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Rachmaninoff's Concerto No. 2 - Ivo Pogorelich

Ivo Pogorelich belongs to the artists who create extreme feelings among the audience. There are auditors who are passionate with his daring artistic choices, while others are more reserved towards them; yet nobody can remain indifferent about his performances, way more when he interprets a great concerto such as Rachmnaninoff's second. Vasilis Christopoulos is one of the few conductors that are able to decode Sergei Rachmnaninoff's music's essence and to reveal all dimensions of its narrative and emotional richness without falling into superficial, passionate explosions. The concert programme complements a jewel of the literary Greek production, the Eight Miniatures by Giorgos Sicilianos, a composer who followed the imperatives of music modernism, always with a highly eclectic spirit.

by gpapa_koa

Municipal Theatre of Piraeus - a 130 year old story

The Athens State Orchestra continues its events within the framework of the Greek Ministry of Culture Year Dedicated to Mikis Theodorakis on the 100-year anniversary of his birth, honoring the great Greek composer's work. At the invitation of the- always hospitable- Prefecture of Crete, two concerts-tribute will be held at our great composer's hometown, Chania, as well as in Heraklion. In addition, the Athens State Orchestra participates to the celebrations for the 130 years of the Municipal Theatre of Piraeus.

The concert programme includes two of Mikis Theodorakis's most important works: the Mauthausen song cycle, based on Iakovos Kambanellis's poetry and the emblematic suite from Zorba the Greek, orchestrated by Dimitris Michas. Mauthausen is an emotional tribute to the Holocaust victims and one of the most harrowing combinations of Greek literature and music of the 20th century. Zorba, a literature figure representing the Greek spirit, freedom and power of life, shall be a counter-weight full of rhythm and passion.

by gpapa_koa

Giorgos Kouroupos: Elytis's Monogram

There may be millions of poems inspired by love all over the world, but for many of us, Odysseas Elytis's Monogram is the absolute praise to Love, a work of unrepeatable strength, essence and beauty. It is extremely difficult -if not impossible- to set such a great, therefore aesthetically and conceptually self- sufficient poetry to Music, as its ideal complement. If one Greek composer could possibly attempt and achieve such an "unfeasible" thing, this would indisputably be Giorgos Kouroupos, the composer capable of listening to and expressing with a unique sincerity all aspects of Elytis's complex poetic language through a music balancing smoothly between lyrical and modern. Without exaggeration, the "Monogram" is a monument of modern literary Greek production, worth to enjoy, especially when performed by select lyric singers and our music life's respectful father, Byron Fidetzis.

by gpapa_koa

Alexei Volodin & Lukas Karytinos

The new artistic period opens with the corresponding splendor and glory! Two masterpieces of the German symphonic repertoire, Beethoven’s Symphony no. 7 and Brahms’s Concerto for Piano No. 1, both being a reference in the mind and the heart of all musicophiles, are works that never lose their charm, remaining actual, “modern” and “fresh”, no matter how often one listens to them. Especially when reshaped under Lukas Karytinos’s robust, experienced and decisive baton and the infallible fingers of the Russian virtuoso, Alexei Volodin, ideally combining steel mastery with fine expressiveness.

by gpapa_koa

Athens Festival

An undisputable masterpiece of contemporary Greek culture, Axion Esti is both an unassailable poetic composition and a majestic musical creation, written as an “oratorio populaire” for a folk singer, cantor, narrator, mixed chorus, popular orchestra, and symphonic orchestra. Published in 1959, Odysseas Elytis’ Axion Esti is at once a personal testimony and a sacred Liturgy of Hellenism in three parts: “The Genesis,” “The Passion,” and “The Gloria”—a poetic fresco of grand dimensions that reshaped Greek literature with its bold narrative architecture. At the time of its conception, the idea of adapting the work into music had not yet crossed the poet’s mind. However, two years later, Elytis sent a copy of the poem to Mikis Theodorakis. In the press conference at the work’s premiere in 1964, Mikis recalled: “I received it in Paris in the spring of 1961—a generous gift from the poet. That very evening, I had already outlined the first two parts: ‘Genesis’ and ‘The Passion’. The poem already contained the music…”. The premiere took place at the Rex Theatre-Marika Kotopouli, despite the creators’ initial wish to see it staged at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus—a request denied at the time, as Grigoris Bithikotsis’ status as a folk singer was not deemed compatible with the venue and, consequently, the stature of the Athens Epidaurus Festival. Since then, however, the work has been presented countless times at the Roman theatre, always evoking the same sacred awe—from the first awakening notes of the woodwinds in “The Genesis” to the final triumphant cry “Forever the world, the small, the great!” This year’s performance holds a particular significance as it marks the seventieth anniversary of the Festival and the centennial of the composer’s birth, in a year officially declared as the Year of Mikis Theodorakis by the Ministry of Culture. The work features George Dalaras as the folk singer, Dimitris Platanias as the cantor, and Dimitris Katalifos as the narrator, who will deliver the ecstatic and visionary recitations of “The Passion.” They will be joined by the Athens Mixed Municipal Choir, the ERT Choir, and the Athens State Orchestra.

The programme opens with the Symphonic Concerto by Manolis Kalomiris, the towering work of the frontrunner of the Greek National School of Music. Composed in the mid-1930s, it combines the composer’s lifelong quest for a genuinely “Greek” symphonic music with the solid technique he has mastered in his mature years. He christened the work “symphonic” to preemptively dispel any notion of the soloist’s predominance—an ironic choice, considering the fiendishly demanding and virtuosic piano writing. Only a handful of pianists can rise to the occasion of such a work’s performance, and Titos Gouvelis is definitely one of them. Myron Michailidis, one of Greece’s leading conductors, will accompany him on this journey.

Divided by the historical wounds of the Occupation and the Civil War, yet bound together by a shared pursuit of a deeply lived Greekness, these two emblematic works expand into previously unseen dimensions under the shadow of the Acropolis Hill. To quote Mikis once more: “We never listen only with our ears; we listen with our imagination.”

The Athens State Orchestra is conducted by Myron Michailidis.

by kostas_know