Nikos Skalkottas - Mayday Spell; Double Bass Concerto (Nikos Christodoulou)

Information

Composer: Nikos Skalkottas

• (01) Mayday Spell - A Fairy Drama, Symphonic Suite
• (11) Concerto for Double Bass and Orchestra
• (14) Three Greek Dances for strings

Vassilis Papavassiliou, double bass
Þóra Einarsdóttir, soprano

Iceland Symphony Orchestra
Nikos Christodoulou, conductor

Date: 1999
Label: BIS Records
https://bis.se/composer/skalkottas-nikos/skalkottas-orchestral-music

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Review

Following BIS’s first disc of Skalkottas’s orchestral music (6/98), this second instalment takes us further into his potent and original sound-world. The Greek Dances make a sombre threesome: ‘Nissiotikos’ recalls the bittersweet radiance of Sibelius’s later miniatures, while ‘Tsamikos’ demonstrates that Skalkottas, like Bartok, could take an ‘arrangement’ far from its source, yet remain true to the essence.

The Double-Bass Concerto is a prime example of Skalkottas’s technical skill and practical indifference. Scored for a large orchestra and venturing frequently into the bass’s lower registers, it achieves a magnificent clarity: the soloist capable of taking the melodic lead, as in the haunting Andantino, or functioning as an ingenious ‘continuo’ for orchestral display, as in the Hindemithian parade of the finale. Vassilis Papavassiliou is both committed and characterful: a shame he will get so few chances to air the work in public.

There are no good reasons, however, why the suite from Mayday Spell should not be heard frequently in concert. Skalkottas composed the music to this ‘fairy drama’ with no staging planned: Nikos Christodoulou suggests a very personal response to the subject-matter, which is reflected in the compositional process. Linking the tangible human world with the unreal one of the spirits enables Skalkottas to combine his folk-inflected and atonal musics in a synthesis as accessible as it is imaginative. Whether in the rhythmic incisiveness of the Overture, the almost Szymanowskian languor of ‘Folk-song’, or the stark poignancy of ‘The mother’s lament’, this is music of deep feeling, admirably performed, which will repay close listening.

-- Gramophone

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Nikos Skalkottas (21 March 1904 – 19 September 1949) was a Greek composer of 20th-century classical music. He studied composition with Robert Kahn, Paul Juon, Kurt Weill & Philipp Jarnach, and was a member of Arnold Schoenberg's Masterclass between 1927 and 1932. Throughout his career Skalkottas remained faithful to the neo-classical ideals. His output comprised symphonic works, chamber, vocal and instrumental works including the huge cycle of 32 Piano Pieces. A member of the Second Viennese School, he drew his influences from both the classical repertoire and the Greek tradition.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikos_Skalkottas

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Nikos Christodoulou (born 1959) is music director of the City of Athens Symphony Orchestra and Choir. He studied composition and the piano in Athens, before continuing his composition studies at the Hochschule für Musik in Munich, and conducting studies at the Royal College of Music in London. Christodoulou has composed orchestral, chamber and choral works, songs and incidental music. As a conductor, he regularly appears with the major Greek orchestras and the Greek National Opera. His series of recordings of symphonic music by Skalkottas for BIS has met with international critical acclaim.

https://bis.se/conductors/christodoulou-nikos/

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