Search - Christopher Lyndon-Gee :: Markevitch: Orchestral Music, Vol. 5 - La Taille De L'Homme

Pity for the music

Charles Voogd | Underwaterland | 04/23/2001

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The booklet describes Markevitch as a genius and this composition is something we've waited for for years and we've to be sorry never heard it before. I'm not so sure.In the eighties, while I was a musical student, I heard the first performance of this piece in the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, conducted by Reinbert de Leeuw and played by his excellent chamber group: the Schonberg Ensemble. Then, I was totally overwhelmed by this music and I wanted to learn the score by heart.Today, after much more studying, I find this music not so satisfying anymore. Possible the performance doesn't help, the singing is not first rate and that's one thing the music needs, but I couldn't find the new things again I thought this music had.I dislike categorizing music - sounds like this and that, seems to be so and so - but for me this is rundown Prokofiev with a Hindemith sauce.Busy writing for all the instruments in all but one part; I find the first movement the most likeable, the most telling, perhaps the place where you can hear what an extraordinary talent Markevitch was.The soloists of the Arnhem 'A Bridge Too Far' Philharmonic (what's in a name - over here they are called Het Gelders Orkest but that doesn't sell) is - except the singing - very convincing.Thank you Marco Polo!"