The catalog of works presented by the Athens State Orchestra on its new platform comprises both contemporary Greek compositions, extending to the youngest generation of composers, and works that take us quite far back in time, even to the 19th century, having remained in obscurity for years. The collection of recorded performances includes hidden gems from the history of Greek music, which are brought back to light thanks to the Orchestra’s archive and the concerted effort to digitize and re-present older concerts.
A wonderful example of early Greek music that largely remains almost unknown and is not often performed in concerts are the operas of Pavlos Carrer, which have only recently found their place in the repertoire of singers and theaters. Carrer (1829 – 1896) was a Greek composer of the Ionian School, who primarily wrote operas. He was particularly popular in 19th-century Greece and had a successful presence in Italy. The Athens State Orchestra revives the performance of the Overture from Isabella of Aspen, from a concert held in 1996, under the artistic direction of Aris Garoufalis.
The ASO platform also gives us the invaluable opportunity to have access to the printed programs of the respective concerts, with very easy access to links directly below each video, from where one can immediately and comprehensively learn about the full program of each concert. In Carrer’s case, we see that on January 27, 1996, at the Athens Concert Hall and under the direction of Byron Fidetzis, the Overture from the opera Maria Antoinette and the Prelude from the opera Isabella of Aspen were presented among arias by Verdi, Bellini, and Puccini. By giving a place to works less known to the general public, such programs also offer the audience an opportunity to discover these “dark corners” of the repertoire.
The rich work of the Ionian composers began to be explored relatively recently, as musicologist George Leotsakos wrote in the program of that specific concert: “In the last decade, Greek musicological research has made great strides in the study of Ionian music: in conjunction with a series of discoveries of lost Ionian works, it dramatically revised decades-old prejudices about the entirety of our music – prejudices that were considered dogmas, while they represented nothing more than self-interests, in a way excusable and certainly interpretable.”
A similar case to Carrer is the Corfiot composer Spyridon Xyndas (1812-1892), who is also represented on the ASO platform with the “Prelude and Overture” from the opera Count Giuliano. This particular concert took place as part of the “Greek Music Festivals” on May 6, 2005, again conducted by Byron Fidetzis at the Athens Concert Hall. Spyridon Xyndas was a student of Nikolaos Mantzaros – the most famous representative of the Ionian School, thanks to the National Anthem – and mainly composed stage works and songs, with clear influences from the melodiousness of Italian melodrama of his era. Many of his songs are settings of important poets such as Dionysios Solomos.
Belonging to the same generation is Alexandros Katakouzenos (1824-1892), who comes from another side of the Greek diaspora. Born in Trieste but of Smyrnaean origin, he studied music in Athens, Paris, and Vienna. He settled in Greece in 1870 at the invitation of Queen Olga, with the aim of taking over the Chapel Choir of the Palace. He contributed to the creation of the Athens Conservatory (1871), where he served as superintendent and professor without remuneration. He sought to blend the melodic harmony of European music with the ecclesiastical tradition. He composed his own works, in which he faithfully preserved the ancient melos, while the influence of Russian Orthodox church music is also evident. Arethousa of Athens, an overture from the eponymous opera available on hub.koa.gr, is written with a purely theatrical aim, to establish the intensity and style of the work from the very first moment. Its form maintains a compact and direct flow, without major digressions.
Thanks to conductors like Byron Fidetzis, this part of modern Greek musical creation largely became an organic part of the concert repertoire, and thanks to the Athens State Orchestra’s platform, these performances are brought back to light and provide an opportunity to explore them.
Visit the new digital platform of the Athens State Orchestra at https://hub.koa.gr/
The project was implemented within the framework of the “Development of Digital Products and Services” program of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan “Greece 2.0” with funding from the European Union-NextGenerationEU.
