WORKS FOR VOICE AND ORCHESTRA
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SONGS OF SIKELIANOS
Poems by Angelos Sikelianos
1. Anadyomeni (1936)
2. The Virgin Mary of Sparta (1936)
3. First Autumn Rain (1937)
(In the manuscript there exist a few measures of the unfinished song “Pan”)
Orchestra: 3 3 3 2 – 4 3 3 1 – Timpani, Percussion, 2 Harps, Celesta, Strings
First Performance: 24 May 1937
Olympia Theatre, Athens
Conducted by Leonidas Zoras
Soloists: Nafsica Frangia – Spiliopoulou, Klava Stamou, Frixos Theologidis
Publication:
Unpublished.
Discography:
Manolis Kalomiris:
Rhapsody No. 1 (arr. G. Pierné for orchestra) & No. 2 "Song to the Night" (arr. B. Fidetzis for orchestra) / Lyrics (Songs of Sikelianos) / In St. Luke's Monastery / Minas the Rebel / The Death of the Valiant Woman.
Russian State Symphonic Cappella
Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra
Byron Fidetzis, conductor
Eva Kotamanidou, narrator
Julia Souglakou, soprano
2010, Naxos 8.572451
[Link]
* For more information about the work click at the left of Naxos’ page “About this recording”.
Songs of Sikelianos, 1937 autograph manuscript, title page. [© MKS]
Anadyomeni, lit. coming up from the water, alludes to the birth of Aphrodite.
Sikelianos, Angelos [link] (1884 – 1951), lyric poet and author of several tragedies, who has been called “the greatest poet of Greece proper since Palamas”. Proponent of a philosophy of universal brotherhood, he sought unsuccessfully to revive the ancient pacifistic spirit of the Delphic Amphyctionies through the creation of a world centre of modern mystic – intellectual orientation at Delphi. He organised the first Delphic Festival in 1927, which was repeated only once (1930). The collection of Lyrika (Lyric Life) of 1938 contains some of his finest poems, three of which were set to music by Kalomiris.
[Notes by Maria Voelker-Kamarinea]
