WORKS FOR ORCHESTRA
SYMPHONIC TRIPTYCH “CRETE”
1936
I. Prelude: Moderato appassionato
II. Interlude: In tempo di una marcia funebre
III. To the Freedom of Crete: Finale
Orchestra: 3 3 3 2 – 6 4 3 1 – Timpani, Percussion, Celesta, 2 Harps, Strings
Publication: Unpublished.
Note: In both Catalogues the year of composition is wrongly written 1937. The correct date of the first version in the two autograph manuscripts is 1936.
[Myrto Economides]
* For To the Freedom of Crete, for choir and piano, see under the category Choral Work.
In the evening of 18 March 1936, Kalomiris's wife, Charikleia, found her husband writing music at the piano, his eyes streaming with tears. She asked him what the matter was, and he answered, completely shattered: " Venizelos has just died and I have been trying to compose a funeral march to mourn the Master Builder of Great Greece." The score Kalomiris had in front of him was the second movement of the Triptych.
The work was initially to be entitled Symphonic Triptych: Crete, "in memory of a hero", and was conceived with a chorus, To the Liberation of Crete, as its final movement. (Eleftherios Venizelos originated from Crete.) The chorus ended up as an independent piece [To the Freedom of Crete], and it is only in recent years that its relationship with what became the Triptych has been acknowledged. The reasons that incited Kalomiris to compose a Postlude without choral accompaniment remain unknown up to this day.
Excerpt from note by Philippos Tsalahouris, English translation Evangelos Christopher Tyroglou; Naxos Music Label online booklet, in “About this Recording”. [link]
