Igor

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There are three Mozart symphonies in the second disc all in mono. Numbers 34 and 38 are with the Berlin Philharmonic, then still – just about, he died later in the year – Furtwängler’s orchestra. The Haffner was recorded three years later in Paris with the orchestra he directed for several years until it had had enough of him, the Lamoureux. No 34 sports a plushly affectionate slow movement and Markevitch interpolates the Minuet from K409, probably on the precedent of the suggestion in the third revision of the Köchel catalogue that it was intended for the work, for which there seems no tangible evidence. The Prague is warmly accomplished too but there’s a rather greater sense of sonic and interpretative personalisation in the Paris Haffner. Sonorities are tauter and brighter in Paris, the string sound less opulent and the brass tight and gleaming, all of which gives a sense of aeration of texture. His Lamoureux recordings were inevitably lithe and exciting. Discs 19 and 20 focus on the earlier version of the Mozart Coronation Mass and his mono 1955 recording of Haydn’s The Creation. The cast list sees doubling; Irmgard Seefried is Gabriel and Eve, whilst Kim Borg takes Adam and Raphael. The tenor is Richard Holm and the forces those of the Berlin Philharmonic and the choir of St. Hedwigs Cathedral. Seefried is in radiant voice and the standout singer and Markevitch paces the work pretty much perfectly. The only thing that may strike one adversely in the slightly boxed-in sound of the chorus, at least as recorded.

Igor Levit - The Guardian On DSCH: Shostakovich and Stevenson/Igor Levit - The Guardian

Recording Locations: Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Paris, France, 8, 10, 11 November 1957 (Gounod, Bizet); Salle de la Mutualité, Paris, France, 2 March (Debussy: Danses), 2–3 May 1959 (Debussy: La Mer) What you should also know is that production standards with Eloquence are very high, that the booklet notes by Peter Quantrill are up to his own high standards and that photographic reproduction is excellent. Markevitch has always been a favourite of collectors, and his legacy, for the most part, fortunately falls into handy multi-volume boxes such as this one.All-French repertoire can be found on disc 12. Gounod’s Second Symphony, propulsive and buoyantly played, has its complement of expressive nobility and whilst Bizet’s Jeux d’enfants is full of verve, Martinon is possibly even finer with his Paris Conservatoire recording. La Mer is vivid and colourful and Suzanne Cotelle is the harp soloist in the Danse sacrée et Danse profane. All these are with the Lamoureux but only the two Debussy pieces – La Mer thankfully included – are in stereo. Given the country of his birth – though he left at the age of two and always considered himself to be a French artist – Russian music was always a core component of his repertoire. Rimsky’s music features quite heavily in CD 13 with pride of place going to the Le Coq d’or suite arranged by Glazunov and Maximilian Steinberg and to the Russian Easter Festival overture. Sterner fare, and one of the symphonic high points of his recording career, comes in the following disc with the Pathétique symphony, here with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1953. His Tchaikovsky symphonic cycle, in stereo with the LSO, is contained in the Eloquence Philips box and the sixth there is probably better known for that reason. BEFORE WE GET FURTHER INTO THIS, I'D LIKE YOU GUYS TO KNOW THAT ME WRITING IN ALL CAPS DOESN'T MEAN I'M PISSED OFF. I'M NOT YELLING AT YOU, OK?

Markevitch Deutsche Grammophon Legacy ELOQUENCE 4841659 [JW

Recording Locations: Salle de la Mutualité, Paris, France, 17 & 19–21 December 1959 (Mozart); Rudolfinum, Prague, Czech Republic, 7–8 December 1962 (Cherubini) Recording Location: Salle de la Mutualité, Paris, France, 11–17 January 1961 (Berlioz), 17–18 (Cherubini, Auber) January 1961 Recording Locations: Jesus-Christus-Kirche, Berlin, Germany 26–28 February 1954 (Schubert), 19, 20 December 1954 (Cimarosa); Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Paris, France, 29, 30 October 1957 (Haydn); Polydor-Studio, Paris, France, 4–5 December 1958 (Mozart)Recording Location: Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Paris, France, 21–25 October 1957 & 8 November 1957 Discs 7 and 8 are given over to Brahms. The First Symphony was recorded in mono at the same sessions that gave us the Eroica. Its inexorable opening tread is sufficiently varied metrically to generate an accumulation of tension, the symphony being seen as an absorbing arc. Both Rodziński and Bruno Walter had made earlier studio recordings of the work in New York by this time and Markevitch’s authority is such that his reading is hardly less compelling. The Fourth Symphony is a Lamoureux recording in stereo though with a greater spread of sonics comes a slight blunting of impact. On this same disc is Harold in Italy with Heinz Kirchner and the Berlin Philharmonic with a cut in the finale Recording Locations: Salle Wagram, Paris, France, 16, 18–19, 22 March 1957 (Milhaud), 25–27 March 1957 (Honegger); Salle de la Mutualité, Paris, France 2–3 December 1958 (Roussel) No such reservations apply to the famous sequence of Beethoven overtures housed in CD 4. This has always been an admired disc which was recorded with the Lamoureux in stereo in 1958. Together Markevitch and the orchestra generate magnificent – but unsaturated - sonority and dramatic intensity. Little telling rubati in Egmont, accelerandos in Fidelio and a sensationally fine Consecration of the House are just a few things to listen out for.