Georgios Axiotis - Orchestral Works (Byron Fidetzis)

Information

Composer: Georgios Axiotis

1. Sunset (Ed. B. Fidetzis)
2. Prelude and Fugue (Ed. B. Fidetzis)
3. A Love Trilogy: I. On the Mountain
4. A Love Trilogy: II. On the Plain
5. A Love Trilogy: III. At the Ball
6. Remembrance From a Ball (Ed. B. Fidetzis)
7. Lyrical Intermezzo (Ed. B. Fidetzis)
8. Like a Game (Ed. B. Fidetzis)

New Festival Opera-Symphony Orchestra Sofia

Byron Fidetzis, conductor

Date: 2022

Label: Naxos

https://www.naxos.com/CatalogueDetail/?id=8.574353

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Review

My introduction to the music of Georgios Axiotis came in the form of a plush boxed set that was a product of the 2004 Greek Cultural Olympiad (the Hellenic Culture Organisation). This impressively over-engineered and superbly annotated 12-CD set came in the form of a very large over-size case-box of works by largely uncelebrated Greek composers down the centuries. There on CD1 resides the Prelude and Fugue by Georgios Axiotis.

Here now is a whole CD of Axiotis’s works largely in editions by the conductor Byron Fidetzis who also wrote the indispensable liner-note in English and Greek. Fidetzis is a determined champion of neglected Greek music. He has previously recorded Kalomiris, Kalafati, Petridis and, generally a much tougher listen than Axiotis, Skalkottas (BIS). Axiotis proclaims himself as an unabashed late-romantic. He was born in Mariupol in the Ukraine but moved with his parents to Athens and then pursued music studies in Naples. He made his career in Athens where he died early in life.

Fidetzis - who draws brooding playing from the New Festival Opera-Symphony Orchestra Sofia - recounts that Axiotis “was a leading and historically significant Greek composer …” The words “leading and historically significant” do not necessarily mean that listeners will want to hear this music more than once. As it turns out you are in for a warmly saturated, romantic slow-burn. Axiotis beckons and welcomes you in but does not shake you to the core.

Sunset drips the exudate of romance while avoiding dense over-orchestration. It is quite Franckian. You expect the Prelude and Fugue to quite academic. It isn’t. Instead, rather like Sunset, it is a grand, romantic paragraph and rather grandiloquent, although ultimately the music is not quite memorable.

Love Trilogy (Symphonic Impressions) is in three movements (I. ‘On the Mountain’; II. ‘On the Plain’; III. ‘At the Ball’) and spans 35 minutes. ‘On the Mountain’ has its plunging, soaring yet measured peaks but overall is evocative of the high hills in a more distant emotional way. ‘On the Plain’ is a tender movement to which the overall title is clearly related. The tenderness carries over into the final Impression (‘At the Ball’) but soon gives way to the sort of lively dance to be found in Skalkottas’ Greek Dances (Bis Lyra), though Axiotis does such moments without quite the paprika which Skalkottas brings to the dance floor. It’s very pleasing though. Remembrance from a Ball has a title redolent of Karlowicz but Axiotis is lighter on his feet and has a more transparent touch. His mood is not intense and leans towards the lighter early works of Delius. Lyrical Intermezzo is operatic and has its intense romantic moments. Like a Game is a gentle thing which shows some backbone but is not especially striking.

-- Rob Barnett, MusicWeb International

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Georgios Axiotis (1875-1924) was a Greek composer. He studied at the Conservatorio di Musica di San Pietro a Majella in Naples with Paolo Serrao (1830-1907), one of the most important teachers in Italy at that time. Axiotis returned to Greece in 1901 and became actively involved in the country’s cultural affairs. A vocal critic of the Greek music education system, his views clashed with those of the Athens Conservatory’s inner circle, which contributed to Axiotis' decision to retire and settle in Mykonos with his family in 1905. None of the works by Axiotis has been published, although several were recently rediscovered.

https://www.naxos.com/Bio/Person/Georgios_Axiotis/408783

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Byron Fidetzis is a Greek cellist and conductor. He was born in Thessaloniki and studied cello at the State Conservatory of Thessaloniki, then at the Hochschule für Musik in Vienna, as well as conducting with Hans Swarowski. Fidetzis has co-operated as a soloist and conductor with all the Greek and many foreign orchestras in various concerts throughout Greece and abroad. For many years he has been co-operating with the Greek National Opera House, and from 1985 to 1992 he was permanent conductor of the House’s Orchestra. From 2004 to 2011 he was artistic director of the Athens State Orchestra.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byron_Fidetzis
https://www.fidetzis.gr/

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