Nikos Skalkottas - Dance of the Waves (Stefanos Tsialis)

Information

Composer: Nikos Skalkottas

• 36 Greek Dances for Orchestra, AK 11, Series 1
• The Sea, AK 14 (3 Excerpts for Chamber Orchestra]
• Symphonic Suite No. 1, AK 3a

Athens State Orchestra

Stefanos Tsialis, conductor

Date: 2021

Label: Naxos

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Review

Naxos follows its anthology ‘The Neoclassical Skalkottas’ (5/20) with one of widely divergent pieces from the mid-1930s. The 36 Greek Dances effectively refocused the composer after the debacle of repatriation from Berlin. His only work to secure widespread favour, its three series of 12 dances are a compendium of traditional Greek music real or imagined. The First Series was the only one not subject to reorchestration a decade later, its bracing astringency savoured by the Athens State Orchestra in the rhetorical theatrics of ‘Peloponnissiakos’, the alternate pathos and vigour of ‘Klephtikos’ or stealthy panache of the closing ‘Thessalikos’.

Stefanos Tsialis proves a sure guide in his combining the immediacy of Byron Fidetzis with the sophistication of Nikos Christodoulou, avoiding the former’s technical shortcomings or the latter’s emotional restraint. Three reductions drawn from the folk ballet The Sea, most ambitious of Skalkottas’s final works, its qualities underlined by the probing inwardness of the central Nocturne, provide a welcome taster for Fidetzis’s complete recording (BIS, 2006).

Most significant, however, is a belated initial outing for the First Symphonic Suite, planned around 1929 though not completed until six years afterwards. Marius Constant directed its first performance in Birmingham on April 28, 1972, but there can have been precious few revivals prior to this first recording. Tsialis undoubtedly has its measure – setting a swift yet flexible tempo for the Overture, whose ominous import carries over into the laconic Tema con variazioni then strident March. The highlights here are a Romance of smouldering intensity and Siciliano-Barcarole that confirms serialism is by no means incompatible with sensuality, before the Finale-Rondo rounds out the overall design with deft resourcefulness.

Recorded with due clarity and immediacy, this release is an ideal way into a defining period of Skalkottas’s musical evolution, and an ideal introduction to his orchestral work in general.

— Richard Whitehouse

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Nikos Skalkottas (21 March 1904 – 19 September 1949) was a Greek composer. He studied in Athens and Berlin under prominent teachers including Arnold Schoenberg. Initially focused on violin, he later turned to composition, developing a distinctive atonal style. Returning to Greece in 1933 due to the rise of Nazism, he faced limited recognition and worked as an orchestral violinist while composing extensively in isolation. Skalkottas created innovative approaches to twelve-tone and non-serial techniques, often integrating Greek folk elements. His over 170 works were mostly unpublished and unperformed during his lifetime.

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Stefanos Tsialis (born 1964 in Hermoupolis) is a Greek-Danish conductor. He studied piano, musicology and conducting at the Vienna Academy of Music, and attended masterclasses with figures such as Leonard Bernstein. Tsialis has held major positions including Chief Conductor of the Central German Chamber Philharmonic and Artistic Director of the Athens State Orchestra (2014–2020), where he significantly increased audience engagement and artistic standards. He has collaborated with renowned soloists and conducted widely across Europe and beyond, with critical acclaimed recordings for labels such as Naxos.

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