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Byron Fidetzis Russian State Symphonic Capella Orchestra Byron Fidetzis was born in Thessaloniki, where he studied the cello at the State The State Capella of Russia was formed in 1991 by the combination of two well known Russian musical Conservatory, continuing on a Hellenic Foundation scholarship at the groups, the State Symphony Orchestra of the Ministry of Culture of the USSR and the State Chamber Chorus of the GREEK CLASSICS Musikhochschule with Vladimir Orloff, André Navarra and S. Benes, and attending Ministry of Culture of the USSR. The creation of such a group offers wide opportunities in choice of repertoire conducting classes under Hans Swarowsky. He has collaborated as a soloist and from chamber choirs and ensembles to large-scale and oratorios. The Capella devotes time to the conductor with all the Greek and many foreign orchestras in concerts and festivals recording of Russian and Soviet orchestral music, and the orchestra and chorus have won praise throughout the throughout and abroad. From 1985 to 1992 he was permanent conductor of world for concert appearances on tour and for their recordings. the orchestra of the Greek National Opera House, and from September 1990 to 1992 Manolis chief conductor of the Ekaterinburg State Philharmonic Orchestra of the former Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra Soviet Union. Since 1992 he has been Guest Conductor of the Russian State Capella The Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1835 by Josef Labicky as a seasonal spa orchestra, to be Orchestra in Moscow (the official orchestra of the Ministry of Culture in the former transformed forty years later by Labicky’s son, August, into a permanent symphony orchestra. It was this orchestra KALOMIRIS Soviet Union), and was also Honorary Guest Conductor of the Symphony Orchestra that gave the European première of Dvorˇák’s New World Symphony in 1894. From 1911 to 1941 it was directed by of Pasardjik in Bulgaria until 1999, serving from 1999 to 2001 as Artistic Director Robert Manzer and after 1945 by Josef Bartl. From 1991 to 1998 the English conductor Douglas Bostock was Chief (1883–1962) to the same orchestra. From 2000 to 2005 he was Chief Conductor of the Symphony Conductor, followed by Alois Ježek and now by Martin Lebel. The orchestra has a wide repertoire and a history of Orchestra of the Municipality of Thessaloniki, and since 1987 has been permanent collaboration with leading soloists and visiting conductors. conductor of the State Orchestra and from 2004 also its Artistic Director. Photo: Pavlos Konstantinidis Rhapsodies Julia Souglakou Julia Souglakou studied singing at the National Conservatory of Athens and in London Nos. 1 and 2 under the tutelage of Vera Rozsa on a scholarship. In 1994 she made her début at the Greek National Opera, playing the rôle of Nedda (Pagliacci). Since then she has appeared regularly there, with rôles including Elvira (Ernani), Amelia (Simone Lyrics Boccanegra), the Countess (Le nozze di Figaro), Santuzza (Cavalleria rusticana), Anna Bolena, Freia (Rheingold), Lady Macbeth, Leonora (Il trovatore), Gioconda, and Madre (Il prigionero). She has also interpreted leading parts in operas by Greek Minas the Rebel composers, including works by Kalomiris, Samaras, Kounadis, Theodorakis, and Mikroutsikos. She has appeared in concerts, festivals and opera-houses in Greece and abroad, with a wide range of personal recitals and chamber music concerts. Russian State Eva Kotamanidou Eva Kotamanidou was born in Athens and studied French literature at the French Symphonic Capella Institute of Athens and theatre at the Karolos Koun Drama School, from which she graduated with the highest honours. She has worked with important theatrical C companies playing leading rôles, including the classical rôles of Electra, Cassandra, Karlovy Vary Andromache, Hecuba and Antigone. She has received awards for her work in films M and was elected deputy for the Coalition Party (1989-1990). She is a regular Symphony Orchestra contributor to the paper Ta Nea. Y Byron Fidetzis K 5 8.572451 6 8.572451 572451bk Kalomiris:557541bk Kelemen 3+3 23/8/10 8:48 PM Page 2

Manolis Kalomiris (1883–1962) Lyrics had its première in Athens in May 1937. The first Yet he never became particularly preoccupied with in his soul, the great excitement that the book caused him, French Resistance, shortly before France was liberated. Rhapsodies Nos. 1 and 2 • Lyrics • In St Luke’s Monastery two songs (Aphrodite Rising and The Holy Virgin of Sikelianos’s poetry, and only set to music three of his was automatically transformed into music. To mention Simone was the daughter of the singer Speranza Kalo Sparta) were composed in 1936 and the last one, The First poems forming the song cycle From the Lyric Poems of only a few of his words in that review, “… my soul is still (Elpida Kalogeropoulou), who was a good friend as well The two Rhapsodies of Kalomiris were written in the year title in Latin characters. Similar to that title is the Evening Rain, in 1937. In the composer’s manuscript there are nine Sikelianos, and the military song Onward. The piece was filled with the complex, multicoloured sounds of this as a collaborator with Kalomiris, later becoming a relative 1921 – there are no manuscripts to inform us of precise Song, translated in French as Chant du soir, which bars from a fourth song, which was supposed to have the first performed on 25th May 1937, at the Olympia Theatre unique sea symphony, those sounds which moved my soul of his too, since her son Jean, married the composer’s dates – and were published five years later, in Paris, by the Kalomiris gave to one of his easy pieces for Greek title Panas. These songs, the only ones that Kalomiris in Athens, with Takis Karousos reading the narrator’s part. with all the fierceness and music of the blue Aegean sea”. daughter. Menestrel Publishing House. The reason why the first, Children. Rhapsody No. 2 followed the orchestral process composed based on poems by Sikelianos, are one of his It was conducted by Leonidas Zoras. In 1959 Kalomiris The work was first performed in the National Theatre The Death of the Valiant Woman praises the bravery which the composer had dedicated to José Iturbi, was of Rhapsody No. 1, sixty years later, when it was orch- most interesting musical approaches and at the same time published In Saint Luke’s Monastery in the form of a piece of Athens on 18th October 1940, only ten days before and self-sacrifice of the heroic Greek women who will originally shown special interest, is because in 1925 it was estrated by the conductor Byron Fidetzis. He comments: a unique symphonic achievement. for violin, piano and narrator. The composer had given the outbreak of the Greek-Italian war. The Athens fight the enemy with no less courage than that of the orchestrated by the French composer and conductor ‘The Second Piano Rhapsody, composed in 1921, Music’s interrelationship with narration became one primary importance to the violin solo in the original score Conservatory Symphony Orchestra was conducted by Greek men. Neither the time of action nor the enemy is Gabriel Pierné. Pierné’s orchestration of the piece was a belongs to the composer’s second creative period, as seen of Kalomiris’s regular preoccupations from the year 1943. as well. In this version Kalomiris dedicated the piece to the Leonidas Zoras. Kalomiris mentions the date and clearly defined, but since the piece was composed in the personal gift as well as a clear sign of his respect for the by the orchestrator or the piece itself. The works which In addition to the symphonic poem In Saint Luke’s actor Thanos Kotsopoulos, who had taken part in the first performers of that concert in his hand-written full score, middle of the German occupation it most probably refers Greek composer. were composed after the Symphony of Levendia, such as Monastery, he composed two more works for narrator and performance of the Palamiki Symphony as the narrator on noting that the performance was excellent as a whole. to that historic period. The piece has an intensely epic Notably, in this music Kalomiris dared approach The Pedlar, the Trio for piano, violin and cello, the Piano orchestra: In the Palaces of the Art of Song, to a poem by 22nd January 1956. Born in Siros, Minas the Rebel, an inexperienced character, its melody being based on the popular Dance French harmonic language, experimenting with an Rhapsodies, the second cycle of the Iambs and Anapaests, K. Palamas (1943-46), and The Destruction of Psara, to The plot of this symbolic poem takes place in the night seventeen-year-old boy, seeking vengeance upon the of Zaloggo, which permeates the whole piece in its aesthetic element to which Pierné’s impressionist and, finally, the Symphony of the Simple and Good People, a poem by D. Solomos (1949?). Yet, in the music memoirs of Holy Saturday, just before the profoundly joyful news corsair Giakoumis who had taken his sisters, goes to sea numerous variations. The work was first performed in orchestration directly draws our attention. There are two are considered to belong to the above mentioned period, From Captain Lyras’ Life and Longings, for narrator, of Christ’s Resurrection. At first the poet describes the on a pirate ship. He becomes captain of the ship with the 1943, transcribed for piano by Kalomiris, at the Rex, with manuscripts of this orchestral score in Kalomiris’s which, for the composer, is probably much more inter- soloists and orchestra, the narrator plays a considerable warm, religious atmosphere in the monastery of Saint help of Styliani, a woman taken captive by the previous Loukia Sakellariou as choreographer and leading dancer. Archives. One of them, apparently in a copyist’s hand, esting and important than his last one. This period is part as well. Besides, in Symphony No. 3, the so-called Luke with the candles, flowers and aura of the spring captain, and marries her when the revolt ends. With time, In its orchestral form it was first performed by the Athens bears Pierné’s signature as well as a dedication, while the characterized by the influence of French music, with its Palamiki, for orchestra, with dramatic recitation, Kalo- night. The congregation is waiting anxiously. Suddenly, a he becomes the terror of the Aegean sea. A West Euro- State Orchestra at the Olympia in 1945. It was conducted other one has been copied by Kalomiris himself. We innovations in both harmony and orchestration. Not miris seems to have built all four parts of the Symphony young villager, who was believed to be dead, returns from pean admiral, defeated by Minas, takes Styliani and her by the composer himself. Finally, the work was fully already know that the composer worked on his pieces unreasonably then, many of his works belonging to the upon the narrator’s rôle. the war. His appearance in the entrance of the church at the child in order to hand them over to the Sultan’s harem. staged by the National Greek Opera, choreographed by repeatedly and often revised his orchestral scores, but his period in question were printed and performed in France, In Saint Luke’s Monastery, a piece for narrator and very moment of the Resurrection is shocking for his fellow Minas beats the French ships only to find his child dead Angelos Grimanis, with the composer once more reason for copying the full score is unknown. He may have including the Trio I Love You, and other works’. orchestra, is the composer’s second symphonic poem after villagers. But even more shocking is the fact that, although and his wife breathing her last. In a fit of rage against conducting the piece. done so, of course, for purely practical reasons, the need, The fact that the prominent French composer and The Pedlar (1920-24). Kalomiris himself in the full score all remembered him as a dancer, who impressed the girls God, he sets out to loot Mount Athos. On reaching the By killing one of the enemies who had invaded her perhaps, for one more full score in order for the piece to conductor Gabriel Pierné orchestrated Rhapsody No. 1 is mentions that words should freely interlink with music. with his dance in the village’s feasts, now he is standing first monastery though, and on hearing the abbot and village early that morning, the Valiant Woman encourages be performed. He even dated the manuscript in French – of primary importance. It also became the original source Still, the music precisely underlines meanings and images, on a wooden leg, as another tragic victim of the war. The monks praying, he suddenly loses his sight and has a the rest of the women to fight together with their men. Mardi le 12 Mai 1925. Nevertheless, both the handwriting of inspiration for the orchestration of Rhapsody No. 2, prolonging the thoughts and visions of Sikelianos, and soldier’s mother runs among the crowd and hugs her son’s vision of his wife sitting beside the abbot with her child She gets to the front line and fights beside her loved one, and the quality of paper show the copy to have been made together with the orchestrator’s personal opinion that this justifying, at the same time, the form of the symphonic wooden leg. People burst out in a scream of horror, while in her arms. Shattered by this vision, he repents of his being badly wounded. Without letting anybody under- many years later. So the composer had only meant to particular work is the best piano piece ever composed by poem. The text’s dramatic atmosphere is transmitted to the poet watches the whole scene as in a dream, with tears sins, finds peace and joins the monks. stand her pain, she fights on, heartening the other women produce one more copy, perhaps to protect the first Kalomiris. In this scoring, which took place between the Kalomiris’s music language. The composer, on the other in his eyes. Kalomiris composed The Death of the Valiant Woman, also, until the enemy retreats. She leads the dance of manuscript, which might have been copied by Pierné years 1987 and 1988, two things were mainly kept in hand, found in the large orchestra the palette he needed. Filippos Tsalahouris his symphonic poem in “ballet form”, as he called it, in victory together with the rest of the village women, only himself, from possible damage, often the case in mind; Kalomiris’s relationship with the French music of 1943; he worked, however, on the piece after that date as to sink to the ground, dead. Slowly, her death turns from performance. The Rhapsody in its orchestral form was the first decades of the twentieth century, as well as the Minas the Rebel, Corsair of the Aegean • The Death of the Valiant Woman well, during the years 1944 and 1945. lament to glorification, and everybody thinks that they first performed on 12th December 1925 at the Kentrikon way in which the composer himself orchestrated other The piece is dedicated to the memory of the young can see Liberty rising imperiously on the horizon, while Theatre in Athens, where Dimitris Mitropoulos conducted works of his, compositions similar to this one in terms of The symphonic poem Minas the Rebel was brought to in the late 1930s. It met with great enthusiasm from both Simone Seaille, both a friend and a comrade to Krino, the hymn Christ Has Risen is heard everywhere … the Recitals’ Association Symphony Orchestra. The full texture and atmosphere. completion on 16th September 1940, as one can see on the critics and the public; in 1940, Bastias was awarded the composer’s daughter, who had been arrested and score was edited by Kalomiris in 1957. The orchestrator dedicates this work to his old friend the last page of the hand-written full score which is kept the Stefanos Mavrogenis Prize by the Academy of Athens. executed by the Germans for her participation in the Myrto Economides Kalomiris gave Rhapsody No. 2 the title Song to the Alexis Zakinthinos, in the hope that it is does not betray in Kalomiris’s house in Faliron. There is one more hand- Kalomiris expressed his heart-felt admiration for the Night. In the French edition, immediately above the French the original. written full score which only mentions the year 1940. author and the book in a review which was published in translation Chant à la Nuit, one can also see the Greek The Songs of Sikelianos, widely known under the title The piece is based on Kostis Bastias’s novel, published the newspaper The National, on 14th March 1939. Deep 2 8.572451 3 8.572451 4 8.572451 572451bk Kalomiris:557541bk Kelemen 3+3 23/8/10 8:48 PM Page 2

Manolis Kalomiris (1883–1962) Lyrics had its première in Athens in May 1937. The first Yet he never became particularly preoccupied with in his soul, the great excitement that the book caused him, French Resistance, shortly before France was liberated. Rhapsodies Nos. 1 and 2 • Lyrics • In St Luke’s Monastery two songs (Aphrodite Rising and The Holy Virgin of Sikelianos’s poetry, and only set to music three of his was automatically transformed into music. To mention Simone was the daughter of the singer Speranza Kalo Sparta) were composed in 1936 and the last one, The First poems forming the song cycle From the Lyric Poems of only a few of his words in that review, “… my soul is still (Elpida Kalogeropoulou), who was a good friend as well The two Rhapsodies of Kalomiris were written in the year title in Latin characters. Similar to that title is the Evening Rain, in 1937. In the composer’s manuscript there are nine Sikelianos, and the military song Onward. The piece was filled with the complex, multicoloured sounds of this as a collaborator with Kalomiris, later becoming a relative 1921 – there are no manuscripts to inform us of precise Song, translated in French as Chant du soir, which bars from a fourth song, which was supposed to have the first performed on 25th May 1937, at the Olympia Theatre unique sea symphony, those sounds which moved my soul of his too, since her son Jean, married the composer’s dates – and were published five years later, in Paris, by the Kalomiris gave to one of his easy piano pieces for Greek title Panas. These songs, the only ones that Kalomiris in Athens, with Takis Karousos reading the narrator’s part. with all the fierceness and music of the blue Aegean sea”. daughter. Menestrel Publishing House. The reason why the first, Children. Rhapsody No. 2 followed the orchestral process composed based on poems by Sikelianos, are one of his It was conducted by Leonidas Zoras. In 1959 Kalomiris The work was first performed in the National Theatre The Death of the Valiant Woman praises the bravery which the composer had dedicated to José Iturbi, was of Rhapsody No. 1, sixty years later, when it was orch- most interesting musical approaches and at the same time published In Saint Luke’s Monastery in the form of a piece of Athens on 18th October 1940, only ten days before and self-sacrifice of the heroic Greek women who will originally shown special interest, is because in 1925 it was estrated by the conductor Byron Fidetzis. He comments: a unique symphonic achievement. for violin, piano and narrator. The composer had given the outbreak of the Greek-Italian war. The Athens fight the enemy with no less courage than that of the orchestrated by the French composer and conductor ‘The Second Piano Rhapsody, composed in 1921, Music’s interrelationship with narration became one primary importance to the violin solo in the original score Conservatory Symphony Orchestra was conducted by Greek men. Neither the time of action nor the enemy is Gabriel Pierné. Pierné’s orchestration of the piece was a belongs to the composer’s second creative period, as seen of Kalomiris’s regular preoccupations from the year 1943. as well. In this version Kalomiris dedicated the piece to the Leonidas Zoras. Kalomiris mentions the date and clearly defined, but since the piece was composed in the personal gift as well as a clear sign of his respect for the by the orchestrator or the piece itself. The works which In addition to the symphonic poem In Saint Luke’s actor Thanos Kotsopoulos, who had taken part in the first performers of that concert in his hand-written full score, middle of the German occupation it most probably refers Greek composer. were composed after the Symphony of Levendia, such as Monastery, he composed two more works for narrator and performance of the Palamiki Symphony as the narrator on noting that the performance was excellent as a whole. to that historic period. The piece has an intensely epic Notably, in this music Kalomiris dared approach The Pedlar, the Trio for piano, violin and cello, the Piano orchestra: In the Palaces of the Art of Song, to a poem by 22nd January 1956. Born in Siros, Minas the Rebel, an inexperienced character, its melody being based on the popular Dance French harmonic language, experimenting with an Rhapsodies, the second cycle of the Iambs and Anapaests, K. Palamas (1943-46), and The Destruction of Psara, to The plot of this symbolic poem takes place in the night seventeen-year-old boy, seeking vengeance upon the of Zaloggo, which permeates the whole piece in its aesthetic element to which Pierné’s impressionist and, finally, the Symphony of the Simple and Good People, a poem by D. Solomos (1949?). Yet, in the music memoirs of Holy Saturday, just before the profoundly joyful news corsair Giakoumis who had taken his sisters, goes to sea numerous variations. The work was first performed in orchestration directly draws our attention. There are two are considered to belong to the above mentioned period, From Captain Lyras’ Life and Longings, for narrator, of Christ’s Resurrection. At first the poet describes the on a pirate ship. He becomes captain of the ship with the 1943, transcribed for piano by Kalomiris, at the Rex, with manuscripts of this orchestral score in Kalomiris’s which, for the composer, is probably much more inter- soloists and orchestra, the narrator plays a considerable warm, religious atmosphere in the monastery of Saint help of Styliani, a woman taken captive by the previous Loukia Sakellariou as choreographer and leading dancer. Archives. One of them, apparently in a copyist’s hand, esting and important than his last one. This period is part as well. Besides, in Symphony No. 3, the so-called Luke with the candles, flowers and aura of the spring captain, and marries her when the revolt ends. With time, In its orchestral form it was first performed by the Athens bears Pierné’s signature as well as a dedication, while the characterized by the influence of French music, with its Palamiki, for orchestra, with dramatic recitation, Kalo- night. The congregation is waiting anxiously. Suddenly, a he becomes the terror of the Aegean sea. A West Euro- State Orchestra at the Olympia in 1945. It was conducted other one has been copied by Kalomiris himself. We innovations in both harmony and orchestration. Not miris seems to have built all four parts of the Symphony young villager, who was believed to be dead, returns from pean admiral, defeated by Minas, takes Styliani and her by the composer himself. Finally, the work was fully already know that the composer worked on his pieces unreasonably then, many of his works belonging to the upon the narrator’s rôle. the war. His appearance in the entrance of the church at the child in order to hand them over to the Sultan’s harem. staged by the National Greek Opera, choreographed by repeatedly and often revised his orchestral scores, but his period in question were printed and performed in France, In Saint Luke’s Monastery, a piece for narrator and very moment of the Resurrection is shocking for his fellow Minas beats the French ships only to find his child dead Angelos Grimanis, with the composer once more reason for copying the full score is unknown. He may have including the Trio I Love You, and other works’. orchestra, is the composer’s second symphonic poem after villagers. But even more shocking is the fact that, although and his wife breathing her last. In a fit of rage against conducting the piece. done so, of course, for purely practical reasons, the need, The fact that the prominent French composer and The Pedlar (1920-24). Kalomiris himself in the full score all remembered him as a dancer, who impressed the girls God, he sets out to loot Mount Athos. On reaching the By killing one of the enemies who had invaded her perhaps, for one more full score in order for the piece to conductor Gabriel Pierné orchestrated Rhapsody No. 1 is mentions that words should freely interlink with music. with his dance in the village’s feasts, now he is standing first monastery though, and on hearing the abbot and village early that morning, the Valiant Woman encourages be performed. He even dated the manuscript in French – of primary importance. It also became the original source Still, the music precisely underlines meanings and images, on a wooden leg, as another tragic victim of the war. The monks praying, he suddenly loses his sight and has a the rest of the women to fight together with their men. Mardi le 12 Mai 1925. Nevertheless, both the handwriting of inspiration for the orchestration of Rhapsody No. 2, prolonging the thoughts and visions of Sikelianos, and soldier’s mother runs among the crowd and hugs her son’s vision of his wife sitting beside the abbot with her child She gets to the front line and fights beside her loved one, and the quality of paper show the copy to have been made together with the orchestrator’s personal opinion that this justifying, at the same time, the form of the symphonic wooden leg. People burst out in a scream of horror, while in her arms. Shattered by this vision, he repents of his being badly wounded. Without letting anybody under- many years later. So the composer had only meant to particular work is the best piano piece ever composed by poem. The text’s dramatic atmosphere is transmitted to the poet watches the whole scene as in a dream, with tears sins, finds peace and joins the monks. stand her pain, she fights on, heartening the other women produce one more copy, perhaps to protect the first Kalomiris. In this scoring, which took place between the Kalomiris’s music language. The composer, on the other in his eyes. Kalomiris composed The Death of the Valiant Woman, also, until the enemy retreats. She leads the dance of manuscript, which might have been copied by Pierné years 1987 and 1988, two things were mainly kept in hand, found in the large orchestra the palette he needed. Filippos Tsalahouris his symphonic poem in “ballet form”, as he called it, in victory together with the rest of the village women, only himself, from possible damage, often the case in mind; Kalomiris’s relationship with the French music of 1943; he worked, however, on the piece after that date as to sink to the ground, dead. Slowly, her death turns from performance. The Rhapsody in its orchestral form was the first decades of the twentieth century, as well as the Minas the Rebel, Corsair of the Aegean • The Death of the Valiant Woman well, during the years 1944 and 1945. lament to glorification, and everybody thinks that they first performed on 12th December 1925 at the Kentrikon way in which the composer himself orchestrated other The piece is dedicated to the memory of the young can see Liberty rising imperiously on the horizon, while Theatre in Athens, where Dimitris Mitropoulos conducted works of his, compositions similar to this one in terms of The symphonic poem Minas the Rebel was brought to in the late 1930s. It met with great enthusiasm from both Simone Seaille, both a friend and a comrade to Krino, the hymn Christ Has Risen is heard everywhere … the Recitals’ Association Symphony Orchestra. The full texture and atmosphere. completion on 16th September 1940, as one can see on the critics and the public; in 1940, Bastias was awarded the composer’s daughter, who had been arrested and score was edited by Kalomiris in 1957. The orchestrator dedicates this work to his old friend the last page of the hand-written full score which is kept the Stefanos Mavrogenis Prize by the Academy of Athens. executed by the Germans for her participation in the Myrto Economides Kalomiris gave Rhapsody No. 2 the title Song to the Alexis Zakinthinos, in the hope that it is does not betray in Kalomiris’s house in Faliron. There is one more hand- Kalomiris expressed his heart-felt admiration for the Night. In the French edition, immediately above the French the original. written full score which only mentions the year 1940. author and the book in a review which was published in translation Chant à la Nuit, one can also see the Greek The Songs of Sikelianos, widely known under the title The piece is based on Kostis Bastias’s novel, published the newspaper The National, on 14th March 1939. Deep 2 8.572451 3 8.572451 4 8.572451 572451bk Kalomiris:557541bk Kelemen 3+3 23/8/10 8:48 PM Page 2

Manolis Kalomiris (1883–1962) Lyrics had its première in Athens in May 1937. The first Yet he never became particularly preoccupied with in his soul, the great excitement that the book caused him, French Resistance, shortly before France was liberated. Rhapsodies Nos. 1 and 2 • Lyrics • In St Luke’s Monastery two songs (Aphrodite Rising and The Holy Virgin of Sikelianos’s poetry, and only set to music three of his was automatically transformed into music. To mention Simone was the daughter of the singer Speranza Kalo Sparta) were composed in 1936 and the last one, The First poems forming the song cycle From the Lyric Poems of only a few of his words in that review, “… my soul is still (Elpida Kalogeropoulou), who was a good friend as well The two Rhapsodies of Kalomiris were written in the year title in Latin characters. Similar to that title is the Evening Rain, in 1937. In the composer’s manuscript there are nine Sikelianos, and the military song Onward. The piece was filled with the complex, multicoloured sounds of this as a collaborator with Kalomiris, later becoming a relative 1921 – there are no manuscripts to inform us of precise Song, translated in French as Chant du soir, which bars from a fourth song, which was supposed to have the first performed on 25th May 1937, at the Olympia Theatre unique sea symphony, those sounds which moved my soul of his too, since her son Jean, married the composer’s dates – and were published five years later, in Paris, by the Kalomiris gave to one of his easy piano pieces for Greek title Panas. These songs, the only ones that Kalomiris in Athens, with Takis Karousos reading the narrator’s part. with all the fierceness and music of the blue Aegean sea”. daughter. Menestrel Publishing House. The reason why the first, Children. Rhapsody No. 2 followed the orchestral process composed based on poems by Sikelianos, are one of his It was conducted by Leonidas Zoras. In 1959 Kalomiris The work was first performed in the National Theatre The Death of the Valiant Woman praises the bravery which the composer had dedicated to José Iturbi, was of Rhapsody No. 1, sixty years later, when it was orch- most interesting musical approaches and at the same time published In Saint Luke’s Monastery in the form of a piece of Athens on 18th October 1940, only ten days before and self-sacrifice of the heroic Greek women who will originally shown special interest, is because in 1925 it was estrated by the conductor Byron Fidetzis. He comments: a unique symphonic achievement. for violin, piano and narrator. The composer had given the outbreak of the Greek-Italian war. The Athens fight the enemy with no less courage than that of the orchestrated by the French composer and conductor ‘The Second Piano Rhapsody, composed in 1921, Music’s interrelationship with narration became one primary importance to the violin solo in the original score Conservatory Symphony Orchestra was conducted by Greek men. Neither the time of action nor the enemy is Gabriel Pierné. Pierné’s orchestration of the piece was a belongs to the composer’s second creative period, as seen of Kalomiris’s regular preoccupations from the year 1943. as well. In this version Kalomiris dedicated the piece to the Leonidas Zoras. Kalomiris mentions the date and clearly defined, but since the piece was composed in the personal gift as well as a clear sign of his respect for the by the orchestrator or the piece itself. The works which In addition to the symphonic poem In Saint Luke’s actor Thanos Kotsopoulos, who had taken part in the first performers of that concert in his hand-written full score, middle of the German occupation it most probably refers Greek composer. were composed after the Symphony of Levendia, such as Monastery, he composed two more works for narrator and performance of the Palamiki Symphony as the narrator on noting that the performance was excellent as a whole. to that historic period. The piece has an intensely epic Notably, in this music Kalomiris dared approach The Pedlar, the Trio for piano, violin and cello, the Piano orchestra: In the Palaces of the Art of Song, to a poem by 22nd January 1956. Born in Siros, Minas the Rebel, an inexperienced character, its melody being based on the popular Dance French harmonic language, experimenting with an Rhapsodies, the second cycle of the Iambs and Anapaests, K. Palamas (1943-46), and The Destruction of Psara, to The plot of this symbolic poem takes place in the night seventeen-year-old boy, seeking vengeance upon the of Zaloggo, which permeates the whole piece in its aesthetic element to which Pierné’s impressionist and, finally, the Symphony of the Simple and Good People, a poem by D. Solomos (1949?). Yet, in the music memoirs of Holy Saturday, just before the profoundly joyful news corsair Giakoumis who had taken his sisters, goes to sea numerous variations. The work was first performed in orchestration directly draws our attention. There are two are considered to belong to the above mentioned period, From Captain Lyras’ Life and Longings, for narrator, of Christ’s Resurrection. At first the poet describes the on a pirate ship. He becomes captain of the ship with the 1943, transcribed for piano by Kalomiris, at the Rex, with manuscripts of this orchestral score in Kalomiris’s which, for the composer, is probably much more inter- soloists and orchestra, the narrator plays a considerable warm, religious atmosphere in the monastery of Saint help of Styliani, a woman taken captive by the previous Loukia Sakellariou as choreographer and leading dancer. Archives. One of them, apparently in a copyist’s hand, esting and important than his last one. This period is part as well. Besides, in Symphony No. 3, the so-called Luke with the candles, flowers and aura of the spring captain, and marries her when the revolt ends. With time, In its orchestral form it was first performed by the Athens bears Pierné’s signature as well as a dedication, while the characterized by the influence of French music, with its Palamiki, for orchestra, with dramatic recitation, Kalo- night. The congregation is waiting anxiously. Suddenly, a he becomes the terror of the Aegean sea. A West Euro- State Orchestra at the Olympia in 1945. It was conducted other one has been copied by Kalomiris himself. We innovations in both harmony and orchestration. Not miris seems to have built all four parts of the Symphony young villager, who was believed to be dead, returns from pean admiral, defeated by Minas, takes Styliani and her by the composer himself. Finally, the work was fully already know that the composer worked on his pieces unreasonably then, many of his works belonging to the upon the narrator’s rôle. the war. His appearance in the entrance of the church at the child in order to hand them over to the Sultan’s harem. staged by the National Greek Opera, choreographed by repeatedly and often revised his orchestral scores, but his period in question were printed and performed in France, In Saint Luke’s Monastery, a piece for narrator and very moment of the Resurrection is shocking for his fellow Minas beats the French ships only to find his child dead Angelos Grimanis, with the composer once more reason for copying the full score is unknown. He may have including the Trio I Love You, and other works’. orchestra, is the composer’s second symphonic poem after villagers. But even more shocking is the fact that, although and his wife breathing her last. In a fit of rage against conducting the piece. done so, of course, for purely practical reasons, the need, The fact that the prominent French composer and The Pedlar (1920-24). Kalomiris himself in the full score all remembered him as a dancer, who impressed the girls God, he sets out to loot Mount Athos. On reaching the By killing one of the enemies who had invaded her perhaps, for one more full score in order for the piece to conductor Gabriel Pierné orchestrated Rhapsody No. 1 is mentions that words should freely interlink with music. with his dance in the village’s feasts, now he is standing first monastery though, and on hearing the abbot and village early that morning, the Valiant Woman encourages be performed. He even dated the manuscript in French – of primary importance. It also became the original source Still, the music precisely underlines meanings and images, on a wooden leg, as another tragic victim of the war. The monks praying, he suddenly loses his sight and has a the rest of the women to fight together with their men. Mardi le 12 Mai 1925. Nevertheless, both the handwriting of inspiration for the orchestration of Rhapsody No. 2, prolonging the thoughts and visions of Sikelianos, and soldier’s mother runs among the crowd and hugs her son’s vision of his wife sitting beside the abbot with her child She gets to the front line and fights beside her loved one, and the quality of paper show the copy to have been made together with the orchestrator’s personal opinion that this justifying, at the same time, the form of the symphonic wooden leg. People burst out in a scream of horror, while in her arms. Shattered by this vision, he repents of his being badly wounded. Without letting anybody under- many years later. So the composer had only meant to particular work is the best piano piece ever composed by poem. The text’s dramatic atmosphere is transmitted to the poet watches the whole scene as in a dream, with tears sins, finds peace and joins the monks. stand her pain, she fights on, heartening the other women produce one more copy, perhaps to protect the first Kalomiris. In this scoring, which took place between the Kalomiris’s music language. The composer, on the other in his eyes. Kalomiris composed The Death of the Valiant Woman, also, until the enemy retreats. She leads the dance of manuscript, which might have been copied by Pierné years 1987 and 1988, two things were mainly kept in hand, found in the large orchestra the palette he needed. Filippos Tsalahouris his symphonic poem in “ballet form”, as he called it, in victory together with the rest of the village women, only himself, from possible damage, often the case in mind; Kalomiris’s relationship with the French music of 1943; he worked, however, on the piece after that date as to sink to the ground, dead. Slowly, her death turns from performance. The Rhapsody in its orchestral form was the first decades of the twentieth century, as well as the Minas the Rebel, Corsair of the Aegean • The Death of the Valiant Woman well, during the years 1944 and 1945. lament to glorification, and everybody thinks that they first performed on 12th December 1925 at the Kentrikon way in which the composer himself orchestrated other The piece is dedicated to the memory of the young can see Liberty rising imperiously on the horizon, while Theatre in Athens, where Dimitris Mitropoulos conducted works of his, compositions similar to this one in terms of The symphonic poem Minas the Rebel was brought to in the late 1930s. It met with great enthusiasm from both Simone Seaille, both a friend and a comrade to Krino, the hymn Christ Has Risen is heard everywhere … the Recitals’ Association Symphony Orchestra. The full texture and atmosphere. completion on 16th September 1940, as one can see on the critics and the public; in 1940, Bastias was awarded the composer’s daughter, who had been arrested and score was edited by Kalomiris in 1957. The orchestrator dedicates this work to his old friend the last page of the hand-written full score which is kept the Stefanos Mavrogenis Prize by the Academy of Athens. executed by the Germans for her participation in the Myrto Economides Kalomiris gave Rhapsody No. 2 the title Song to the Alexis Zakinthinos, in the hope that it is does not betray in Kalomiris’s house in Faliron. There is one more hand- Kalomiris expressed his heart-felt admiration for the Night. In the French edition, immediately above the French the original. written full score which only mentions the year 1940. author and the book in a review which was published in translation Chant à la Nuit, one can also see the Greek The Songs of Sikelianos, widely known under the title The piece is based on Kostis Bastias’s novel, published the newspaper The National, on 14th March 1939. Deep 2 8.572451 3 8.572451 4 8.572451 572451bk Kalomiris:557541bk Kelemen 3+3 23/8/10 8:48 PM Page 1

Byron Fidetzis Russian State Symphonic Capella Orchestra Byron Fidetzis was born in Thessaloniki, where he studied the cello at the State The State Symphony Capella of Russia was formed in 1991 by the combination of two well known Russian musical Conservatory, continuing on a Hellenic Foundation scholarship at the Vienna groups, the State Symphony Orchestra of the Ministry of Culture of the USSR and the State Chamber Chorus of the GREEK CLASSICS Musikhochschule with Vladimir Orloff, André Navarra and S. Benes, and attending Ministry of Culture of the USSR. The creation of such a group offers wide opportunities in choice of repertoire conducting classes under Hans Swarowsky. He has collaborated as a soloist and from chamber choirs and ensembles to large-scale symphonies and oratorios. The Capella devotes time to the conductor with all the Greek and many foreign orchestras in concerts and festivals recording of Russian and Soviet orchestral music, and the orchestra and chorus have won praise throughout the throughout Greece and abroad. From 1985 to 1992 he was permanent conductor of world for concert appearances on tour and for their recordings. the orchestra of the Greek National Opera House, and from September 1990 to 1992 Manolis chief conductor of the Ekaterinburg State Philharmonic Orchestra of the former Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra Soviet Union. Since 1992 he has been Guest Conductor of the Russian State Capella The Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1835 by Josef Labicky as a seasonal spa orchestra, to be Orchestra in Moscow (the official orchestra of the Ministry of Culture in the former transformed forty years later by Labicky’s son, August, into a permanent symphony orchestra. It was this orchestra KALOMIRIS Soviet Union), and was also Honorary Guest Conductor of the Symphony Orchestra that gave the European première of Dvorˇák’s New World Symphony in 1894. From 1911 to 1941 it was directed by of Pasardjik in Bulgaria until 1999, serving from 1999 to 2001 as Artistic Director Robert Manzer and after 1945 by Josef Bartl. From 1991 to 1998 the English conductor Douglas Bostock was Chief (1883–1962) to the same orchestra. From 2000 to 2005 he was Chief Conductor of the Symphony Conductor, followed by Alois Ježek and now by Martin Lebel. The orchestra has a wide repertoire and a history of Orchestra of the Municipality of Thessaloniki, and since 1987 has been permanent collaboration with leading soloists and visiting conductors. conductor of the Athens State Orchestra and from 2004 also its Artistic Director. Photo: Pavlos Konstantinidis Rhapsodies Julia Souglakou Julia Souglakou studied singing at the National Conservatory of Athens and in London Nos. 1 and 2 under the tutelage of Vera Rozsa on a Maria Callas scholarship. In 1994 she made her début at the Greek National Opera, playing the rôle of Nedda (Pagliacci). Since then she has appeared regularly there, with rôles including Elvira (Ernani), Amelia (Simone Lyrics Boccanegra), the Countess (Le nozze di Figaro), Santuzza (Cavalleria rusticana), Anna Bolena, Freia (Rheingold), Lady Macbeth, Leonora (Il trovatore), Gioconda, and Madre (Il prigionero). She has also interpreted leading parts in operas by Greek Minas the Rebel composers, including works by Kalomiris, Samaras, Kounadis, Theodorakis, and Mikroutsikos. She has appeared in concerts, festivals and opera-houses in Greece and abroad, with a wide range of personal recitals and chamber music concerts. Russian State Eva Kotamanidou Eva Kotamanidou was born in Athens and studied French literature at the French Symphonic Capella Institute of Athens and theatre at the Karolos Koun Drama School, from which she graduated with the highest honours. She has worked with important theatrical C companies playing leading rôles, including the classical rôles of Electra, Cassandra, Karlovy Vary Andromache, Hecuba and Antigone. She has received awards for her work in films M and was elected deputy for the Coalition Party (1989-1990). She is a regular Symphony Orchestra contributor to the paper Ta Nea. Y Byron Fidetzis K 5 8.572451 6 8.572451 572451bk Kalomiris:557541bk Kelemen 3+3 23/8/10 8:48 PM Page 1

Byron Fidetzis Russian State Symphonic Capella Orchestra Byron Fidetzis was born in Thessaloniki, where he studied the cello at the State The State Symphony Capella of Russia was formed in 1991 by the combination of two well known Russian musical Conservatory, continuing on a Hellenic Foundation scholarship at the Vienna groups, the State Symphony Orchestra of the Ministry of Culture of the USSR and the State Chamber Chorus of the GREEK CLASSICS Musikhochschule with Vladimir Orloff, André Navarra and S. Benes, and attending Ministry of Culture of the USSR. The creation of such a group offers wide opportunities in choice of repertoire conducting classes under Hans Swarowsky. He has collaborated as a soloist and from chamber choirs and ensembles to large-scale symphonies and oratorios. The Capella devotes time to the conductor with all the Greek and many foreign orchestras in concerts and festivals recording of Russian and Soviet orchestral music, and the orchestra and chorus have won praise throughout the throughout Greece and abroad. From 1985 to 1992 he was permanent conductor of world for concert appearances on tour and for their recordings. the orchestra of the Greek National Opera House, and from September 1990 to 1992 Manolis chief conductor of the Ekaterinburg State Philharmonic Orchestra of the former Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra Soviet Union. Since 1992 he has been Guest Conductor of the Russian State Capella The Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1835 by Josef Labicky as a seasonal spa orchestra, to be Orchestra in Moscow (the official orchestra of the Ministry of Culture in the former transformed forty years later by Labicky’s son, August, into a permanent symphony orchestra. It was this orchestra KALOMIRIS Soviet Union), and was also Honorary Guest Conductor of the Symphony Orchestra that gave the European première of Dvorˇák’s New World Symphony in 1894. From 1911 to 1941 it was directed by of Pasardjik in Bulgaria until 1999, serving from 1999 to 2001 as Artistic Director Robert Manzer and after 1945 by Josef Bartl. From 1991 to 1998 the English conductor Douglas Bostock was Chief (1883–1962) to the same orchestra. From 2000 to 2005 he was Chief Conductor of the Symphony Conductor, followed by Alois Ježek and now by Martin Lebel. The orchestra has a wide repertoire and a history of Orchestra of the Municipality of Thessaloniki, and since 1987 has been permanent collaboration with leading soloists and visiting conductors. conductor of the Athens State Orchestra and from 2004 also its Artistic Director. Photo: Pavlos Konstantinidis Rhapsodies Julia Souglakou Julia Souglakou studied singing at the National Conservatory of Athens and in London Nos. 1 and 2 under the tutelage of Vera Rozsa on a Maria Callas scholarship. In 1994 she made her début at the Greek National Opera, playing the rôle of Nedda (Pagliacci). Since then she has appeared regularly there, with rôles including Elvira (Ernani), Amelia (Simone Lyrics Boccanegra), the Countess (Le nozze di Figaro), Santuzza (Cavalleria rusticana), Anna Bolena, Freia (Rheingold), Lady Macbeth, Leonora (Il trovatore), Gioconda, and Madre (Il prigionero). She has also interpreted leading parts in operas by Greek Minas the Rebel composers, including works by Kalomiris, Samaras, Kounadis, Theodorakis, and Mikroutsikos. She has appeared in concerts, festivals and opera-houses in Greece and abroad, with a wide range of personal recitals and chamber music concerts. Russian State Eva Kotamanidou Eva Kotamanidou was born in Athens and studied French literature at the French Symphonic Capella Institute of Athens and theatre at the Karolos Koun Drama School, from which she graduated with the highest honours. She has worked with important theatrical C companies playing leading rôles, including the classical rôles of Electra, Cassandra, Karlovy Vary Andromache, Hecuba and Antigone. She has received awards for her work in films M and was elected deputy for the Coalition Party (1989-1990). She is a regular Symphony Orchestra contributor to the paper Ta Nea. Y Byron Fidetzis K 5 8.572451 6 8.572451 G R Also available E E K

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C M Y K NAXOS NAXOS Manolis Kalomiris is honoured as the father of Greek national music. The inspired orchestration of Kalomiris’s Piano Rhapsody No. 1 by Gabriel Pierné moved Byron Fidetzis to orchestrate the second of these, sub-titled Song of the Night. The versatile soprano Julia Souglakou, whose wide-ranging repertoire includes operas by Greek composers, interprets Lyrics, a setting of poems by Angelos Sikelianos, and the renowned GREEK CLASSICS KALOMIRIS: KALOMIRIS: Greek actress Eva Kotamanidou recounts a small miracle In St Luke’s Monastery. The 8.572451 symphonic poems Minas the Rebel and Death of the Valiant Woman present in purely orchestral garb contrasting tales of vengeance, valour and visionary transformation. DDD

Manolis Playing Time KALOMIRIS 76:38 (1883–1962)

Rhapsodies • Symphonic Poems 1 Rhapsody No. 1 (orch. Gabriel Pierné) 6:54 Rhapsodies • Symphonic Poems 2 Rhapsody No. 2, ‘Song to the Night’ (orch. Byron Fidetzis) 13:12 Lyrics (Text by Angelos Sikelianos, 1884–1951) 16:07 3 I. Aphrodite Rising 4:15 4 II. The Holy Virgin of Sparta 3:54 5 III. The First Rain 7:55 6 In St Luke’s Monastery (Text by Angelos Sikelianos) 10:17

7 Minas the Rebel, Corsair of the Aegean 17:51 www.naxos.com Made in Germany Booklet notes in English Ltd. Naxos Rights International ൿ 8 The Death of the Valiant Woman 11:47 2000, 2010 & Russian State Symphonic Capella 1–2, 6–8 Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra 3–5 3–5 6 Julia Souglakou, Soprano • Eva Kotamanidou, Narrator Ꭿ

Byron Fidetzis 2010 The Greek texts for Lyrics and In St Luke's Monastery are available at C www.naxos.com/libretti/572451.htm M Recorded at Mosfilm Studios, Moscow, Russia, August 1992 (tracks 1–2, 6–8) and 8.572451 State Opera Theatre Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic, 19–20 April 1995 (3–5) • Producer: Christos Tsenes 8.572451 Engineers: Igor Veprintsev (tracks 1–2, 6–8); Jaroslav Kasl, Josef Vavruska & František Rezek (3–5) Y Editor: Christos Hatzistamou (Athens mastering) • Publisher: Kalomiris Society except track 2 (unpublished) Booklet notes: Filippos Tsalahouris, Myrto Economides • Cover photo © Serban Enache / Dreamstime.com K Tracks 1–2 and 6–8 previously released by Phormigx, 2000