Greek Music for Violin and Piano of the First Half of the Twentieth Century: From Salon Music to the Sound of Resistance

Wednesday, August 24, 13:30–14:00 • Aula Auditorium, 203

Viktoria ZORA (violin)

Kostas CHARDAS (piano)

During the first half of the twentieth century, the duo violin and piano has intrigued Greek composers of different aesthetic agendas. In the Ionian Islands, pieces for violin and piano were part of a salon music culture, the private counterpart of a thriving public opera culture. Napoleon Lambelet’s Sérénade D’Arlequin à Colombine, published in Nice in 1901, exemplifies this repertoire. The violin was, inevitably, at the center of music that aspired to depict Greekness, because of its strong presence in Greek folk music. Yannis Constantinidis’s Petite Suite expresses this attitude and is exclusively based on folksongs from the Greek islands. Audabe, by Marios Varvoglis, echoes the exotic atmosphere of Paris, where the composer lived in the early twentieth century, more pronouncedly than the ideals of nationalist music, with which he is historically associated. Mikis Theoro- dakis’s, Three Pieces for December were written before the marking of his contemporary Greek musical identity with Zorbas. This piece responds musically to the battles that took place in December 1944 in Athens between the Greek communists and the police, and explores the triptych struggle / prayer / lament.

Program