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The Russian conductor, Lev [Lew] Markiz [Markis, Marquis], was born in Moscow. His first advanced studies were at the Moscow Conservatory, where his most important teachers were pianist Maria Yudina, who instructed him in chamber music performance, and Yuri Yankelevich, who taught him on violin. He later studied conducting with Kirill Kondrashin.
Lev Markiz began his career as a virtuoso violinist. For 8 years, from 1955 to 1964, he served as concert-master for the Moscow Chamber Orchestra. but like many talented soloists, gradually turned toward conducting. In both roles he enjoyed much success, though he will likely be remembered as a conductor first. After his departure from the Moscow Chamber Orchestra he founded his own ensemble, the Moscow Soloists. This spirited Markiz-led group quickly drew attention at home and abroad, and around 70 recordings of theirs would be issued over the next decade and a half on the Melodiya label in considerably varied repertoire. He worked with leading Russian soloists including Emil Gilels, David Oistrakh, Sviatoslav Richter and Gidon Kremer. He also conducted the leading Soviet symphony orchestras and was Professor at the Moscow and Tbilisi Conservatories. With the Tbilisi Conservatory Orchestra he won the 1978 Karatan Competition in West Berlin. He was a friend of both Dmitri Shostakovich and Schnittke, two composers with whose music he is closely identified. His choice of repertoire, however, extends well beyond the sphere occupied by these two icons, as it takes in the disparate likes of W.A. Mozart, Bloch, Felix Mendelssohn, Edward Elgar, Robert Schumann, Haydn, Tchaikovsky, Igor Stravinsky, Prokofiev, and many others.
In 1981 Lev Markiz emigrated to the Netherlands, where he since lived. He soon became an internationally sought-after guest conductor, with a number of orchestras in the netherlands, elsewhere in Europe, and in Canada and Israel. In 1988 he was appointed Principal Conductor of the Nieuw Sinfonietta Amsterdam, another group with whom he made a number of recordings. Among their more important recording projects was a 1993 complete set of the F. Mendelssohn string symphonies on the BIS label.
In 1997 Lev Markiz left his post with the Nieuw Sinfonietta Amsterdam, but continued to conduct and record with the group. That same year he accepted the appointment of chief conductor of the Chamber Orchestra of Geneva. In the 21st century he was active as a guest conductor throughout the Netherlands, Europe, and overseas. He focused largely on music for chamber orchestras (often, too, in works scored for strings only) and made nearly 100 recordings over the years. Many of these were first issued on the Russian label Melodiya, though since 1981 his recordings have appeared on BIS, Globe, Brilliant Classics, and others. Among his later recordings was a 2004 release on Challenge Classics of D. Shostakovich's chamber symphonies. |
