Nikos Skalkottas - The Maiden and Death; Piano Concerto No. 1 (Nikos Christodoulou)

Information

Composer: Nikos Skalkottas

• The Maiden and Death, ballet suite
• Concerto No. 1 for Piano and Orchestra
• Ouvertüre Concertante

Geoffrey Douglas Madge, piano

Iceland Symphony Orchestra

Nikos Christodoulou, conductor

Date: 1999

Label: BIS

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Review

This CD is a good one with which to approach Nikos Skalkottas (1904-49) if his music is unfamiliar to you and you prefer orchestral to instrumental music. Unless you are totally allergic to serial music I would also recommend playing the three works in reverse order for an exciting plunge into the deep end!

The Ouverture Concertante from the mid-1940s is in Skalkottas's most developed serial method, but there really is no need to bother about that. It is brilliant and exuberant, with solo winds, cello, timpani featured, and a group of four solo violins. A very exciting piece, and without studying the detailed notes by Nikos Christodoulos you'd never guess that there is a central point after which there is a retrograde 'mirror' recapitulation. It is an uncommonly exhilarating piece, only nine minutes long but full of event and culminating with a presto coda.

After that you'll be ready for the first of Skalkottas's piano concertos (one of nine surviving concertos). This dates back to 1931, when the composer was in his late twenties, during his period in the Schonberg circle. Schonberg apparently was displeased that Skalkottas used a group of thematically conceived tone rows instead of remaining true to orthodoxy. The concerto was left in Berlin after the composer returned to Athens, and only rediscovered after his death. It is a very winning work, full of life and colour and much more listener friendly than Schonberg's own piano concerto, which holds a tenuous place in the concert repertoire. Again, Skalkottas uses reversal in the imaginative recapitulation of his first movement. The next is expressive, dramatic, dark and unusually original. The finale is high spirited and dance-like, dispelling earlier tensions. Twenty-one minutes full of action!

Finally (that is firstly) is the major ballet suite of 1938 The Maiden and Death, an example of the tonal music which Skalkottas continued to compose alongside his serial compositions. It is picturesque, very atmospheric and with elements of Greek folk music, all blended into a personal style characterised by imaginative and vivid orchestration.

The performances and recording are splendid throughout and all this music demands to be heard and, who knows, brought into the concert repertoire, albeit belatedly. You may need a magnifying glass to help with the informative biographical notes by Jason Dimitiades and the analytic notes on each work by the conductor, Nikos Christodoulos.

(For more information about Skalkottas, read also my review of Skalkottas's violin music on CD and Richard Whitehouse's review of a recent string quartet concert in Seen&Heard (October 99).

— Peter Grahame Woolf

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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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Nikos Christodoulou (born 1959) is a Greek conductor and composer. He studied composition in Athens with J.A. Papaioannou, and furthered his studies at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München and the Royal College of Music in London. Early in his career, he worked with Greek National Radio as an associate composer and adviser. Christodoulou has served as music director of the City of Athens Symphony Orchestra and Choir and founded ensembles including the New Symphony Orchestra of Athens. He is also known for promoting the music of Nikos Skalkottas through performances and recordings.

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