The world première of Rébus in Paris on 15th within the strings in slow-moving cantabile melody, with an entirely new conclusion. Even in its first December is hailed as a major triumph for the 1936 Markevitch uses the dominating soprano instrument in manifestation, however, the characterisation and composer. Writing in The New York Times for 10th Marries Kyra, daughter of Vaslav Nijinsky, in April. agile, whirligig display. “driving force” of this music are uniquely Markevitch’s January, 1932, Henri Prunières declares: They decide to live in Corsier, Switzerland. The initial concertino episode of the work’s first own. “I am in no particular hurry to proclaim the genius movement, for example, is set for the grouping of The first performance of the work was given at the of even the most gifted musicians. But in the case of 1937 saxophone, bassoon, trombone and solo violin. It is the Salle de la Conservatoire, Paris on 8th December, 1930, Markevitch, after the new work he has just given us, Conducts L’Envol d’Icare at the Venice Biennale in saxophone that first introduces the rhythmically by the Orchestre Symphonique de Paris under its doubt is no longer permissible … his music is not September, remarking to fellow-composer Alex de clashing triplet-across-the-bar that is to become such a dedicatee, Roger Desormière. young. He is a little like Menuhin, who, when he was Graeff : “I rejoice to hear it again, but I am nervous to hallmark of Markevitch’s style. ten, played like a master and not like a child prodigy.” conduct it for the first time . . . it is so terribly difficult.” In later concertino sections, contrasting orchestral © 1996 & 2009 Christopher Lyndon-Gee Hailed by many as the “second Igor”, Markevitch is Stravinsky (whose Jeu de Cartes is on the same groups are presented in turn, with the triplet rhythmic now persona non grata with Stravinsky. programme) is in the audience, and retreats from his counterpoint next heard in the horns against an 8/8 Reproduction of brief quotations permitted with earlier hostility to Markevitch, expressing admiration unison bass-line in bass clarinet and cellos. Later again, acknowledgement. For permission to use longer citations, 1933 for the score. the saxophone is heard once more, doubling tutti violins please contact Naxos Rights International Ltd. After being asked by Mengelberg to conduct the Dutch against basses, tuba, trombone and trumpet. première of Rébus with the Concertgebouw Orchestra in 1938 The Andante of Concerto Grosso grows directly out 1 David Drew, Igor Markevitch: The Early Works and Beyond, February, Markevitch takes conducting lessons from Contriving a commission fee as a New Year’s Day gift, of a short meno mosso section of the first movement; the in Tempo, N° 133/134, Boosey & Hawkes, London, September Pierre Monteux (who directs the remainder of this Piatigorsky requests a cello concerto. one moment in the work that distantly recalls the music 1980, p. 38; reported from a conversation between Drew and concert). At this stage he sees conducting as a task The world première in Warsaw on 21st January of for Es sungen drei Engel in Hindemith’s Mathis der Markevitch. purely in relation to his own music. The American Le Nouvel Âge marks a new triumph for the composer. Maler. The triadic nature of this theme is designed to 2 John Gruen reported these remarks to the present writer in première of Rébus follows in April, given by Serge On his way back from Poland, Markevitch visits upset any sense of tonality created by the sforzando close New York, April 3, 1996: Markevitch made these informal Koussevitzky and the Boston Symphony. Nijinsky for the first time in the sanatorium at of the Allegro con brio on G. At the same time, its strong comments preceding the tape-recorded part of his 1972 On 26th June Désormière conducts the tumultuous Kreuzlingen; Kyra describes this meeting, and its effect F major implications are constantly upset by an attraction interview with Gruen. But see also the transcipt of that première in Paris of L’Envol d’Icare (The Flight of on her father as “a marvel”. Performed at the Palais des to tritone relationships, which feature most prominently interview, dated August 6, 1972 : New York Public Library Icarus), declared by Milhaud to be “a date in the Beaux-Arts in Brussels in April, Le Nouvel Âge is in a striking solo for piccolo towards the end. Dance Collection ms. MGZMT 3-176. evolution of music”. Le Corbusier and Cocteau, as well acclaimed by an audience of two thousand. In response The Finale is thematically a direct extension of the 3 Être et avoir été, p. 236: “… le sujet d’Icare provoqua en moi as many musicians of importance are among the to this performance, Léon Kochnitsky writes in the May first movement, beginning with a boldly original un choc. Pourquoi ? Mon existence n’a cessé de me fournir des audience. issue of La Revue Musicale:

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between the wars. His language is aggressively (Nuptials) to Alfred Cortot (himself a composer). Cortot réponses à cette question, chaque destinée étant une réédition superior al de Szyfer, logrando un clima muy tenso y dramático individual. Not neo-classical, it has classical restraint arranges for its publication, and invites Markevitch to de quelque mythe, où l’âme humaine se signifie ou trouve une con los instrumentos de percusión tradicionales.” and a poise that is almost frigidly disciplined. In an study with him. identification.” 15 Serge Lifar, Manifeste du Choréographe, in Comœdia, 2 July æsthetic distant from the transmuted romanticism that 4 Op. cit. p. 245: “… le mythe d’Icare apparaissait riche 1935; quoted in op. cit. p. 252: “La musique était admirable, propels the music of Berg and Schoenberg, he initiated 1926-28 d’éléments spirituels susceptibles d’être assimilés à l’idée de son union avec la danse séduisante, mais je sentais an exploration of dissonance (through polytonality) that Studies piano with Cortot, and harmony and l’architecture qu’ils animeraient.” parfaitement qu’il me serait impossible de faire coïncider mon the perspective of the 1990s can readily identify as a counterpoint with Nadia Boulanger at the École 5 Op. cit. p. 237: “… j’ai été amené à déceler dans le mythe rhythme avec celui de Markevitch.” fertile harmonic path. Dissatisfied with what he seems Normale de Musique in Paris. d’Icare . . . une des significations les plus modernes et 16 John Gruen, op cit pp. 5 - 6; in particular the reference to to have perceived as the indulgent prettiness of dramatiques que je sache: arriver brûlé. … Poussé par Serge Lifar, My Life, Paris 1965. impressionism, he sought a purity and detachment of 1929 l’ambition, le sujet, consumé en route, atteint son but pour 17 See Bartók’s letter (late 1930s?) to Markevitch reproduced in style which were rare in this interbellum period of Markevitch completes his diplomas at the École constater que ses ailes ne le portent plus.” the New York Philharmonic program books for the orchestra’s excess. Normale, commencing his Sinfonietta for Orchestra as 6 Op. cit. p. 238: “La caractéristique des sons était de ne jamais concerts at Carnegie Hall with Leonard Bernstein on April 10, Igor Markevitch has so recently begun to emerge part of his qualifying work. Now sixteen, he plays the disparaître complètement. Comme ces cloches ou ces cristaux 11 and 15, 1958: “J’ai nécessité du temps pour étudier et from the shadows in his “first incarnation” as a Sinfonietta and Noces to Dyagilev, who soon after qui paraissaient résonner pour l’éternité, les accords se comprendre toute la beauté de votre partition, et je pense qu’il composer that an outline of the major events of this commissions two new works from him: a Piano prolongeaient, s’enchevêtrant les uns aux autres, et formaient faudra beaucoup d’années pour qu’on l’apprecie … Vous êtes early phase of his life will be illuminating; not least, Concerto, which receives a concert première des lignes mélodiques pures et abstraites. . . . [ça] m’a fait la personnalité la plus frappante de la musique contemporaine because it shows him in constant, intimate contact with sandwiched between ballets at the Covent Garden prendre conscience du rhythme de la mort et de son mouvement et je me réjouis, Monsieur, de profiter de votre influence.” — “I innumerable other, and hitherto better-known major season of the Ballets Russes in July (with Markevitch d’apparence immobile.” would need more time to study and understand the beauty of figures of the century. himself as soloist); and L’Habit du Roi (The Emperor’s 7 Op. cit. p. 241: “… chaque son étant un monde complet avec your score, and I believe that many years may be necessary New Clothes), a ballet with scenario by Boris Kochno une infinité d’harmoniques différents, l’audition de toute note before it is fully appreciated … You are the most striking Chronology and designs by Picasso. peut se comparer à une comète qui illumine le ciel par le trajet personality in contemporary music and I rejoice, Sir, in being Only briefly before Dyagilev’s death on 19th qu’elle y allume.” able to benefit from your influence.” 1912 August, Markevitch accompanies him to Baden-Baden 8 Op. cit. p. 247: “Les idées qui changent la face du monde 18 Être et avoir été p. 247: “… ce grattement de pattes, ces Born in Ki’ev, 27th July, to the pianist Boris Markevitch for the world première of Hindemith and Brecht’s approchent sur les pattes de colombes.” piétinements d’oiseaux, ces moires d’ailes, ce pigeonnier de (a student of Eugene d’Albert) and to Zola Pokitonova. Lehrstück; and to Munich for performances of Tristan 9 Pierre Souvtchinsky, Icare, in La Revue musicale, July 1932: gifles et d’impatiences …” und Isolde and Die Zauberflöte conducted by Richard cit. in Être et avoir été p. 244: “La création chez Markevitch 19 Être et avoir été p. 462: “(Il y eut même des malheureux qui 1914 Strauss. With Dyagilev dead, L’Habit du Roi is dépend directement de l’inspiration auditive de la «chose qui crurent voir [sic] dans la Mort d’Icare une évocation de Java … )” The Markevitch family flees Russia for Paris. abandoned, but some of its music is incorporated into s’entend», sans intervention préalable d’éléments 20 Être et avoir été p. 461: “En fait, l’accession d’Icare à la Markevitch grows up speaking primarily French, and Cantate with a new text specially written by Jean psychologiques ou formels.” connaissance peut être considérée comme paraphrase de will eventually write his autobiography Être et avoir été Cocteau. 10 Être et avoir été, p. 244: “… effets réellement nouveaux et [la l’Adagio de cette dernière sonata, qui a représenté pour moi, in French in 1980. création] d’une sensibilité nouvelle.” depuis mon adolescence, une des créations sonores le plus 1930 11 Op. cit. p. 243: “… certains accords ne pouvaient être perçus proches de la perfection où celle-ci se retrouve elle-même.” 1916 Roger Désormière (who conducted Markevitch in his avec exactitude …” 21 Être et avoir été p. 462: “… pour qui comprend cette page, la The family settles in La-Tour-de-Peilz (Vevey), Piano Concerto the previous year) presents the 12 Op. cit. p. 243: “… la seule fonction était de corriger ce que Mort d’Icare devient transparente.” Switzerland. enormously successful première of Cantate in Paris on fausse l’oreille …” 22 Op. cit. p. 236: “ La chute commence lorsque l’absurde n’est 4th June. 13 Op. cit. p. 249: “… [une tendance] à libérer autant que plus considéré comme tel. Dans Icare on retrouve quelque part 1921-23 In August, the publishing house of Schott (Mainz) possible la choréographie de la sujétion de la musique.” ses ailes, comme les restes d’un serpent qui a fait peau neuve. Igor studies piano with his father until the latter’s death accepts the Sinfonietta, the Piano Concerto and Cantate 14 See transcript of an interview with Harold Gramatges Ce sont les signes de renouveau.” in 1923. for publication. conducted by Christopher Lyndon-Gee in Havana on February 23 Op. cit. p. 398: “Tu as fait des éléments d’une vie qui passe, 8th December: world première in Paris of Concerto 4, 1994; a brief reference to this work is also to be found in ceux d’une musique éternelle.” 1925 Grosso, reviewed as follows by no less than Darius Alejo Carpentier, La Musica en Cuba, Mexico City 1946, p. 24 Conversations with Claude Rostand in Point d’Orgue, Paris, The thirteen-year-old Igor plays his piano suite Noces Milhaud in L’Europe of 13th December: 266: “El Icaro de Gramatges, debemos señalarlo, es bastante 1959.

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Het Gelders Orkest (Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra) ballet score, L’Habit du Roi (The Emperor’s New rhythms of adolescence that he felt a stranger had been Clothes), to be choreographed by Lifar with décor by born within, an alien persona that guided him beyond Based in Arnhem, the Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra gives some hundred symphony concerts each season in the Picasso. In short, he was at seventeen launched by any of his desires. province of Gelderland, in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht, and abroad, including tours to Spain, Austria, Dyagilev on a path that brought worldwide fame as a It is undoubtedly more than coincidental that at Germany and Hungary. In 2007 the orchestra toured Japan for the first time and returns there in 2009. From the composer by the time he was twenty. nineteen Markevitch should have turned to the Icarus 2003-2004 season Martin Sieghart took over as Chief Conductor and artistic adviser of the orchestra. Ken-ichro “I was his last discovery” were Markevitch’s words myth for his first truly individual work, L’Envol d’Icare, Kobayashi was appointed Permanent Conductor from the 2006-2007 season, and Nikolai Alexeev Permanent Guest in a revealing 1972 interview with the New York dance a score which he continued to re-work in various forms Conductor in 2002. Former Chief Conductors include Lawrence Renes, Roberto Benzi and Yoav Talmi. Other critic John Gruen; and indeed, the manner in which for more than a decade. Icarus, who flew too close to the conductors who have regularly made guest appearances with the orchestra in the past years include Bernard Klee, Dyagilev, “the greatest agent-provocateur that ever sun and fell to earth embodies a vivid image of the fate Hans Vonk, Jaap van Zweden and Roy Goodman. Soloists such as Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Leif Ove Andsnes, Zoltan existed”, took him up must at least in part have been a of the young composer, swept along by the frenetic Koscis, Nicolai Znaider and Akiko Suwanai are also among those who have performed with the orchestra. journey into nostalgia for the impresario. Markevitch Paris of the 1930s. Indeed, the most striking passage of Recordings by the Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra include the symphonies of Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Brahms and could hardly have entered more fully into the world of Icare is the lengthy, hypnotic, ecstatic-obsessive Berlioz, with an enthusiastic reception by the press in both Japan and The Netherlands for recordings of Mahler’s the Ballets-Russes, as he went on to marry Nijinsky’s “Death” that concludes the work, occupying nearly one- Sixth Symphony and Das Lied von der Erde. daughter Kyra, though this marriage soon degenerated. third of its duration. So much so that during their wartime life in Italy, The series of large-scale works that followed over Bernard Berenson rather amusingly related that Igor and the following brief eight years is a succession of Kyra used to visit him alternately, since “when they masterpieces in constantly changing languages. Rébus were together their artistic temperaments tended to and Le Nouvel Âge both embody a Prokofiev-like explode”. They were estranged four years into this nine- grittiness married to that motoric “moto perpetuo” year marriage, and Markevitch soon married again, quality that so typifies the music of Albert Roussel, but though not before he and Kyra had had a son, Vaslav in a more pointed harmonic framework, and continuing (nicknamed “Funtyki”, or “small pound weight” by the exploration of multiple simultaneous polyrhythms Berenson), named in honour of his grandfather. that are Markevitch’s trademark. The all-too-brief The music of this extraordinary young man betrays Cantique d’Amour is a ravishing Skryabinesque essay in no hint of immaturity: both in style and technique it is evocative color, yet curiously emotionally detached. complete, utterly assured and deeply original. His Psaume and the cantata-symphony Lorenzo Il Magnifico Cantate of 1930, written on a text of Cocteau (and are massive and bold. The early works Sinfonietta, including music rescued from the sketches for L’Habit Concerto Grosso and Partita are memorable for far more du Roi), brought forth the comment from Henri Sauget, than merely their youthful assurance of execution; their “…it bears witness to a very fine mastery, and to a harmonic language probes beyond the conventional in a marvellous balance of intelligence and esprit”. This very personal manner, especially in their searchingly eighteen-year old, indeed, was hailed throughout Europe original polytonal and polyrhythmic treatments. as perhaps the brightest hope in the musical firmament L’Envol d’Icare remains the singular work among of that time. Only three years later Darius Milhaud these masterpieces, whether for its ascetic, pointillistic wrote of the première of L’Envol d’Icare: “this work scoring; its visionary use of quarter-tone tuning, …will probably mark a date in the evolution of music.” harmonically so precisely calculated; its brilliant Was this adulation more than the young composer exploitation of complex rhythmic simultaneities; or the could bear? Had Dyagilev put pressure on him, sheer unique sound-world that it evokes from the conscious or unconscious, to be the new Stravinsky, orchestra. Above all, for the poise and emotional charge exactly thirty years on? His autobiography reveals a of its hypnotic “Death”. sense that the overnight glory which assailed him as The achievement of Igor Markevitch bridges Dyagilev’s protégé caused such a break with the normal important gaps in our understanding of the period

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Igor Markevitch (1912-1983) Christopher Lyndon-Gee Complete Orchestral Works • 3 Christopher Lyndon-Gee was recently honoured as one of only three hundred conductors included in Naxos’s 600- This third volume of the complete orchestral works of himself “dead between two lives”. But this alone cannot page book and CD compilation A to Z of Conductors, covering the entire history of the art-form from Hans von Igor Markevitch includes the first recordings of fully explain the reasons for his abandoning Bülow and Arthur Nikisch to the present day. Christopher Lyndon-Gee was nominated for Grammys in 1998 for Cantique d’Amour and Concerto Grosso; L’Envol composition; and his autobiography Être et avoir été, ‘Best Orchestral Performance’ for the first volume of his groundbreaking series of the complete works of Igor d’Icare was previously recorded by the composer in published in 1980, obfuscates and misleads even as it Markevitch (originally released on Marco Polo); in 2003 for the world première recording of George Rochberg’s 1938 on poorly-preserved 78 rpm shellac discs. Other makes a show of revealing the writer’s inner life. Symphony No. 5 on Naxos American Classics; and again in 2007 for Hans Werner Henze’s Violin Concertos Nos. 1 than that single recording and a handful of radio Markevitch is dissimilar to the “conductor- and 3, with Peter Sheppard Skærved and the Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra (now the Deutsche Radio- broadcasts, the present series is the first ever made of composer” model exemplified by Furtwängler, Philharmonie). Other recordings have been listed among The Gramophone ‘Editor’s Choice’ in London, Fanfare the arrestingly original orchestral music of a composer Klemperer, Weingartner and many others between the magazine ‘Outstanding CDs of the Year’, Penguin Guide to Compact Discs’ multiple Rosettes and Key Recordings hailed in the 1930s as one of the most challenging wars. On the contrary, he emerged first as a listings, and he won the Pizzicato prize in Luxembourg. He was named ‘Artist of the Year’ by the Australian voices of his time, yet subsequently ignored — not least phenomenally gifted adolescent composer exalted by National Critics Circle in 1994, and won the Sydney Opera Critics ‘Best Conductor’ award the same year. by himself. Thus these discs may offer the beginnings of his contemporaries on the basis of an astoundingly Acclaimed recent releases include George Rochberg’s Symphony No. 1 in its première recording (Naxos 8.559214); an opportunity to decipher the mystery that is Igor assured series of early scores, turning to conducting volume 2 of the complete works of Edgard Varèse (8.557882), including the massive original version of Amériques, Markevitch. almost reluctantly when required by his own work and for an orchestra of 155 players; and the completion of the Markevitch complete works project, the oratorio The singular precedent of Rossini, who retired from by the hardships of post-war life. Yet, after changing Le Paradis perdu, released in 2008. Frequently invited to conduct at the Warsaw Autumn Festival, he conducted the composition of opera at the age of 38 to become a course to this new career exclusively as conductor at four world premières on a single concert at the Jubilee, Fiftieth anniversary Festival in 2007 — new symphonies by restaurateur, but continued to write salon music and thirty, he all but denied the existence of his own music the Slovakian composer Roman Berger; Lithuania’s leading female composer Onute Narbutaite; and the Polish sacred works, seems hardly comparable. Markevitch’s until nearly seventy years old. When questioned in 1958 composers Jerzy Kornowicz and Aleksand’r Lason. In 2006 he led the closing concert at the November 2006 ‘Pawel renunciation at 29 of his identity as a composer is a about his early life as composer, he diffidently replied: Szymanski Festival’, also in Warsaw, featuring six of the major works of Poland’s leading composer of today. unique case in the history of music. To quote David “I would say to you, very frankly, that I am objective In 2008, a four-DVD set including this complete concert was released worldwide by Polskie Wydawnictwo Drew, “It is a silence like no other in the music of this enough to claim that there is music which needs to be Audiowizualne. As a composer, Lyndon-Gee was honoured by the Onassis Foundation Prize in 2001, has won the century or before”. heard before mine, and for which the need is more ‘Sounds Australian’ award three times, the Adolf Spivakovsky Prize, and the MacDowell Fellowship twice. At first glance the eclipse during his lifetime of urgent. Apart from that, if my works are good enough, In 2006, his setting from Dante’s Paradiso, ‘Frammento del Dante’, was premièred in Florence by the Echo- Markevitch’s reputation as a composer appears due, they can wait; and if they cannot wait, it is pointless to Klassiek prize-winning German ensemble SingerPur; Musik für SaitenInstrumente has had recent performances in more than any other single factor, to the dimensions of play them.” several countries (including Vladivostock, in far eastern Russia); and ‘Over Litton’, after a poem of Edward Storey, his success as a conductor. What has yet to be fully The facts of his “first life” are remarkable enough. was premièred in Wales as a 25th anniversary Presteigne Festival Commission before being taken up widely in New explained, however, is why his life divides so Born in Ki’ev on 27th July, 1912, he moved with his York, Australia and elsewhere. In progress are forthcoming commissions of a set of songs for Lute and Tenor voice, dramatically and uncompromisingly into two halves – family to Paris in 1914, before settling in Switzerland. Lieder des Morgensterns; a new work for SingerPur on a text from Milton; a String Quartet; a second string clearly a conscious decision on his part, and one whose As early as the age of thirteen, he played his piano suite orchestra work for the German conductor Eckart Schloifer, ‘… und unter den Blättern saß Er, weinend’; a work for true reasons this intensely private man seems to have Noces to Alfred Cortot, who recommended the work to ‘Harpsichord Unlimited’ in New York, Etudes canoniques; and a Symphony respectfully dedicated to the aboriginal sought to keep hidden. Markevitch’s last original his publishers and invited the boy to study with him. In heritage of Australia, Symphony of Dreamtime. Lyndon-Gee studied conducting under Rudolf Schwarz in London, composition was written in 1941 at the age of 29, and he January 1929, before his seventeenth birthday, he and Franco Ferrara in Rome, where Leonard Bernstein heard him conduct a student concert, subsequently inviting never again returned to the creative endeavours that had enraptured Dyagilev with his Sinfonietta in F, leading in him to study at Tanglewood. Here he later worked also under Maurice Abravanel, Erich Leinsdorf and others. He brought him such renown and adulation when barely in a matter of months to the young composer completing worked as Bruno Maderna’s assistant at La Scala, Milan, later becoming second conductor at the Teatro Regio in his twenties. The trauma of the Second World War and playing his new Piano Concerto at Covent Garden Turin, working also with the RAI orchestra in that city. He was co-founder with composer Lorenzo Ferrero of the marks a sharp dividing line during which the composer (in concert form between L’Après-midi d’un faune and Ensemble Fase Seconda, who premièred dozens of commissioned new works throughout Italy, Germany, France appears to have undergone a mental, as well as physical Renard, at what the influential social columns of and at many international festivals. As composer, he studied with Goffredo Petrassi in Rome, Luciano Berio, crisis, for in 1942 Markevitch suffered a serious illness London’s Sketch referred to as a “rehearsal party” for a Sylvano Bussotti and Jean Martinon. Britain’s great musicologist Arthur Hutchings remains a powerful guiding while living in Tuscany, and in a letter of the same year select group of intelligentsia including, apparently, influence, several decades on. written during his recuperation declared that he sensed Virginia Woolf). Soon after, he started work on a major

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Igor Also available in this series: MARKEVITCH Complete Orchestral Works • 3 Cantique d’Amour • L’Envol d’Icare • Concerto Grosso Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra • Lyndon-Gee

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