SKALKOTTAS, Nickolaos
b Halkis, Evia, Greece, 21 March 1904
d Athens, 20 September 1949, aged forty-five
He began studying violin at the age of five and entered the Athens Conservatory at ten, graduating in 1920. In 1921 a scholarship took him to the Hochschule fur Musik in Berlin. In 1925 he gave up a promising career as a violinist to concentrate on composition, and studied privately until 1931, financially aided by a wealthy patron. But hard times followed, and he returned to Athens in 1933, poor and ill. He played back-desk violin in an orchestra and wrote in his spare time. He died of a strangulated hernia.
1924 (20)
String Trio (lost)
String Quartet (lost)
1925 (21)
Violin Sonata
1927 (23)
Piano Sonatina
Fifteen Little Variations for piano
1928 (24)
String Quartet No 1
Sonata No 1 for violin and piano (lost)
Symphonic Suite (lost)
1929 (25)
Concerto for wind (lost)
Little Suite for violin and chamber orchestra (lost)
String Quartet No 2 (lost)
Easy Music, for string quartet (lost)
Sonatina No 1 for violin and piano
Octet for flute, clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, trombone and piano
trio (lost)
Sonatina No 2 for violin and piano
1930 (26)
Concerto for piano, violin and chamber orchestra (lost)
1931 (27)
Piano Concerto No 1
Octet for woodwind quartet and string quartet
1931-4 (27-32)
Thirty-six Greek Dances for orchestra
1935 (31)
Concertino for two pianos and orchestra
Symphonic Suite No 1
String Quartet No 3
String Trio
Sonatina No 3 for violin and piano
Sonatina No 4 for violin and piano
1936 (32)
Piano Trio
Piano Suite No 1
1937-8 (33-4)
Piano Concerto No 2
Violin Concerto
Five Pieces for violin and piano
Suite for cello and piano (lost)
1938 (34)
Cello Concerto (lost)
The Maiden and Death, ballet
Duo for violin and viola
Eight Variations on a Greek Folk Song, for piano trio
1938-9 (34-5)
Piano Concerto No 3
1939 (35)
Three Pieces for violin and piano
Concertino for oboe and piano
1939-40 (35-6)
Concerto for violin, viola, wind and double-bass
Scherzo for piano quartet
1940 (36)
Ten Musical Sketches for string quartet
Piano Suites No 2, 3 and 4
Sonata No 2 for violin and piano
String Quartet No 4
1940-1 (36-7)
Thirty-two Piano Pieces
Four Piano Studies
1941-2 (37-8)
Two Quartets for oboe, bassoon, trumpet and piano
Concertino for trumpet and piano
19412 (37-8)
Largo, for cello and piano
1942 (38)
Little Suite for strings
1942-3 (38-9)
The Return of Ulysses, overture
Double-bass Concerto
1943 (39)
Sonata Concertante for bassoon and piano
1944 (40)
Symphonic Suite No 2
1944-5 (40-1)
Concerto for two violins (piano arrangement only)
1945 (41)
Mikri Serenata, for cello and piano
Bolero, for cello and piano
1946 (42)
Little Suite No 2 for violin and piano
1947 (43)
Four Parties, for violin and cello
Classic Symphony
1947-8 (43 4)
Henry V, incidental music (lost)
1948 (44)
Sinfonietta
Piano Concertino
1948-9 (44-5)
Little Dance Suite for orchestra
1949 (45)
Nocturne-Divertimento, for xylophone and orchestra
The Sea, for orchestra
Sonatina for cello and piano
Zarte Melodie, for cello and piano
Skalkottas also wrote some choral works and songs.