Musicatlas
Music
Vocal and Choral
- Cantate for soprano, male chorus and orchestra (text by Cocteau) (1929-30)
- Psaume for soprano, female chorus and orchestra (1933)
- Le Paradis Perdu, oratorio for soprano, mezzo, tenor, chorus and orchestra (text by Markevitch, after Milton) (1934-35)
- Trois poèmes, for high voice and piano (1935)
- Hymne à la mort (orchestra with contralto solo ad lib, later incorporated into Hymnes, 1936)
- Lorenzo il magnifico, sinfonia concertante for soprano and orchestra (1940)
Orchestral
- Sinfonietta (1928-29)
- Piano Concerto (1929)
- Concerto Grosso (1930)
- Partita for piano and small orchestra (1931)
- Cinéma-Ouverture (1931)
- Rébus, ballet in memory of Diaghilev (1931)
- L’envol d’Icare, ballet (1932; rev. 1943 as Icare)
- Hymnes (1932-33, rev. 1980)
- Petite Suite d’après Schumann (1933)
- Cantique d’amour (1936)
- Le nouvel age, sinfonia concertante for orchestra with 2 pianos (1937)
Chamber Music
- Sérénade for 3 instruments (1931)
- Galop for eight or nine players (1932)
- La Taille de l’Homme for 12 instruments and soprano (1938-39)
Piano
- Noces, Suite (1925)
- Stefan le Poète: Impressions d’enfance (1939-40)
- Variations, Fugue et Envoi on a theme of Händel (1941)
Life
Son of the pianist Boris Markevitch; the family moved to Paris when he was 2, then settled in Switzerland in 1916. Encouraged by Alfred Cortot, and studied with Nadia Boulanger. In 1929, ‘discovered’ by Diaghilev, who commissioned a Piano Concerto which Markevitch premiered at Covent Garden. Thoughout the 1930s, recognized as one of the leading Russo-French modernist composers; worked with Kochno, Cocteau, Lifar. Married Nijinsky’s daughter in 1936. In Italy in 1940 when that country entered the war, Markevitch - technically stateless - remained there (with occasional visits to Switzerland), ceased composing in 1942 and joined the Italian Resistance. Acquired Italian citizenship in 1947 and embarked on a second career as an internationally-acclaimed conductor and teacher. Encyclopedic edition of the Beethoven Symphonies prepared 196-80. For over three decades he preferred his own music to remain unperformed; a revival of interest began in 1978.