Markevitch's music is aggressively individual, not neo-classical, and explores dissonance through polytonality, seeking purity and detachment of style.
Performer Biography
Lucy Shelton, the soprano on this recording, is an internationally acclaimed American artist who has won two Walter W. Naumburg Awards and premiered over a hundred works.
Composer Biography
Markevitch was launched to worldwide fame as a composer by Serge Dyagilev, the impresario of the Ballets Russes, by the time he was twenty.
Composer Biography
Igor Markevitch, the composer, abandoned his identity as a composer at age 29, a unique case in music history, and only returned to his own music near the age of 70.
Compositional Technique
L'Envol d'Icare is notable for its ascetic, pointillistic scoring, visionary use of quarter-tone tuning, and brilliant exploitation of complex rhythmic simultaneities.
Composition History
The work L'Envol d'Icare, Markevitch's first truly individual work, is based on the Icarus myth, which the composer continued to re-work for over a decade.
Recording & Production
This album includes the premiere recordings of the vocal works Lorenzo il Magnifico and Psaume by Igor Markevitch.
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