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Igor Igor DDD MARKEVITCH 8.225076 (1912-1983) MARKEVITCH Complete Orchestral Music, Vol. 6 Piano Concerto * 15:56 Piano Concerto • Cantate • Icare 1 Allegro vivace 5:46 2 Andante 6:49 Martijn van den Hoek, Piano • Nienke Oostenrijk, Soprano 3 Allegro risoluto 3:22 Netherlands Concert Choir • Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra Cantate † 24:10 Christopher Lyndon-Gee 4 Allegro risoluto 7:25 5 Lento sostenuto 8:38 6 Allegro risoluto 5:44 7 Choral: Lent et soutenu 2:24

Icare 25:33 (composed as L’Envol d’Icare, 1932 (see Complete Orchestral Works, Volume 2); Revised instrumentation, several compositional changes and re-titling 1943.) 8 Prélude: Molto tranquillo 2:15 (Originally: Prélude ) 9 Eveil de la Connaissance (Awakening of Knowledge) 2:30 (Jeux des Adolescents: Eveil de la Connaissance ) 0 Icare et les Oiseaux (Icarus and the Birds) 5:58 (Icare attrape deux colombes; il étudie leur vol ) ! Les ailes d’Icare (Icarus’ wings) 2:01 (Icare se fait fixer des ailes aux épaules, et s’essaye à voler ) @ Envol d’Icare (Flight of Icarus) 5:46 (L’Envol d’Icare ) # Où l’on retrouve les ailes d’Icare (Where Icarus’ wings are found) 0:47 (Où l’on apprend la chute d’Icare ) $ Mort d’Icare (Death of Icarus) 6:17 (La Mort d’Icare )

Igor Markevitch (1912-1983) 7 IV: Choral - Lent et soutenu IV: Choral - Lent et soutenu Complete Orchestral Music, Vol. 6: Piano Concerto • Cantate • Icare Chœur et Soprano: Chorus and Soprano: Markevitch’s extraordinary precocity as a composer is 3 6 7 6 5 6 6 5 (x 2) 3 5 6 (x 2) 6 (x 2) 4 3 4 (x 2) Après avoir fini Having completed startlingly revealed in this sixth instalment in the series 4 8 8 16 16 8 16 16 8 16 16 8 8 8 8 Leur travail de l’hiver their winter work of his complete orchestral works: the Piano Concerto The slow movement of the Concerto is most les dormeurs éveillés the revived sleepers and Cantate were written when he was sixteen and original, both in its delicate polytonality, and in its self- Sortirent un matin came out one morning seventeen years old. Nevertheless they display unsullied confident spareness, most especially in the featuring of confidence of idiom and certainty of technique that are solo snare-drum as a foil to the piano’s last restatement Le printemps commençait Spring began unnerving and remain to this day a mystery. Years later, of the theme. In the Finale, this idea is transformed into L’avenir était beau the future beckoned brightly in the 1940s, his Parisian mentor and perhaps only true a cadenza with the accompaniment merely of bass On entendait partout les coqs Roosters were to be heard everywhere composition teacher, Nadia Boulanger, said of him to drum. The hymn-like quality of this second movement, Allumant le jour. bringing light to the day. colleagues in the United States that already at the age of and the grandiose wind chorales of the third look eight he had been “un phénomène”. forward to the second movement of Cantate, to the Et le soleil And the sun Sergey Pavlovich Dyagilev, as so many times Hymnes (Marco Polo 8.223724), and to the ‘ecstatic’ balayait la mort. swept away death. before in the impresario’s meteoric career, was one of slow movement for strings alone of Lorenzo il the first to spot this adolescent talent, and he presented Magnifico (8.223882). If it looks backwards at all to Translation Copyright the boy with challenges and an environment in which he Stravinsky’s Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments © MMIII Christopher LYNDON-GEE could rapidly develop - or fall, as the case might be. The of 1923-24, it is not in any sense derivative; rather it is two had been introduced by Dyagilev’s secretary, in the best kind of homage. Alexandrine Troussevitch, at a performance of Its première at the Royal Opera House, Covent Petrushka, and only days later Markevitch had played Garden, in London, on 15th July, 1929, with sections of his still incomplete Sinfonietta to this maker Desormière conducting, took place alongside of lives and of reputations. An immediate commission Stravinsky’s Renard and the great Nijinsky creations to compose a Piano Concerto for the coming London Carnaval, L’après-midi d’un faune, and Les dieux season was the result. mendiants. The audience was star-studded: the cream of The youth was whisked headlong into a different London society and intelligentsia, Edith Sitwell and world. Markevitch knew that he was being “put to the Virginia Woolf among them. Dyagilev was rapt. “This test”, and he was not found wanting. The work is in is a music,” he rhapsodised, “that draws its vigour from every sense an exuberant Concerto Grosso. If the outer the very same principles that underpin the world”. movements of this Concerto bear strong traces of Overcome, too, was the Duchess of Portland. “My attentive study of Bach (of Hindemith, too, whom he dear”, she drooled, “Beethoven il est entré in you!” admired), they are nonetheless harmonically and Markevitch, to his credit, erupted inwardly into a rhythmically fresh, original and powerfully present. “crazed laughter” at this aristocratic infelicity. Indeed, the displacement of metrical expectations, the Very few creations of sixteen-year-olds enter the shortening or lengthening of bars by an unexpected repertoire for their merits in themselves; most are quaver or semi-quaver, is a Markevitch hallmark that curiosities of juvenilia. The energy, invention, mastery will characterize his musical style throughout his of form and sheer explosive élan of the present work maturity. Here is the sequence of bars from the last mark it out as worthy of inclusion in the composer’s pages of the first movement, where the “drive to the catalogue of mature works. cadence” is fuelled by rhythmic experimentation : The intentional obscurities, non sequiturs and 8.225076 2 15 8.225076 225076 bk Markevitch 06/10/2003 1:43 pm Page 14

Chœur: Chorus: surreal evocations of Jean Cocteau’s writing around school instituted it in the 1950s. Both ideas are carried Spectateurs Watchers 1930 are no surprise; this strand of absurdist French forward into the Cantate. vous êtes les fantômes you are the ghosts poetry both grows in a natural progression from Events moved fast during the remainder of this d’un autre monde of another world Rimbaud, and is a reaction against the familiar comfort summer. Twelve days after the London première of the où les gens reveillés en sursaut in which people awakened with a sudden start of the kind of images immortalised by Proust. Without Piano Concerto, on the youthful composer’s ont horriblement peur de vous. are most horribly afraid of you. doubt, Mallarmé, Cocteau and René Char have seventeenth birthday (27th July), Dyagilev and contributed beyond measure to the path taken by French Markevitch were staying in rooms overlooking the Soprano: Soprano: music between Debussy and the present day. The arts in Rhine at the famous Hotel “Des Trois Rois” in Basel Fantômes Spirits France are perhaps more closely interlinked and (where Honegger composed his Symphony Di Tre Re). craignez vous les pièges you should be afraid of traps interdependent than in almost any other country. A contract was signed, with the spectacular sum of ten n’avez vous pas peur des loups do not be afraid of wolves Cantate, written in Paris in 1929 to a text by thousand francs agreed as commissioning fee, to be paid fantômes spirits Cocteau, should have been Markevitch’s first ballet. commencing August in ten equal instalments. craignez vous les pièges. fear only the traps. The day immediately following the successful (éclatant, Only a short time later that summer, however, indeed) reception of his Piano Concerto at its London Dyagilev was taken ill, falling into a coma and peaceful Chœur: Chorus: première in 1929, Dyagilev excitedly discussed with death at his beloved Grand Hotel des Bains at the Craignez les chambres Dread bedrooms Markevitch a new commission for a ballet. The scenario Venice Lido with Kochno, Lifar and Misia Sert at his dont les rideaux bougent where movement stirs the curtains would be drawn by Boris Kochno from Andersen’s The side. Thus it was that, returning to Paris by train with his méfiez-vous des mains Distrust hands that Emperor’s New Clothes, the choreography be mounted mother Zoya, Markevitch conceived the idea of qui sortent des rideaux thrust out from those drapes by Lifar, and the sets and costumes designed by Picasso. salvaging his substantial body of music already Les rideaux de velours rouge Hangings of red velvet Heady stuff for a sixteen-year-old. The work was to be sketched for L’Habit du Roi by asking his slightly older sont plus perfides que l’eau are more treacherous than water called L’Habit du Roi, and Dyagilev conceived of it friend, the young-lion poet, Jean Cocteau, to compose a being “full of researches and of new forms”. Klemperer text for a Cantate. Craignez les chambres Beware rooms had already agreed to conduct, subject only to schedule Cocteau, who already gloried in a self-proclaimed dont les rideaux bougent where movement stirs the curtains considerations, and the other creative collaborators on “slavery of popularity”, lived in chaotic circumstances the project were to convene for a meeting in Venice in in an apartment on the top floor of the Hotel Madeleine, Soprano: Soprano: September. indulging in a diet of petits-fours at Fauchon in the Fantômes Spirits The composer set to work immediately. Nor was he square below, and of opium in his rooms above. “I am craignez-vous la neige do you fear snow overawed by Dyagilev; he caused consternation by without doubt the most famous and the least-known êtes-vous encore jaloux ? are you still jealous ? proposing a fugue, no less, for the moment of the score poet”, declared this outrageous, brilliant genius. Journal fantômes spirits where the king is discovered to be naked, “Mais le roi of an Unknown and the film (with music by Georges craignez vous la neige. you should fear snow. est nu!” “Why such a severe form?” asked Dyagilev. Auric) The Blood of a Poet were already under his belt. “To tame disorder with an element of precision”, The latter had been first screened at the Moulin Rouge, Chœur et Soprano: Chorus and Soprano: replied Markevitch; and in response to a searching look, under Dyagilev’s auspices. On 2nd December, 1929, Ciel ! O Heaven ! “don’t be afraid – it will be a ‘crazy’ fugue”. One Cocteau would accompany Markevitch to Brussels for Un fantôme oublié A forgotten ghost thinks, perhaps, of La Damnation de Faust as the the Belgian première of his Sinfonietta. In part Sur le cheval fou à lier ! Must be bound upon the mad horse ! ultimate inspiration behind this youthful idea. Other stimulated by working on Cantate together, the two had Sauve qui peut ! Let he who can save himself ! elements of the music, highlighted in the complex become inseparable. Voici Here polyrhythmic combinations already beloved of Cocteau’s work for the text of Cantate shows every Les loups. are the wolves. Markevitch, were to anticipate the controlled disorder sign of being written at a high level of poetic zeal. He of aleatoricism, described by Markevitch in the 1930s, took a great deal of trouble to tailor the text both to the not brought into general practice until the Darmstadt Markevitch he knew, and, doubtless, to the pre-existing 8.225076 14 3 8.225076 225076 bk Markevitch 06/10/2003 1:43 pm Page 4

musical sketches that were played to him. It is This reference can hardly be incidental. Allusions (pochissimo meno mosso) (pochissimo meno mosso) nevertheless uncanny that, nearly three years before to opium-reverie apart (“the creations of dreams”), the Pour resusciter dans la tombe To revive within the tomb Markevitch worked on the defining orchestral score of two men must have discussed the Icarus myth, and pour voler à tombeau ouvert. to steal out from the open tomb. his career, L’envol d’Icare (The Flight of Icarus) Markevitch’s mind must already have been turning Cocteau should have included the lines : towards its music. Likewise, the Chorale that ends 6 III: Allegro risoluto III: Allegro risoluto Cantate is no accident. In London the previous summer, Voyez, voyez, Markevitch had mentioned to Dyagilev that he had yet Chœur: Chorus: je sais voler to see a staged version of Stravinsky’s Soldier’s Tale. Craignez les chambres Dread bedrooms je sais me tenir toute seule He must have had the other-worldly Chorales of that dont les rideaux bougent where movement stirs the curtains je sais voler work in his mind for some time. méfiez-vous des mains Distrust hands that me détacher de la terre Cantate was first performed in June 1930 at the qui sortent des rideaux thrust out from those drapes tourner sur moi Théâtre de la Pigalle (of all places!) not even a year Les rideaux de velours rouge Hangings of red velvet m’élever sans ailes after the young composer’s triumph with his Piano sont plus perfides que l’eau are more treacherous than water et monter en l’air Concerto in London. The critics viewed the work as an comme on tombe indicator of a great compositional career at its dawn. Craignez les chambres Beware rooms doucement à l’envers. “The Cantate is testimony to rare mastery and dont les rideaux bougent where movement stirs the curtains intelligence, marvellously in equilibrium with an Do you see, do you see, outstanding spirit”, wrote Henri Sauguet in L’Europe Soprano: Soprano: I know how to fly ! nouvelle. Vuillermoz spoke of “premature wisdom”, Fantômes Spirits all alone, I remain aloft and Jules Casadesus of “joie de puer”, the “joy of craignez-vous la neige you should be afraid of snow I know how to fly simply being young!” n’avez vous pas peur des loups do not be afraid of wolves to detach myself from the earth Cantate is written for a chorus of male voices only, Fantômes, craignez-vous la neige. Spirits, fear only the snow. spin around with solo soprano and a standard orchestra without raise myself without wings harps. It was published soon after its composition by Chœur: Chorus: rise into the air Schott and Sons, Mainz, with an illustration by Cocteau Spectateurs Watchers just as one falls for its cover. vous êtes les fantômes you are the ghosts gently upside down. The Icarus myth is the idée-fixe of Markevitch’s d’un autre monde of another world life: of his long and successful career as a conductor, of où les gens reveillés en sursaut in which people awakened with a sudden start C’est le système des colombes the complex man revealed in the autobiography Être et ont horriblement peur de vous. are most horribly afraid of you. les inventions des rêves avoir été, and above all of the creative artist of the early on croit qu’on s’élève years. As Markevitch grew into the life of the mature Soprano: Soprano: et on tombe artist, he could never shake off the sense that, as an Fantômes Spirits oiseau cruel de rêve adolescent under Dyagilev’s tutelage, he had soared too avez-vous des morts de tragédie are there among you any who died a tragic death votre secret est découvert. high too soon, and had inevitably fallen, wounded, to fantômes spirits earth. It was thus prescient that, at the age of twenty, he avez-vous des maladies ? is there sickness among you ? This is the method of doves had chosen Icare as the subject of his first major these are the creations of dreams choreographic collaboration with Serge Lifar, one believes that one rises up Dyagilev’s somewhat peacock-like substitute for and one falls Nijinsky. cruel bird of dreams Lifar was not up to the task, and the ballet never your secret has been uncovered. came to stage realisation; but under the title L’Envol 8.225076 4 13 8.225076 225076 bk Markevitch 06/10/2003 1:43 pm Page 12

Les dortoirs de lune, The dormitories of the moon d’Icare (The Flight of Icarus, or more literally, The fresco also. Years passed, and finally, last summer I et les soldats autour and the soldiers who surround them launching into air of Icarus) the extraordinary orchestral took this work in hand. But very soon I understood it avec le tambour with their drums beating score had several performances and recognition that can was impossible to “correct” the first Icare. All my battant pour que la mort meure à son tour. so that death in its turn may suffer death. only be described as awed. “This work … will probably conception had evoluted [sic: evolved] with myself and mark a date in the evolution of music”, wrote Darius a new work began to appear. It was the same as I am the Chœur et Soprano: Chorus and Soprano: Milhaud; while Cocteau commented that the work same man of twelve years ago . . . Quite the same, and Place au chant ! Let song begin ! might have “fallen from the moon”, quoting Nietzsche’s quite different. Indeed, it would be possible to give both 5 II: Lento sostenuto II: Lento sostenuto remark that “the ideas which change the face of the Icare[s] in the same concert (and probably it will be world make their entrance on doves’ feet”. interesting to try). To compare with a great example I Soprano: Soprano: (For exhaustive notes on the work’s genesis and should say there is as much difference between both, as Voyez, voyez, Do you see, do you see, musical content, the reader is invited to refer to the liner between the first and the third Beethoven’s Leonora. I je sais voler I know how to fly ! notes for L’Envol d’Icare, Markevitch Complete could say, besides, there is a second Icare, not written je sais me tenir toute seule all alone, I remain aloft Orchestral Works Volume 2, Marco Polo 8.223666.) and constituted by my evolution, my sufferings, and my je sais voler I know how to fly Why, then, was the work rewritten in 1943-44 experiences during these last years.” me détacher de la terre to detach myself from the earth while the composer was living in the Villino on the The small refinements in some of the movement tourner sur moi spin around grounds of Bernard Berenson’s Villa I Tatti, outside titles distance the work from Stravinskian associations, m’élever sans ailes raise myself without wings Florence? In part to blame may well have been the less but indicate no structural changes whatsoever; not one et monter en l’air rise into the air than thrilling experience of its performance at the 1937 single measure is added or subtracted from the original comme on tombe just as one falls Venice Biennale, where the orchestra was so mediocre composition. The large number of alterations of doucement à l’envers. gently upside down. that only three sections of the work could be rehearsed substance between L’Envol d’Icare and its recasting as to performance standard in the time available. This was Icare all occur on a level of musical detail that might at Chœur: Chorus: the famous occasion of the rapprochement between first be imperceptible, but which is in fact quite C’est le système des colombes This is the method of doves Stravinsky and Markevitch, when L’Envol shared a profound. les inventions des rêves these are the creations of dreams programme with Jeu de Cartes. The older man Most immediately noticeable is the removal of the on croit qu’on s’élève one believes that one rises up (Dyagilev’s first Igor) had been somewhat arch with his group of solo instruments tuned a quarter-tone higher et on tombe and one falls younger rival up to this point, but admired L’Envol than the remainder of the orchestra. There are many oiseau cruel de rêve cruel bird of dreams enough that he softened and warmed. changes of instrumentation: the substitution of trumpet votre secret est découvert. your secret has been uncovered. The 1938 Brussels recording on 78s of L’Envol for bassoon on the opening motif and countless other d’Icare was not a great deal more assured, and small reorchestrations. More significant is the addition Soprano: Soprano: Markevitch may have concluded that the score could be of long-phrased, legato counter-melodies that are not Voyez, voyez, Do you see, do you see, made more accessible for orchestras unaccustomed, in present in the sparer textures of the original. A troped je sais voler I know how to fly ! particular, to playing with quarter-tone intonation. Then melody for ’cello solo that is added during the six bars je sais me tenir toute seule all alone, I remain aloft again, it is possible that, during the fallow period of the at Où l’on apprend la Chute d’Icare is perhaps the most je sais voler I know how to fly Second World War, living at Settignano, he simply obvious recomposition. Does it represent a loss of me détacher de la terre to detach myself from the earth could not leave alone this emblem of what, by now, was confidence in his musical vision? Is it a filling-out of a tourner sur moi spin around a former life. In a fascinating letter of March 1944 (one suspended thought that was more effective as a “hidden m’élever sans ailes raise myself without wings of the first that Markevitch attempted in English), melody” à la Robert Schumann? It “works”, but does it et monter en l’air rise into the air offering the dedication of the new score to Bernard perhaps say too much? comme on tombe just as one falls Berenson, he relates how “by and by I considered Le Many composers have rewritten or recast earlier doucement à l’envers. gently upside down. Vol d’Icare as these sketches which painters make scores. In the present case, what results is an utterly before a fresco, and I began to wish to make my real different, completely valid work. Though the surface 8.225076 12 5 8.225076 225076 bk Markevitch 06/10/2003 1:43 pm Page 6

distinctions are almost imperceptible, as compared, say, they would be in the wrong. Today we have too often Je saigne I bleed to the wholesale hacking out and replacement of the tendency to take awkwardness for genius, and saignent mes mains my hands bleed significant passages in Bruckner’s symphonies, the inexperience for originality.” saignent mes yeux my eyes bleed internal rethinking of the work is profound. While it The Icare incarnation has had considerable success saigne ma bouche my mouth bleeds would be a rank overstatement to say that courage is in the concert hall. It was performed at Carnegie Hall et mes cheveux and my hair replaced by caution, exploration by convention, it is three times in April 1958 by Leonard Bernstein and the mon sang comme des cheveux just like hair, my blood undoubtedly the composer’s intention to seek New York Philharmonic (the two conductor-composers ruisselle tombe jusqu’à mes pieds falls in a stream down to my feet understanding of a work that, in the ascetic spareness of had a warm mutual admiration and affection). Other its first incarnation, was perhaps ahead of its time and than radio broadcasts of concert performance, this is its voici le sang du supplice look at the blood of torture outside of its audience’s æsthetic ken. first recording under studio conditions. voici le sang du corps inhumain look at the blood of the inhuman body And the composer remained ambiguous about the qui coule which flows virtues of the two versions. In the same letter to Notes and translations by Christopher Lyndon-Gee et qui me tache les mains staining my hands Berenson, Markevitch later writes, “Perhaps some will regret the taste of unripe fruit of Le Vol d’Icare. I think Copyright © 2003 Christopher Lyndon-Gee Je saigne par amour I bleed because of love sans que personne s’élance à mon secours without which no-one will race to my aid le chant qui me tue the song that murders me me transforme en statue transforms me into a statue en bateau qui coule within a boat that flows avec la nuit autour with the night all around

les couteaux de lune the blades of the moon enfoncés dans le sein are thrust deep into the breast par des assassins by those who kill que le monde prends pour des saints. whom the world takes for saints.

Chœur: Chorus: Sous les nobles yeux des statues Beneath noble statues’ eyes les amoureux se tuent Lovers kill each other au petit matin in the first light of morning en domino de satin dressed in black-and-white satin

Les lavoirs de lune The moon’s laundry-rooms les terribles lavoirs those terrible washing rooms où peuvent se voir à genou where young women who are holding out their les filles tendant le cou necks can see themselves kneeling

le linge attire les fantômes dirty laundry attracts ghosts allumez du feu light the lights pour chasser les fantômes to chase away the ghosts

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Cantate Martijn van den Hoek (Text by Jean Cocteau, 1889-1963) g Copyright 1933 by Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Ltd. Reproduced by permission of Boosey & Hawkes Music Publishers Ltd. Martijn van den Hoek studied at the Rotterdam Conservatory, graduating in 1975.He was awarded the Prix d’excellence in 1978, enabling him to study abroad. These years brought him to such musical centres as Moscow, 4 I: Allegro risoluto I: Allegro risoluto Budapest and New York, his teachers including Josef Raieff, himself a pupil of Alexander Siloti, a favourite student of Franz Liszt in Weimar, and a close associate of Rachmaninov and Stravinsky. Among numerous international Chœur: Chorus: Prizes, Martijn van den Hoek won the First Prize at the Franz Liszt Competition in 1986 and the Music Prize of the Partout aux fenêtres du monde Everywhere, through the world’s windows Netherlands, the most distinguished award in the Netherlands. He has since travelled all over the world as a soloist les jeunes gens appellent sur le bord du jour, the young call out at the edge of the day, and recitalist, appearing with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, the Osaka Symphony, the ils appellent au secours. they call for help. Niederösterreichischen Tonkünstler, the RAI Orchestra of Turin, as well as the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra. His concerts are regularly recorded by the BBC in London, ORF Austria, Italian, Belgian, Dutch, Bulgarian, Les dortoirs de lune, The dormitories of the moon German, Japanese and Chinese Radio and Television. Martijn van den Hoek’s repertoire encompasses a vast range et les mortes d’amour and those dead of love of musical literature. His many recordings include the first recording of Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in van den au bout des couloirs at the ends of corridors Hoek’s reconstruction for piano sextet (after an early edition), and recordings of Franck’s Piano Concerto No. 2 as guettant pour que l’amour saigne à son tour, keeping watch for love, in its turn, to bleed, well as Markevitch’s two concertos. Based in Vienna, he taught at the famous Academy of Music from 1988 until 1995, when he was appointed professor at the Vienna Conservatory. He founded the festival “Musik Zentral” at aux fenêtres les femmes se peignent women comb their hair at windows Bad Aussee (Austria), held annually since 1997, is artistic director of the Niederleis Castle concert series, and will seignent et se pleignent give milk, argue shortly publish a book on Musical Communication, co-authored with his wife, the Japanese pianist Tomiko Les lavoirs de lune, In the laundries of the moon, Kaneko. les linges, et les cous dirty washing and necks perdent leur sang noir gush forth black blood venez voir le lavoir come, see the laundry-room Nienke Oostenrijk où le linge reçoit des coups! where washing recoils from sharp blows! The soprano Nienke Oostenrijk graduated in History at the University of Groningen in The Netherlands, before Soprano: Soprano: studying singing at the Amsterdam Sweelinck Conservatorium. She took her degree with Margreet Honig and Une cantatrice est A singer is Cora Canne Meijer, and attended master-classes of, among others, Arleen Auger, Elly Ameling and Robert Holl. une colonne casée au milieu a stone column split down the middle Her career has brought engagements in opera with principal rôles in works by Mozart, Richard Strauss and Verdi. saignant du haut en bas bleeding from top to bottom, In the concert hall her performances have included Bach’s St Matthew Passion, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater and est un coq du matin is a cock crowing in the morning Mozart’s Requiem in Berlin Rameau’s Castor et Pollux at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. Her recordings of chassant les ombres chasing away the shadows Zey… by Jeff Hamburg, of Leo Samama’s En Hollande for string quartet and soprano, and of the recently released Mass by Verhulst (under conductor Matthias Bamert) have won her a growing reputation for performances of Les couloirs de lune, The corridors of the moon contemporary music. où se cachent les morts where the dead hide debouts dans le noir standing, in the dark corridors où le coq ne peut pas les voir. hallways where the rooster cannot see them.

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Nederlands Concertkoor (Netherlands Concert Choir) The Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra (Het Gelders Orkest)

The Nederlands Concertkoor, formed at the initiative of Bernard Haitink in 1987, is the country’s leading amateur The Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra, established in 1889, is based in Arnhem, capital city of the province of the choir and consists of some 100 trained singers, carefully selected for their vocal and musical qualities. The choir is Gelderland, Netherlands, where it is known locally as Het Gelders Orkest. The orchestra plays frequently all over independent and performs with many orchestras, conductors and soloists from The Netherlands and abroad. Since The Netherlands, with an important secondary concert series at the famous hall, De Vereeniging in the roman city 1993, the choir has been under the artistic directorship of choirmaster Rob Vermeulen. Under his leadership, the of Nijmegen, as well as its subscription series at its home, Musis Sacrum in Arnhem. Conductors such as Carl von Nederlands Concertkoor has been much in demand for performances of 18th, 19th and 20th century choral music Garaguly (1959-1970) and Yoav Talmi (1974-1980) played a large role in the artistic development of the orchestra. and collaborates on five to seven major choral productions per year. More recently, the leadership of conductors Guido Ajmone Marsan, Georges Octors and Elyakum Shapirra led the In recent years the Nederlands Concertkoor has worked with, amongst others, the Residentie Orchestra of The orchestra into the first rank of Dutch orchestras. The orchestra has gained a great deal of international as well as Hague under Jaap van Zweden (Beethoven Ninth Symphony) and Matthias Bamert (Verhulst Mass in C, recorded national attention through a growing series of tours to international festivals, broadcasting and television for Chandos and released in 2003); the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra under Gerd Albrecht (Dvor˘ák’s appearances. Roberto Benzi was chief conductor from 1989 to 1997; the orchestra is now led by German maestro Requiem); the Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra under Christopher Lyndon-Gee (Markevitch Cantate and Le Martin Sieghart. Under conductor Christopher Lyndon-Gee, they have made a strong international impact through Paradis Perdu, both recorded for Marco Polo, as well as Prokofiev Alexander Nevsky); the Royal Flanders their highly recognised and awarded CD recordings for Naxos-Marco Polo, as well as in appearances with him at Philharmonic Orchestra under Yutaka Sado and Jan Caeyers; the Limburg Symphony Orchestra under Jurjen Amsterdam's Concertgebouw for the Robeco Summer Concerts and Holland Festival. Hempel (Peter Maxwell-Davies Job); the Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra under Nikolai Alekseyev, Giuliano Carella and Eri Klas (Tchaikovsky’s Evgeni Onegin); the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra under Edo de Waart (Berlioz L’Enfance du Christ and Beethoven Mass in C) and Valery Gergiev (Berlioz Requiem); and the BBC Concert Orchestra under Barry Wordsworth in the opening concert, entitled ‘Highlights of the Proms’, of the Christopher Lyndon-Gee Amsterdam Concertgebouw’s British Season 2003. Also in 2003, the choir toured with the Spanish flamenco guitarist Paco Peña and his Flamenco Company to Lebanon and Greece with his Misa Flamenca. Christopher Lyndon-Gee was nominated for a GRAMMY in 1998 for Best Orchestral Performance for the ground- breaking complete works of Igor Markevitch (Marco Polo), while, in 2001-2002, recordings for Naxos of Arcana and other works by Varèse, with the Polish National Radio Orchestra won international acclaim. Australian critics’ organizations named him Artist of the Year and Best Opera Conductor, the latter for his conducting of the world Rob Vermeulen première of Larry Sitsky’s The Golem at Sydney Opera House. Also a widely performed composer, Lyndon-Gee was honoured as a Composer Laureate of the Onassis Foundation, Athens, in 2001, and has won the Adolf Rob Vermeulen was born in 1961 and studied at the Arnhem and Rotterdam Schools of Music where he received Spivakovsky Prize, the Sounds Australian Award (three times), and two MacDowell Fellowships. He is currently his Choral Directing Diploma and School Music Diploma. He attended master-classes in choral and orchestral working on major orchestral works including The Auschwitz Poems and Socrates’ Death, the latter commissioned directing led by, amongst others, Laszlo Heltay, Sir John Eliot Gardiner and Uwe Gronostay and also took part in for première at Canterbury Cathedral, in his native England, in 2004. During 2003, his setting of an ancient Greek the Kirill Kondrashin master-class for orchestral conductors. Rob Vermeulen has been the artistic director and Ode under the title The Temple of Athena Pronaea was given its first performance in New York. Lyndon-Gee choirmaster of the Netherlands Concert Choir since 1993. He lectures in choral conducting at the Arnhem studied under Arthur Hutchings and Rudolf Schwartz in Great Britain, Franco Ferrara and Goffredo Petrassi in Conservatoire and is senior lecturer in choral conducting at the Utrecht Conservatoire. In addition, Vermeulen is Italy, and Igor Markevitch at Monte Carlo. Hearing him conduct a student concert in Rome, Leonard Bernstein conductor and artistic director of a number of chamber choirs. Since 1990, he has also been the conductor of the invited him to Tanglewood, where he met Bruno Maderna, becoming the latter’s assistant in Milan. Erich Leinsdorf Utrecht Project Choir, which specializes in performing contemporary choral music. and Maurice Abravanel were also influential on his work. He enjoyed a busy early career as a pianist, specialising in contemporary repertoire, with over two hundred new works written for him. Today, his hectic freelance career includes regular visits to orchestras in Germany, Italy, England, The Netherlands, Poland, Australia, New Zealand, Russia and several other countries; he serves also as Head of the Conducting School at New York’s Adelphi University, combining this with constant travel.

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Nederlands Concertkoor (Netherlands Concert Choir) The Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra (Het Gelders Orkest)

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venez voir le lavoir come, see the laundry-room Nienke Oostenrijk où le linge reçoit des coups! where washing recoils from sharp blows! The soprano Nienke Oostenrijk graduated in History at the University of Groningen in The Netherlands, before Soprano: Soprano: studying singing at the Amsterdam Sweelinck Conservatorium. She took her degree with Margreet Honig and Une cantatrice est A singer is Cora Canne Meijer, and attended master-classes of, among others, Arleen Auger, Elly Ameling and Robert Holl. une colonne casée au milieu a stone column split down the middle Her career has brought engagements in opera with principal rôles in works by Mozart, Richard Strauss and Verdi. saignant du haut en bas bleeding from top to bottom, In the concert hall her performances have included Bach’s St Matthew Passion, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater and est un coq du matin is a cock crowing in the morning Mozart’s Requiem in Berlin Rameau’s Castor et Pollux at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. Her recordings of chassant les ombres chasing away the shadows Zey… by Jeff Hamburg, of Leo Samama’s En Hollande for string quartet and soprano, and of the recently released Mass by Verhulst (under conductor Matthias Bamert) have won her a growing reputation for performances of Les couloirs de lune, The corridors of the moon contemporary music. où se cachent les morts where the dead hide debouts dans le noir standing, in the dark corridors où le coq ne peut pas les voir. hallways where the rooster cannot see them.

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le linge attire les fantômes dirty laundry attracts ghosts allumez du feu light the lights pour chasser les fantômes to chase away the ghosts

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Martijn van den Hoek, Piano * • Nienke Oostenrijk, Soprano † Men’s Voices of the Nederlands Concertkoor (Amsterdam) † Rob Vermeulen, Chorus-Master † Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra • Christopher Lyndon-Gee 8.225076 16 Markevitch’s two commissioned works for Sergey Dyagilev, the astonishingly mature Piano Concerto and Cantate, were written when he was sixteen and seventeen years old, and created sensations in London and Paris. Markevitch’s most important score, Icare, is heard on this recording in its revised 1943 version which is noteworthy for its many subtle changes of instrumentation and orchestration and, 8.225076 perhaps most signficant of all, the addition of long-phrased, legato counter-melodies that are not present in the sparer textures of the original (recorded on Marco Polo 8.223666). These revolutionary works are DDD all here presented in their world première recordings. 8.225076 MARKEVITCH: Complete Orchestral Music • 6 Igor Playing Time MARKEVITCH 65:40 (1912-1983) Complete Orchestral Music • 6 Piano Concerto (Paris 1929) * 15:56 1 Allegro vivace 5:46 2 Andante 6:49 3 Allegro risoluto 3:22 Cantate (Paris, 1929-1930, text by Jean Cocteau) † 24:10 4 Allegro risoluto 7:25 5 Lento sostenuto 8:38 6

Allegro risoluto 5:44 www.naxos.com Made in E.C. Sung texts and translations Booklet notes in English h 7 Choral: Lent et soutenu 2:24 &

Icare (Settignano, Italy, revised version 1943 of 1932 score) 25:33 g 8 Prélude: Molto tranquillo 2:15 2003 Naxos Rights International Ltd. 9 Eveil de la Connaissance 2:30 0 Icare et les Oiseaux 5:58 ! Les ailes d’Icare 2:01 @ Envol d’Icare 5:46 # Où l’on retrouve les ailes d’Icare 0:47 $ Mort d’Icare 6:17 MARKEVITCH: Complete Orchestral Music • 6 MARKEVITCH: Complete Orchestral Martijn van den Hoek, Piano * • Nienke Oostenrijk, Soprano † Men’s Voices of the Nederlands Concertkoor (Amsterdam) † • Rob Vermeulen, Chorus-Master † Arnhem Philharmonic Orchestra • Christopher Lyndon-Gee 8.225076 Recorded at Musis Sacrum, Arnhem on 15th & 17th April 1998 (1-3); 14th, 16th & 17th April 1998 (4-7); 12th-13th April 1999 (8-14) • Producer & Post-Production: Benno Torrenga • Engineer: Henk Midderham Booklet Notes: Christopher Lyndon-Gee • Publisher: Boosey & Hawkes Cover image: Night Flight by Tim Smith www.timsmithpainter.com