This year’s Meleagris Art Festival – Concerts at the Farm concludes at the blooming Meleagris farm with ‘Anthology… Bach!’, a summer concert dedicated to the leading Baroque composer, taking place on June 22, the day after World Music Day, symbolically extending its celebration. The evening opens with the emblematic Cello Suite No. 3 for solo cello, ‘socializes’ with the imaginative Piano Concertos BWV 1056 and BWV 1052, and spiritually culminates with chorales from the Passions and cantatas. Featuring the Sinfonietta Athinon under the musical direction of Giorgos Aravidis, Christoforos Mirosnikov on cello, Magda Nikolaidou on piano, and the Choir of the Erateio Conservatory.
This year’s Meleagris festival has so far moved in the spirit of romanticism, but now it concludes with a tribute to Johann Sebastian Bach on Music Day. Should we see this as a return to the source from which the romanticism of Schumann and Brahms also began?
Magda Nikolaidou: I would say yes. Bach is one of the fundamental sources of European musical thought. It is no coincidence that composers like Schumann and Brahms studied his work in depth and drew from it not only technical elements but also an entire way of musical thinking. By concluding this year’s festival with Bach, we are not simply returning to the past; we are returning to a living source that continues to nourish musical creation to this day.
Giorgos Aravidis: Bach was, is, and will be the source of music, the teacher of teachers, the Einstein of Music!
Indeed, we will have the opportunity to hear three different versions of Bach: the religious composer of chorales, the secular composer of concertos, and the experimental composer of music for solo instruments.
Magda Nikolaidou: One of the most fascinating elements of Bach is precisely this multifaceted identity. The same composer can express the deepest religious contemplation, create works of brilliant secular virtuosity, and at the same time transform a solo work into a laboratory of musical ideas. Despite his different facets, behind all of them, the same sense of architectural balance and inner necessity is discernible.
Especially for the suite, some emphasize spiritual transcendence, while others focus on dance rhythms. How do you approach this?
Christoforos Mirosnikov: For me, these two are inseparable. Bach wrote these works as suites, and their basis is undoubtedly dance. Each movement is born from a specific dance character, a pulse, and a movement. If one ignores this dimension, they risk losing the natural breath and vitality of the music. At the same time, what makes Bach unique is his ability to transform something earthly into something otherworldly. In my opinion, music is not created mechanically or simply by learning the rules of composition. It is an expression of speech, song, dance, emotion, love, faith, and observation of the world through sound. It reflects our connection with other people and with nature. It conveys knowledge we have historically inherited and inspiration drawn from cultures that have been shaped over centuries.
In practice, how do these two elements balance?
Christoforos Mirosnikov: Dance rhythms provide the material foundation, but through the architecture of the music, its harmonic progression, and the depth of its expression, they are transformed into a vehicle for something that transcends dance itself. Even if one chooses to view the Suites exclusively as dances, an absolutely realistic approach is impossible, as both the performer and the audience would have to travel approximately three hundred years back in time to find themselves in a 17th or 18th-century ballroom. That is why, instead of choosing between dance and spiritual transcendence, I prefer to embark on a journey where the physical and the metaphysical coexist.
Although we won’t be in a church, we will be in Nature, with musical forces that approach those with which we believe Bach operated. When interpreting old music, where does the authenticity of the approach lie? You said we cannot travel 300 years back.
Christoforos Mirosnikov: Authenticity is one of the most fascinating yet demanding concepts in the interpretation of early music. We often associate it with period instruments, historical treatises, the venues for which the music was written, or the performance practices of a specific era. All these are important because they help us understand the language in which the work was born. At the same time, absolute historical authenticity is impossible. We do not live in Bach’s world, we do not share his cultural environment, and we cannot hear music with 18th-century ears. What we can do, however, is approach music with humility, curiosity, and respect for its historical context. In this sense, authenticity is the continuous search for a deeper understanding of music and the willingness to convey this understanding honestly to others. Perhaps this balance between respect for tradition and the courage of renewal is something we can learn from Bach himself.
Magda Nikolaidou: This is a big discussion. Today we know much more about historical performance practices than musicians did a few decades ago. However, authenticity is not only found in reproducing historical data. It lies primarily in the effort to understand the logic, rhetoric, and spirit of this music. I have concluded that historical knowledge is valuable, but music only comes alive when it meets the contemporary performer and today’s listener.
In works like the piano concerto, what additional challenge does the use of the modern piano pose, or not pose?
The modern piano possesses far greater sonic capabilities than the keyboard instruments Bach knew. This is both an advantage and a challenge. The performer is called upon to utilize the richness of the modern instrument without losing the clarity of the voices, the dance-like quality of the rhythm, and the rhetorical clarity that characterize Bach’s music.
I often wonder: what would Bach have written if he had a modern piano at his disposal? Knowing his inexhaustible imagination and his continuous willingness to experiment, it is difficult to believe that he would have ignored the expressive possibilities of such an instrument. The challenge for us today is not to limit the piano, but to use its capabilities in a way that serves the spirit of the composer’s music.
The concert will conclude with chorales. Tell us more about the identity of the participating ensembles.
Giorgos Aravidis: The Sinfonietta Athinon Orchestra participates in the concert, founded in 2005 by me, having specialized over the years in Baroque repertoire works and having performed Bach’s piano concertos many times in the past. His Piano Concertos, especially those in D minor and F minor, which will be performed at the concert, are a real challenge for both the pianist and the conductor who continuously journey together until the final climax!
The Vocal Ensemble of the “Erateio” Conservatory, consisting of young voices with a love and passion for choral and vocal music, participates in the chorales. Bach’s chorales are included in his major works, from cantatas to oratorios and Passions. The culmination of harmony and the religious devotion they contain represent the supreme creation in this distinct and special form of music.
Magda Nikolaidou: The choir’s participation arose from the very beautiful proposal of conductor Giorgos Aravidis. Discussing the concert program, we considered it particularly important to give a platform to young musicians who are still in the stage of their education and artistic development. Thus, we decided to include students from the Erateio Conservatory, giving them the opportunity to participate in a demanding production and to experience Bach’s work through the live experience of the concert. The preparation of the choir has been undertaken by Erateio Conservatory professor Adriana Kandyla, who worked with particular care and dedication for the presentation of the evening’s chorales.
So there will also be an educational dimension to the evening.
Magda Nikolaidou: The collaboration of the young choristers with the Sinfonietta Athinon under the musical direction of Giorgos Aravidis creates particular joy, as it fosters a creative environment for experienced and younger musicians to meet around Bach’s work. At Meleagris, we believe that supporting the new generation of artists is an essential part of our mission. Education, artistic practice, and communication between different generations of musicians are not separate activities, but facets of the same cultural process.
And always at Meleagris, where culture meets nature.
Giorgos Aravidis: Yes. The natural setting of Meleagris offers an enjoyable listening experience of Bach’s music, performed by natural musical instruments, without sound reinforcement, proving in the most splendid way that music is a natural phenomenon!
