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Author Topic: Skalkottas  (Read 1671 times)
BobbyZ
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« on: 14:36:05, 03-10-2007 »

Have been playing a disk of Skalkottas music on BIS; Violin Concerto, Largo Sinfonico and Seven Greek Dances, Malmo Symphony Orchestra. Found it to be pretty good stuff so searched on here for any mentions of him and there are only three in passing to date. So does anyone have a view ?
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Dreams, schemes and themes
autoharp
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« Reply #1 on: 08:35:32, 04-10-2007 »

Severely underrated! And there's a lot to rate (composed more than the total output of Schoenberg, Berg + Webern).
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time_is_now
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« Reply #2 on: 11:05:35, 04-12-2007 »

Can you elaborate, autoh? I always get the sense that he's one of those composers certain people feel is underrated, but I haven't found the way in yet ...
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increpatio
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« Reply #3 on: 11:17:23, 04-12-2007 »

I have a CD of his dance music for piano I think; but, yeah; haven't really gotten into him yet.
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autoharp
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« Reply #4 on: 19:57:06, 04-12-2007 »

Can you elaborate, autoh? I always get the sense that he's one of those composers certain people feel is underrated, but I haven't found the way in yet ...

I will in a couple of days. For now I'll mention the solo violin sonata of 1925, his
40-minute 4th string 4tet, and a rather delightful Concertino for 2 pianos. Great string writing - well he was apparently a rather good violinist. So lots of well-written underpublicised chamber stuff for strings.
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autoharp
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« Reply #5 on: 16:10:44, 05-12-2007 »

I've discovered quite a few pieces on old cassettes. Completely forgotten I had them. I'll post a few impressions as I go through them.

The received info about Skalkottas is that at least some of his pieces occupy territory between the Second Viennese and Busoni schools. Not so far off the mark as far the Violin Concerto (1938) is concerned. In terms of colour and texture, there was more Busoni than Schoenberg, particularly in the 2nd movement. The work seemed rather opaque at times, but seemed to become more interesting as it went on (or maybe I was just getting acclimatised).  It's linguistically consistent and the textures more maintained than in either Schoenberg or Berg: given a choice between the violin concertos of Berg, Schoenberg and Skalkottas, I'd choose the latter (no doubt someone will shoot me down for that view). The violinist was Yfrah Neaman, incidentally.

The Octet of 1931 is a much sprightlier affair - somewhere between the Schoenberg Serenade and a Hindemith Kammermusik, although it would never be mistaken for either. The first movement is not 12-note, but there's no contradiction with movements 2 + 3, which are. Ebullient and chirpy stuff:it seems that this kind of cheeriness is probably less likely to be found in his later output (after a major depression he suffered in the early 1930s).
« Last Edit: 01:51:32, 20-01-2008 by autoharp » Logged
time_is_now
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« Reply #6 on: 18:34:24, 05-12-2007 »

I've discovered quite a few pieces on old cassettes. Completely forgotten I had them. I'll post a few impressions as I go through them.
Thanks, a/h. Just wanted to let you know I'm listening, even if I'm not saying much ...
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The city is a process which always veers away from the form envisaged and desired, ... whose revenge upon its architects and planners undoes every dream of mastery. It is [also] one of the sites where Dasein is assigned the impossible task of putting right what can never be put right. - Rob Lapsley
autoharp
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« Reply #7 on: 21:30:22, 06-12-2007 »

Piano concertino (1948).
Dates from the time near the end of his life when, in an attempt to get recognition in his homeland (Greece), his style became very tonal and populist. Couldn't get that out of my mind when listening to it: there was a definite feeling of working hard at doing the right thing despite the odd quirk. Expertly written but earnestly jolly and not particularly striking ideas.

- actually, he never stopped writing tonal works - alongside the serial works as well.
- there are a number of works with diminutive titles such as Sonatina or Concertino: many of them are on a scale that would suggest Sonata or Concerto for anyone else I've since found this isn't really true (despite the 3rd Piano Concerto which lasts about an hour).

1st String Quartet (1927 or 1928)
One of the aspects of Skalkottas that impresses most is the fluent writing and consistency of language which make him one of the more immediately approachable pre-WW2 serialists. Coupled with his aptitude for string writing, this would suggest that the string quartets are worth searching out. I remember being impressed by the 4th (which I still have somewhere on reel-to-reel) but haven't listened to it for - er - 30-odd years. The first isn't a bad piece, but, with the exception of the 1st movement, didn't really light my fire. The 2nd movement was annoyingly motivic. Maybe it's just an "early" piece.
« Last Edit: 03:23:35, 09-12-2007 by autoharp » Logged
autoharp
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« Reply #8 on: 17:04:40, 08-12-2007 »

Concertino for 2 pianos (1935)
My memory of this was right. A delightful piece. Light textures and light-hearted. 12-note music at its most approachable. No doubt this was Skalkottas's intention: shortly before he had showed a score of his 1st (?) Symphonic Suite to Mitropoulos for possible performance with a Greek orchestra. 6 substantial movements, challenging 12-note language, some difficult instrumental parts - Mitropoulos probably did more than just shake his head. Hence the Concertino. But that didn't get performed either.

2nd Little Suite (1949) - violin and piano. A Greek folk music element here, but more Bartokian than the more populist orchestral Greek folk dances. Decent writing, but it hasn't stayed much in the memory.  The performance has, though (Manoug Parikian).

Concertino for oboe and piano (1939).
Not exactly my favourite instrumental combination. Apparently non-serial. which I wouldn't have immediately guessed. Some enterprising conservatoire student would have a good time with this. The oboe part is no pushover and is pretty meaty. I suppose it represents the kind of square-rhythmed melodic quasi-serialism that either impresses or irritates. Reasonably convinced by this one.
One month later after finding a score: the piano part is fairly horrendous!


The return of Ulysses (1944-5)
Which are Skalkottas's major works? Difficult to say unless perhaps judged by duration. I reckon this is one. It's a half-hour overture to an unwritten opera. There's a healthy amount of stormy weather and Skalkottas does storms particularly well (buffeting brass and berserk strings). This one will certainly get another listen.

As will the incidental music to The spell of May (1943) - orchestral.
A quite bizarre mixture of styles which, oddly enough, comes off. 20 minutes or so with a number of shortish movements. An overture (romantic 12-note), followed by a sparse brooding number with a spoken recitation. Then a brief Greek folk-song - a more authentic approach, rather than  Bartokian or populist. Then a strange female song with, unlikely though it may seem, shades of Villa-Lobos both in the vocal line and orchestra, albeit with muted colours. A bit of a surprise, to say the least.
« Last Edit: 01:56:00, 20-01-2008 by autoharp » Logged
autoharp
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« Reply #9 on: 17:48:30, 16-12-2007 »

Just discovered that I have a 4-record box set of chamber music which a friend off-loaded on to me some time back. Unfortunately I'm unable to play them at present. There's an extensive and informative booklet by John G. Papaioannou - it contains the following:

After his return to Athens in the 1930s, ". . . he felt frustrated and extremely disillusioned . . . he used all his spare time to compose at a feverish rate - something he could achieve at an incredible speed because of both his unbelievable sound imagination and his full control of all dimensions of music; thus he would compose a complex piece fully in his head, and when it was complete, he would somehow copy it from his mental image directly on to a clear sheet of music paper; also, his speed in orchestrating - which was totally unconventional and extremely daring and effective was legendary".

"The majority of Skalkottas' work (incl. practically all those of 1935-9) follow a "twelve-tone" system of his own, very different from that of the Viennese school; the main differences are that, first, instead of using one single twelve-tone row, as is the rule in the West, he replaces it by a "super-series", or a complex consisting of 2 to 18 rows (the larger figures apply to the larger works) presented always in the same order; he finds the single row far too small, and so the "super-series" serves both his "architectural" aims and his requirements for detailed "writing" much better. Second, the type of transformations to which he subjects his rows are different from the Viennese ones: for example, he eliminates inversion and transposition, while preserving retrograde motion, and introduces some new types of "proximity transformations", etc. Third, the way he combines his "super-series" to generate the overall form of a work is different, too; he may, for example, combine several "classical" transformed forms in one and the same movement: in the Largo Sinfonico from the 2nd Symphonic Suite, for example, he combines an ad hoc serial form, a sonata form, and a variation form, all in one".

Mind you ,he also writes this -

"Skalkottas' greatest achievements seem to reside in three main realms: first, his sound world, second, the rejuvenation of the main musical parameters, and third, the organisation of his multiple elements. His sound-world, already unexpectedly rich when he uses only very few instruments (e.g., a solo piano generating orchestral effects, a string duo sounding like a string quartet), becomes unimaginably richer when he uses a full orchestra; he draws from it totally novel sounds that often show the way towards electronic music, or tone-colour music (that appeared, say, 20 years later), and even beyond. One hears such new configurations as sound surfaces, sound columns, sound spirals, sound volumes and other multi-dimensional sound structures; what is more, such structures may be combined with each other, so that one hears several of these (say, 3,4,5) in fully transparent counterpoint to each other, like multi-coloured, complex glass volumes shining through each other; this technique, by the way, he had already achieved in his early years, as Ph. Jarnach has independently stated."

Blimey.
« Last Edit: 11:46:19, 13-01-2008 by autoharp » Logged
C Dish
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« Reply #10 on: 21:32:20, 16-12-2007 »

This is extremely informative, autoharp; thanks! I shall have to take a closer look.

One hears such new configurations as sound surfaces, sound columns, sound spirals, sound volumes and other multi-dimensional sound structures
Rather disappointing that he didn't also create sound widgets, sound muppets, sound funiculars, sound gondolas, and sound icosahedrons; but perhaps he pointed the way?
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inert fig here
richard barrett
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« Reply #11 on: 21:37:09, 16-12-2007 »

Yes, this is all very interesting indeed. Hope you're feeling better, autoharp.
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autoharp
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« Reply #12 on: 09:40:53, 17-12-2007 »

I hadn't realised it earlier, but there are many Skalkottas recordings on the Swedish label BIS.

http://www.bis.se/index.php?op=people&nextShow=0&sokText=556

Including the 3rd Piano Concerto which was premiered at the Oxford Bach Festival in 1969. 3 pianists were used for that gig - Binns, Smalley + someone else I've forgotten. The BIS recording is about 65 minutes, which sounds as though it might be a tad too slow. I wonder who the pianist is? Oh, it's Geoffrey Douglas Madge. Maybe Danae Kara + the Montpelier National Orchestra on Decca would be a better bet.

Also BIS do the 3rd + 4th Quartets.

Anyone know any of the BIS recordings?
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ahinton
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« Reply #13 on: 09:50:48, 17-12-2007 »

Including the 3rd Piano Concerto which was premiered at the Oxford Bach Festival in 1969. 3 pianists were used for that gig - Binns, Smalley + someone else I've forgotten.
Ronald Lumsden, I think.

Best,

Alistair
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Ron Dough
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« Reply #14 on: 10:25:48, 17-12-2007 »

Auto,

Most, if not all of the BIS orchestral material using the BBCSO was done as a collaboration and turned up on R3 a few years ago in a series of programmes which I must have somewhere, but since they were prior to my move, they'll not be immediately available....
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