Marc Minkowski
Encyclopedia
Marc Minkowski is a French
conductor
of classical music, especially known for his interpretations of French Baroque
works. His mother is American, and his father was Alexandre Minkowski
, a Polish-French professor of pediatrics
and one of the founders of neonatology
. Marc Minkowski is a Chevalier du Mérite
.
Marc Minkowski was born in Paris
and began his musical career as a bassoonist for René Clemencic
's Clemencic Consort and Philippe Pierlot's Ricercar Consort
.
In 1982 Minkowski formed "Les Musiciens du Louvre
", an orchestra dedicated to showcasing French Baroque music which has championed works by Marin Marais
(opera Alcione), Jean-Joseph Mouret
(opera Les amours de Ragonde
), Marc-Antoine Charpentier
, Jean-Baptiste Lully
(opera Phaëton
at Opéra National de Lyon
) and Jean-Philippe Rameau
(opera Hippolyte et Aricie
). The ensemble has also revived lesser-known Handel
operas, such as Teseo
, Amadigi, Riccardo Primo
and Ariodante
, as well as several operas by Christoph Willibald Gluck
including Armide
(at the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles
), Alceste
and Iphigénie en Tauride
(at the English Bach Festival at the Royal Opera House
, Covent Garden
).
Les Musiciens du Louvre
relocated to Grenoble
after 1996, where they are associates at the Maison de la Culture de Grenoble.
Minkowski's career focus has shifted from an initial specialized interest in the Baroque
to a wider interest in opera
. He conducted Mozart's Idomeneo
in 1996 at the Opéra National de Paris and debuted his Die Entführung aus dem Serail
at the Salzburg Festival
. He has since conducted Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence
and Mitridate, re di Ponto
at the Salzburg Festival
, Handel
's Giulio Cesare
in Amsterdam, Paris and Zürich (with Cecilia Bartoli
) and his Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno in Zürich, Donizetti
's La Favorite
in Zürich, and Gluck
's Iphigénie en Tauride
, among others.
He has also performed and recorded critically acclaimed works by Jacques Offenbach
: Orphée aux Enfers, La belle Hélène
and La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein
.
As well as Les Musiciens du Louvre, Minkowski is active in the Mahler Chamber Orchestra
, the Berlin Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris
, the Los Angeles Philharmonic
, the Mozarteum Salzburg
and the Staatskapelle Dresden
.
The majority of his recordings have been issued by Deutsche Grammophon
, but can also be found on Erato
, EMI
's Virgin Classics and Naïve Records
.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
conductor
Conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
of classical music, especially known for his interpretations of French Baroque
Baroque music
Baroque music describes a style of Western Classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1760. This era follows the Renaissance and was followed in turn by the Classical era...
works. His mother is American, and his father was Alexandre Minkowski
Alexandre Minkowski
Alexandre Minkowski was a French pediatrician, and arguably the French physician who most influenced neonatology in the 20th century.He was the son of Eugene Minkowski and Françoise Minkowska, two Jewish psychiatrists....
, a Polish-French professor of pediatrics
Pediatrics
Pediatrics or paediatrics is the branch of medicine that deals with the medical care of infants, children, and adolescents. A medical practitioner who specializes in this area is known as a pediatrician or paediatrician...
and one of the founders of neonatology
Neonatology
Neonatology is a subspecialty of pediatrics that consists of the medical care of newborn infants, especially the ill or premature newborn infant. It is a hospital-based specialty, and is usually practiced in neonatal intensive care units...
. Marc Minkowski is a Chevalier du Mérite
Ordre National du Mérite
The Ordre national du Mérite is an Order of State awarded by the President of the French Republic. It was founded on 3 December 1963 by President Charles de Gaulle...
.
Marc Minkowski was born in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and began his musical career as a bassoonist for René Clemencic
René Clemencic
René Clemencic is an Austrian composer, recorder player, harpsichordist, conductor and clavichord player.-Compositions:* Meraviglia 1969* Missa Mundi mass in Latin, for five voices and orchestra...
's Clemencic Consort and Philippe Pierlot's Ricercar Consort
Ricercar Consort
The Ricercar Consort is a Belgian instrumental ensemble founded in 1980 together with the record label of Jérôme Lejeune.The founding members were François Fernandez, Bernard Foccroulle, and Philippe Pierlot. The initial repertoire was focussed on the German Baroque, and the Consort was closely...
.
In 1982 Minkowski formed "Les Musiciens du Louvre
Les Musiciens du Louvre
Les Musiciens du Louvre is a French period instrument ensemble, formed in 1982. Originally based in Paris, since 1996 it has been based in the Couvent des Minimes in Grenoble. The Guardian considers it one of the best orchestras in the world.- History:Founded by Marc Minkowski in 1982, the...
", an orchestra dedicated to showcasing French Baroque music which has championed works by Marin Marais
Marin Marais
Marin Marais was a French composer and viol player. He studied composition with Jean-Baptiste Lully, often conducting his operas, and with master of the bass viol Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe for 6 months. He was hired as a musician in 1676 to the royal court of Versailles...
(opera Alcione), Jean-Joseph Mouret
Jean-Joseph Mouret
Jean-Joseph Mouret was a French composer whose dramatic works made him one of the leading exponents of Baroque music in his country...
(opera Les amours de Ragonde
Les amours de Ragonde
Les amours de Ragonde is an opera in three acts by Jean-Joseph Mouret with a libretto by Philippe Néricault Destouches. It was first performed at the Château de Sceaux in December, 1714...
), Marc-Antoine Charpentier
Marc-Antoine Charpentier
Marc-Antoine Charpentier, , was a French composer of the Baroque era.Exceptionally prolific and versatile, he produced compositions of the highest quality in several genres...
, Jean-Baptiste Lully
Jean-Baptiste Lully
Jean-Baptiste de Lully was an Italian-born French composer who spent most of his life working in the court of Louis XIV of France. He is considered the chief master of the French Baroque style. Lully disavowed any Italian influence in French music of the period. He became a French subject in...
(opera Phaëton
Phaëton
In Greek mythology, Phaëton or Phaethon was the son of Helios and the Oceanid Clymene. Alternate, less common genealogies make him a son of Clymenus by Merope, of Helios and Rhode or of Helios and Prote....
at Opéra National de Lyon
Opéra National de Lyon
Opéra National de Lyon is an opera company in Lyon, France which performs in the Nouvel Opéra, a modernized version in 1993 of the original 1831 opera house.The inaugural performance of François-Adrien Boïeldieu's La Dame blanche was given on 1 July 1831...
) and Jean-Philippe Rameau
Jean-Philippe Rameau
Jean-Philippe Rameau was one of the most important French composers and music theorists of the Baroque era. He replaced Jean-Baptiste Lully as the dominant composer of French opera and is also considered the leading French composer for the harpsichord of his time, alongside François...
(opera Hippolyte et Aricie
Hippolyte et Aricie
Hippolyte et Aricie was the first opera by Jean-Philippe Rameau, which opened to great controversy at the Académie Royale de Musique, Paris on October 1, 1733. The libretto, by Abbé Simon-Joseph Pellegrin, is based on Racine's tragedy Phèdre. The opera takes the traditional form of a tragédie en...
). The ensemble has also revived lesser-known Handel
HANDEL
HANDEL was the code-name for the UK's National Attack Warning System in the Cold War. It consisted of a small console consisting of two microphones, lights and gauges. The reason behind this was to provide a back-up if anything failed....
operas, such as Teseo
Teseo
Teseo is an opera seria with music by George Frideric Handel, the only Handel opera that is in five acts. The Italian-language libretto was by Nicola Francesco Haym, after Philippe Quinault's Thésée...
, Amadigi, Riccardo Primo
Riccardo Primo
Riccardo primo, re d’Inghilterra is an opera in three acts written for the Royal Academy of Music by George Frideric Handel. The Italian-language libretto was by Paolo Antonio Rolli, after Francesco Briani's Isacio tiranno, set by Antonio Lotti in 1710...
and Ariodante
Ariodante
Ariodante is an opera seria in three acts by Handel. The anonymous Italian libretto was based on a work by Antonio Salvi, which in turn was adapted from Canti 5 and 6 of Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso...
, as well as several operas by Christoph Willibald Gluck
Christoph Willibald Gluck
Christoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck was an opera composer of the early classical period. After many years at the Habsburg court at Vienna, Gluck brought about the practical reform of opera's dramaturgical practices that many intellectuals had been campaigning for over the years...
including Armide
Armide (Gluck)
Armide is an opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck, his fifth for the Parisian stage and the composer's own favourite among his works. It was first performed in Paris at the Académie Royale on 23 September 1777....
(at the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles
Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles
The Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles is a centre for the study and performance of French Baroque music, based at the Palace of Versailles. It was founded by Philippe Beaussant and Vincent Berthier de Lioncourt, who were entrusted with the task of founding a musical establishment at...
), Alceste
Alceste (Gluck)
Alceste is an opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck from 1767. The libretto was written by Ranieri de' Calzabigi and based on the play Alcestis by Euripides. The premiere took place in Vienna.-Preface and reforms:...
and Iphigénie en Tauride
Iphigénie en Tauride
Iphigénie en Tauride is an opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck in four acts. It was his fifth opera for the French stage. The libretto was written by Nicolas-François Guillard....
(at the English Bach Festival at the Royal Opera House
Royal Opera House
The Royal Opera House is an opera house and major performing arts venue in Covent Garden, central London. The large building is often referred to as simply "Covent Garden", after a previous use of the site of the opera house's original construction in 1732. It is the home of The Royal Opera, The...
, Covent Garden
Covent Garden
Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...
).
Les Musiciens du Louvre
Les Musiciens du Louvre
Les Musiciens du Louvre is a French period instrument ensemble, formed in 1982. Originally based in Paris, since 1996 it has been based in the Couvent des Minimes in Grenoble. The Guardian considers it one of the best orchestras in the world.- History:Founded by Marc Minkowski in 1982, the...
relocated to Grenoble
Grenoble
Grenoble is a city in southeastern France, at the foot of the French Alps where the river Drac joins the Isère. Located in the Rhône-Alpes region, Grenoble is the capital of the department of Isère...
after 1996, where they are associates at the Maison de la Culture de Grenoble.
Minkowski's career focus has shifted from an initial specialized interest in the Baroque
Baroque music
Baroque music describes a style of Western Classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1760. This era follows the Renaissance and was followed in turn by the Classical era...
to a wider interest in opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
. He conducted Mozart's Idomeneo
Idomeneo
Idomeneo, re di Creta ossia Ilia e Idamante is an Italian language opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The libretto was adapted by Giambattista Varesco from a French text by Antoine Danchet, which had been set to music by André Campra as Idoménée in 1712...
in 1996 at the Opéra National de Paris and debuted his Die Entführung aus dem Serail
Die Entführung aus dem Serail
Die Entführung aus dem Serail is an opera Singspiel in three acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The German libretto is by Christoph Friedrich Bretzner with adaptations by Gottlieb Stephanie...
at the Salzburg Festival
Salzburg Festival
The Salzburg Festival is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer within the Austrian town of Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart...
. He has since conducted Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence
Aix-en-Provence Festival
The festival international d'art lyrique is an annual international music festival which takes place each summer in Aix-en-Provence, principally in the month of July. Devoted mainly to opera, it also includes concerts of orchestral, chamber, vocal and solo instrumental music.-Establishment:The...
and Mitridate, re di Ponto
Mitridate, re di Ponto
Mitridate, re di Ponto , K. 87 , is an early opera seria in three acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The libretto is by Vittorio Amadeo Cigna-Santi after Giuseppe Parini's Italian translation of Jean Racine....
at the Salzburg Festival
Salzburg Festival
The Salzburg Festival is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer within the Austrian town of Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart...
, Handel
HANDEL
HANDEL was the code-name for the UK's National Attack Warning System in the Cold War. It consisted of a small console consisting of two microphones, lights and gauges. The reason behind this was to provide a back-up if anything failed....
's Giulio Cesare
Giulio Cesare
Giulio Cesare in Egitto , commonly known simply as Giulio Cesare, is an Italian opera in three acts written for the Royal Academy of Music by George Frideric Handel in 1724...
in Amsterdam, Paris and Zürich (with Cecilia Bartoli
Cecilia Bartoli
Cecilia Bartoli is an Italian coloratura mezzo-soprano opera singer and recitalist. She is best-known for her interpretation of the music of Mozart and Rossini, as well as for her performances of lesser-known Baroque and classical music...
) and his Il Trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno in Zürich, Donizetti
Gaetano Donizetti
Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italian composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. His best-known works are the operas L'elisir d'amore , Lucia di Lammermoor , and Don Pasquale , all in Italian, and the French operas La favorite and La fille du régiment...
's La Favorite
La favorite
La favorite is an opera in four acts by Gaetano Donizetti to a French-language libretto by Alphonse Royer and Gustave Vaëz, based on the play Le comte de Comminges by Baculard d'Arnaud...
in Zürich, and Gluck
Christoph Willibald Gluck
Christoph Willibald Ritter von Gluck was an opera composer of the early classical period. After many years at the Habsburg court at Vienna, Gluck brought about the practical reform of opera's dramaturgical practices that many intellectuals had been campaigning for over the years...
's Iphigénie en Tauride
Iphigénie en Tauride
Iphigénie en Tauride is an opera by Christoph Willibald Gluck in four acts. It was his fifth opera for the French stage. The libretto was written by Nicolas-François Guillard....
, among others.
He has also performed and recorded critically acclaimed works by Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach was a Prussian-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr....
: Orphée aux Enfers, La belle Hélène
La belle Hélène
La belle Hélène , opéra bouffe in three acts, is an operetta by Jacques Offenbach to an original French libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy...
and La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein
La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein
La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein is an opéra bouffe , in three acts and four tableaux by Jacques Offenbach to an original French libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy...
.
As well as Les Musiciens du Louvre, Minkowski is active in the Mahler Chamber Orchestra
Mahler Chamber Orchestra
The Mahler Chamber Orchestra is a professional touring chamber orchestra founded by Claudio Abbado and former members of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra in 1997....
, the Berlin Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris
Orchestre de Paris
The Orchestre de Paris is a French orchestra based in Paris. The orchestra performs most of its concerts at the Salle Pleyel.-History:In 1967, following the dissolution of the Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du Conservatoire, conductor Charles Munch was called on by the Minister of Culture,...
, the Los Angeles Philharmonic
Los Angeles Philharmonic
The Los Angeles Philharmonic is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California, United States. It has a regular season of concerts from October through June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and a summer season at the Hollywood Bowl from July through September...
, the Mozarteum Salzburg
Salzburg
-Population development:In 1935, the population significantly increased when Salzburg absorbed adjacent municipalities. After World War II, numerous refugees found a new home in the city. New residential space was created for American soldiers of the postwar Occupation, and could be used for...
and the Staatskapelle Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
.
The majority of his recordings have been issued by Deutsche Grammophon
Deutsche Grammophon
Deutsche Grammophon is a German classical record label which was the foundation of the future corporation to be known as PolyGram. It is now part of Universal Music Group since its acquisition and absorption of PolyGram in 1999, and it is also UMG's oldest active label...
, but can also be found on Erato
Erato Records
Erato Records is a record label founded in 1953 to promote French classical music. In 1992 it became part of Warner Bros. Records. In 1999 Erato launched a subsidiary Detour Records....
, EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
's Virgin Classics and Naïve Records
Naïve Records
Naïve Records is a French independent record label based in Paris, specializing in electronic music, pop music, jazz and classical music. It was founded in 1997 by Patrick Zelnik, Gilles Paires and Eric Tong Cuong.-Artists:* Aṣa* Asian Dub Foundation...
.