Word: markevitch
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Forest wanted to avoid the operas that the Metropolitan or New York City operas present, and to concentrate instead on "brand-new works or very, very old ones." He hired young singing talent, backed it up with topflight coaches and conductors, among them, Eduard van Reinum, Leopold Stokowski, Igor Markevitch. Although the festival, summer after summer, earned more than its share of critical huzzahs, it attracted only moderate crowds, had to be abandoned altogether last summer, when the festival tent was wrecked in a tearing summer squall during the American premiere of Murder in the Cathedral...
...intelligence but a sinewy will that forced them to hew rigidly to the demands of their talents. The distinguished Boulanger alumni-they call themselves the "Boulangerie"-were gathered in all parts of the world last week to celebrate her 70 birthday. At the split-level chalet of Conductor Igor Markevitch, in the Swiss Alps near Montreux, "chère Nadia" herself,-white-haired, prim as ever in a black evening gown, held court before such famous ex-pupils as Pianist Clara Haskil, Cellist Pierre Fournier, Composer Darius Milhaud...
While the Markevitch children presented Nadia with a $3,000 diamond bought by members of the Boulangerie the world over, the guests launched into an exuberant chorus composed for the occasion by Francis Poulenc. "Vive Nadia, the dear Nadia Boulanger, the very dear Nadia, Al-le-lu-jah!" Later, musicians performed another birthday tribute: a cantata by Composer Jean Françaix for five strings, five winds and six-handed piano. Over the bubbly, breakneck music ex-pupils chanted their praise of Nadia. One, made up to look like President René Coty of France, paid the Fourth Republic...
Bayreuth had not dared do Tannhäuser since Toscanini's unforgettable version 24 years ago. But brothers Wieland and Wolfgang, who will dare anything, decided the old Venusberg needed some drastic new landscaping. They hired fast-rising, Kiev-born Conductor Igor Markevitch, who had never done Wagnerian opera before, then replaced him with Germany's Joseph Keilberth. "I was not aware that anybody here was interested in tempo," huffed Markevitch at one point. "All they talk about is lighting"-and no wonder, for Director Wieland Wagner's new staging relies mainly on light effects. When...