Word: markevitch
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...orchestra, joining the double-bass section of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. His real ambition, though, was to swap his bow for a baton. He got conducting experience in the military with the Seventh Army Symphony, and later organized the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. In 1961, he substituted for Igor Markevitch with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and within a few years he ranked as the outstanding Negro conductor in the U.S., though he had no orchestra...
...trouble with modern conductors, said Markevitch, is that many of them have only a hazy idea of the instruments of the orchestra and of the repertory. Even worse, they are inclined to play to the galleries rather than to the orchestra. Most of today's "unprofessional" conductors, according to Markevitch, have not had the basic eight years of intensive study that are necessary before taking over an orchestra...
...Markevitch's minimum requirements for practicing his craft: thorough knowledge of musical history, fluency in at least three languages, mastery of all the classical symphonies, plus six operas, ten oratorios, and accompaniment for all the major concertos. "If you don't know the works by heart," says Markevitch, "you don't know them." As for himself, Markevitch added casually, he knew 300 compositions by heart several years ago, but "it's far more than that...
Compared with conductors of the Koussevitzky-Toscanini generation, Markevitch pointed out, the modern conductor has far less rehearsal time and about four times as many concerts to give each year. To combat the fatigue of traveling, he must build "the body of a conductor. One's body must be completely independent of the music." His own body, Markevitch boasted, has become so independent that "at the end of a symphony. I'm breathing at the same rate as at the beginning...
This winter, Markevitch will return to his native Russia, where he has been invited to help organize a conductors' school at the State Conservatory in Moscow. Starting with twelve-year-old students, he will apply his highly personal training techniques, confident that they will eventually lift conducting out of its "prehistoric period...