Are there truly festive festivals? In an era where travel is becoming increasingly easy and concerts are multiplying with evenings that increasingly resemble one another, a festival aiming to radiate beyond its local audience is not enough to invite renowned artists; it must combine an inventive program with the uniqueness of its venue. And for this very reason, the evening presented at the Ecclesiasteion of Ancient Messene by the Kalamata International Music Days on the penultimate day of this year’s calendar summer was a truly festive one.
At the heart of the program was the internationally renowned cellist Jean-Guihen Queyras, known for his interpretations of Johann Sebastian Bach’s works as well as contemporary repertoire. These two dimensions of his activity defined the content of the evening, which began with the Suite for Solo Cello No. 2 in D minor BWV 1008. There was great curiosity about the acoustics of the small stone, and now open-air, theater.
The sound of the cello was heard with terrifying immediacy, as if we were hearing the sound directly from the instrument’s strings. With absolute technical security, Queyras exploited this condition to convey a deep sense of introspection, and his interpretation, with its wealth of refined chiaroscuro and the earthy timbres of the cello, often brought to mind the sound of the viola da gamba of the French “classical” 17th century.
Making a small leap of two and a half centuries, but an even greater one in terms of style, Queyras and soprano Ema Nikolovska performed Jing for voice and cello, a relatively early song (1979) by Kaija Saariaho set to Chinese poetry translated into Finnish – a work of contemporary music with great technical demands for both performers, who achieved complete osmosis, as Nikolovska’s voice embraced the sound of the cello and simultaneously the entire Ecclesiasteion. In Maurice Ravel’s Sonata for Violin and Cello, Queyras collaborated for the first time with the charismatic Jonian Ilias Kadesha in a performance of great expressive intensity, based on the contrasting musical characters of the two performers.
This beautiful evening concluded with an ensemble of eight cellos from Queyras’s masterclass, led by him, who, together with Nikolovska, performed the famous Aria and Cantilena from Heitor Villa-Lobos’s Bachiana Brasileira No. 5 – thus returning to the great Baroque composer as a timeless source of inspiration.
As I later had the opportunity to discuss with Nikolovska and her accompanying pianist Cole Knutson the experience of the dry acoustics of ancient theaters, the Canadian aptly told me: you feel completely naked – but in some cases, you might even like that. He did not play that day, but he actively participated as an accompanying pianist in the lyrical singing masterclass held as part of the festival. I attended a lesson on Monday, September 1, in the beautiful neoclassical building of the Municipal Conservatory behind the Church of Ypapanti.
Nikolovska did not focus on purely technical issues, but in that particular session, the content of her teaching concerned what we might call the de-institutionalization or de-conservatory-ization of the singer.
Nikolovska’s instruction was to ask each participant – or rather, female participant – to sing a favorite song in her native language and then combine it with the aria or song she had chosen, often even exchanging the words of the aria and music with the lyrics of the song, and sometimes rewriting the aria’s lyrics in simpler everyday language. A communicative approach, since lyrical theater is what its name implies – theater, and not simply some old lyrics set to a beautiful melody.
In contrast, I only experienced the cello masterclass by Queyras through its result, from the wonderful concert on the evening of Friday, August 30, in the small hall, Alternative Stage of the Kalamata Dance Megaron. It was a remarkable artistic experience, and the only thing that distinguished it from a regular concert was that the number of participants required most to play a selection from a work rather than the entire piece. Six musicians participated in order of appearance: Christy Choi, Ramiro Carbone, David Rebull, William Chen, Noah Lee, and Lyana Ulikhanyan.
The latter, though the youngest, stole the show with her virtuosity and maturity. The thirteen-year-old first played Paul Hindemith’s sonata and then a composition by her father, Martin Ulikhanyan, a distinguished Armenian composer, the dance Berd, which he wrote especially for her. Berd means wall and somewhat resembles our Pontic dances. Thus, we also had a world premiere at a masterclass concert. If the thirteen-year-old continues like this, she will surely make people talk about her and make her father even more famous. The work and the entire evening were tirelessly accompanied by pianist Apostolia Anastasiou, an excellent musician and attentive accompanist.
This year, for the first time, a competition was also held – won by the lied performance duo Maryam Jalalikandy and Pavlos Mastroyiannis. I had heard the Iranian singer, who studies in Stuttgart, as did the pianist, last year at the International Opera Workshop in Waiblingen, and she was indeed noteworthy. I regretted not hearing her competition program in the final (August 27, 2025, Dance Megaron, Alternative Stage), where they had the flexibility to perform six repertoire songs (while the instruments played excerpts of works). The jury consisted of Felix Froschhammer (violin), Vashti Hunter (cello), and the Kalamata baritone Dimitris Platanias. Opponents in the final were Elie Hackel (violin) and Noah Lee (cello).
The evening of Sunday (August 31) with cellist Hugo Rannou and percussionist Emil Kuyumcuyan was also exceptionally festive. The programming had a conceptual echo from the previous day’s concert, as the program here also featured a Bach suite – the second lute suite in E minor transcribed for cello and percussion, which here highlighted – especially the marimba – their melodic dimension – and the rest was dedicated to contemporary music, including a composition by Rannou himself, Sprich meinem Namen aus (Speak my name, 2018) which received its world premiere. Also Riff (augmented) by Bastien David (2019), Louxor j’ adore by Philippe Katerine (2005), and two transcriptions of two very popular songs, La valse à mille temps by Jacques Brel and Griechischer Wein by Udo Jürgens.
Emil Kuyumcuyan, Hugo Rannou
Here we enjoyed new music as a field of experimentation, expression, and creative freedom. A cohesive program, very well-executed and with astonishingly well-assimilated “extended techniques” of many instruments, which included the performers themselves. This is somewhat more impressive than it sounds or appears at first glance: having two people say wawa in perfect synchronization is not as simple as it might seem to some.
Both the artistic excellence and the genuine sense of artistic freedom and enjoyment that it inspired in the performers were dominant and contagious to the audience, resulting in all of us sharing a very pleasant experience of contemporary music.
It should be noted here that this experimental evening was one of those with an entrance fee, which did not at all deter adventurous listeners of all ages from filling the small hall. It was an audience with artistic curiosity that stayed until the end and watched attentively and enthusiastically, which indicates a truly musical city. After all, it was not the first time I attended a concert in Kalamata, which has a musical audience capable of appreciating the work done by the team that founded and directs the Kalamata International Music Days: Stathis Gyftakis, Indira Rahmatulla, Dimitris Lambos.
