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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 February 2010
The preceding article ended with a question. The title of this one contains an implicit reply—which is moreover a strictly foreseeable one. Indeed, an artist who has attained the fulness of his creative powers should be able to change his means of expression without altering its internal structure.
On leaving the stage, Markevitch the composer bequeathed all his experience to the conductor. Certainly, the conductor still had much to learn, and he was applying himself passionately to the task when, at the end of the war, the Allies in occupied Florence entrusted him with the conductorship of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. But the essentials he had known long since, because—as has been seen—his thought was essentially orchestral. This is why Markevitch, in deciding to become an interpreter, did not take up the familiar piano, but preferred orchestral conducting, of which he had scarcely more than an elementary idea and which he now had to manage in his own way, guided only by his pigheadedness, his tenacity, and … his experience as a composer.
1 Markevitch learnt conducting through teaching it. He had a pupil before he had an orchestra!
2 To those who may be sceptical, I have to say that this manner of beating the rhythm of the metre creates no difficulty whatsoever for the orchestra. I have often attended Markevitch's rehearsals of very complex works like The Rite of Spring, Beethoven's Ninth, etc. Musicians conducted by him for the first time adapt spontaneously, without the least hesitation. It is the swerves and arabesques, the unnecessary beats during silences or held notes, the quivers and zigzags of the baton, that can confuse or distract the orchestra. A simple and musical gesture never poses problems.
1 This is not to say that Markevitch is only a good conductor of works resembling his own. On the contrary, he has been equally successful in conducting music of all styles, from Nielsen to Offenbach and from Handel to Messiaen. But I can here speak of his work as an interpreter only in so far as it directly relates to his activities as composer.