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Markevitch 'Le Bleu Danube' - Concert Waltz after Johann Strauss's Celebrated Themes

757 views · Published 2 August 2013 · 8:40 · Indexed 4 November 2026

Channel: adam28xx · 2013 · Music

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Igor Markevitch's early musical career was devoted to composition and his many and varied works have filled several CDs. In 1920, at the age of sixteen, he was playing his own Piano Concerto and the following year he wrote a ballet score for Diaghilev. However, he soon gave up composition altogether to concentrate on conducting and it is a conductor of Russian and French music in particular that he is best remembered today.

In 1946 he recorded a 78rpm 'Cetra' disc of his "Le Bleu Danube," which he subtitled 'Concert Waltz after the Celebrated Themes of Johann Strauss." This isn't a straightforward re-orchestration of the famous waltz but rather a kind of paraphrase, somewhat like Liszt's piano transcriptions of Schubert songs. The opening rising notes of the waltz, played on the kettle-drums, give a hint of what is to come. Despite the age of the recording (it is very 'historic' and not at all hi-fi!) we can hear many novel and often humorous orchestral effects, instrumental solos, changes to the harmonies here and there, assorted counter-melodies, and so on. On this ancient disc, Markevitch himself conducts the Florence Festival Orchestra.

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