Nikos Skalkottas – The Sea – Four Images – Cretan Feast – Greek Dance (2005, FLAC)

(http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/855/bk5r.jpg/)

Tracks:

01. 1. Prelude. Moderato maestoso [0:05:03.58]
02. 2. The Child of the Sea. Andantino [0:03:07.56]
03. 3. Dance of the Wave. Allegro molto vivace [0:03:08.42]
04. 4. The Trawl. Moderato andante [0:03:36.51]
05. 5. The Little Fish. Allegretto grazioso [0:02:19.70]
06. 6. The Dolphins. Allegro poco scherzoso [0:05:13.18]
07. 7. Nocturne. Andante molto – Calmo espressivo [0:05:01.52]
08. 8. The Preparation of the Mermaid. Moderato sostenuto [0:02:42.63]
09. 9. Dance of the Mermaid. Allegro molto vivace [0:02:38.29]
10. 10. The Tale of Alexander the Great [0:07:45.23]
11. 11. Finale. Hymn to the Sea. Allegro vivace – poco maestoso – poco calmo [0:04:59.29]
12. 1. The Harvest. Moderato [0:03:27.27]
13. 2. The sowing. Andante [0:05:06.07]
14. 3. The Vintage. Allegro [0:02:41.69]
15. 4. The Grape Stomping. Molto vivace [0:02:42.67]
16. Mitropoulos, Dimitris / Cretan Feast (1919) [0:07:29.73]
17. Greek Dance in Cm (1949) [0:05:38.36]

https://mega.co.nz/#!SBEyHTgY!TltbRiNfKuzBVqZzGRa-G0vfsk1wncJj0Xgi0miBIVE

———- Post added at 02:13 AM ———- Previous post was at 02:13 AM ———-

There is a large part of Skalkottas’s oeuvre that is seriously dissonant. It made quite an impact in the 1960s and 1970s in the UK when revived on the BBC by Dorati and others. Separate from that strain this Greek composer also wrote in a grateful lyrical idiom in touch with the song and dance of his homeland. This can be heard in his large collection of Greek Dances.

It is this raw, dancing and whirling energy that we catch in the 45 minute ballet suite of The Sea, written in 1948 and orchestrated the next year. The style combines Bart�k, Khachaturian and Tchaikovsky in a romantic package which is sometimes grand and sometimes frivolously playful as in The Little Fish. There is a throaty little central serenade in the otherwise raucous Dance of the Mermaid. The Tchaikovskian lead soldiers seems raucously to the fore in The Dolphins. The Nocturne (tr. 7) is epic and seriously reflective of the sea’s power and great distances. The music for the Preparation of the Mermaids in tr. 8 sounds as if ready made for a Ray Harryhausen animated fight sequence. The sinuous Sheherazade-like violin solo in The Tale of Alexander the Great recalls the fantasy of Rimsky’s Sadko and Stravinsky’s Rossignol. The final Hymn to the Sea is brazen and alive with a pomp that does not sound entirely natural from this composer. Once again the leader of the Iceland Symphony Gudn� Gudmundsd�ttir is to the fore.

The Four Images are from the same period as The Sea. This is effectively another folksy dance suite in the varied manner of the thirty-six Greek Dances: hammered, exhausting energy and amorous serenades. Nielsen’s Aladdin came to mind more than once as also do the more terpsichorean Canteloube songs and Arnold’s national dances. This is light music with a foot that keeps switching into the serious. The harmony is far from bland – its accents have learnt from Bart�k and yet more from Kod�ly.

Cretan Feast is a work by Mitropoulos. This is a stormily and rapturously surging work with more than a little indebtedness to Tchaikovsky and Nielsen at their most tempestuous.

The grand Greek Dance in C minor romps along in rustling Dvoř�kian colours. The writing is not quite as tangy as in the main sequence of 36 Greek Dances but it is uproarious and would make a fine and unhackneyed encore at a Prom concert ….. if only!

This along with the masterly Thirty-Six Greek Dances is one of the easiest approaches to the genius of Skalkottas.