Igor Markevitch's Variazioni e fuge su un tema di Haendel, his final composition, synthesizes his personal language with the canon of pianistic tradition and the tradition of variations. Markevitch deliberately separates the core body of his variations from both the unaltered presentation of the borrowed theme and from the coda. Throughout the variations, he suggests the use both of the piano as a heroic instrument in itself and as a miniature orchestra. Although Markevitch's Variazioni e fuge su un tema di Haendel is both the climax and the end of his compositional oeuvre, it serves as an appropriate segue to his later editorial work.

Works: Igor Markevitch: Variazioni e fuge su un tema di Haendel (61).

Sources: Handel: Keyboard Suite No. 5 in E Major (61).

Index Classifications: 1900s

Contributed by: Virginia Whealton