The Cumbersome Universalist
Remembering Igor Markevitch
Peter Gülke
In his reminiscences of the conductor and composer Igor Markevitch (1912-1982), Peter Gülke offers a highly contradictory portrait. At once objective and irrational, this uniquely significant Russo-French musician with his aristocratic demeanour becomes palpable through his activities as teacher, conductor and editor of Beethoven: in all, a man who aimed to unite theory and practice – which as Gülke states, was: “a quixotry that we should never cease to strive for”.
