It was not all that
long ago that I reviewed a double CD of these dances. Bis gave
us all three sets plus alternative versions of dances II/8, II/9;
III/6 (1949). A substantial and deeply different bonus came in
the form of the plungingly dissonant The
Return of Ulysses - a so-called Overture for Orchestra. The
Athens-based Lyra company are already at a disadvantage as against
the Bis. Lyra give you less Skalkottas for your dollar, euro or
pound. In addition Bis have excellent international distribution
and Lyra CDs are a very rare bird outside Greece and probably
sparsely available even there. That I know about the Lyra set
at all is down to John G Deacon, former director of EMI Greece
and founder of the much-lamented Conifer Records, who wrote to
put me right when I claimed that the Bis set was the world premiere
recording of the dances; see Mr Deacon’s highly informative note
at the end of my Bis review: www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2003/Aug03/skalkottas_odysseus.htm
These Greek Dances and Kalomiris’s Levendia
symphony are probably the most celebrated Greek classical
works of the twentieth century. The conductor-composer Walter
Goehr - father of the composer Alexander Goehr - once stated that
Skalkottas’s dances could easily become as widely appreciated
and popular as Borodin's Polovtsian
Dances or Dvořák's Slavonic
Dances. This judgement is borne out in part by the many forms
in which the Greek Dances have been recorded. Reportedly there
have been thirty recordings of them in multifarious various
arrangements by the composer and others; everything from band
to violin and piano; from symphony orchestra to string orchestra.
In 1957 twelve of them were
recorded by the Greek-born conductor Gregory Millar conducting
the Little Symphony Orchestra of San Francisco. Dimitri Mitropoulos
and the New York Philharmonic recorded four of them in 1955 as
part of the 1955 Athens Festival, a recording released in 1958
and reissued in a commemorative CD in 1990. However until the
Bis CD appeared this Lyra disc was the sole complete recording
of the 36 Greek Dances.
Of recent years Skalkottas
has been well served on record largely due to the generous activity
of Bis. However Bis are not alone on this and were certainly not
first. Some of you may recall a Greek EMI box of Skalkottas chamber
music on LP circa 1976. This has not, as far as I am aware, been
reissued on CD. A fuller conspectus of Skalkottas on record can
be found here:
There is also a list of the Bis CDs at the end of my Skalkottas
review - URL above.
These
dances should appeal to listeners who already appreciate Eshpai,
Enescu, Janáček or Kodály with occasional infusions of Stravinsky
and even Vaughan Williams and Copland. The dances look both east
and west with Turkish and Islamic twists on the one hand and western
elements such as the familiar
Stravinskian stomp of The
Rite of Spring. The Kodály of Galanta
and The Peacock is
recalled time and again (tr. Messolonghitikos,
Set 3 No. 11) as also are the dance suites of the Portuguese composer
de Freitas Branco.
In
the Fidetzis recordings we get a wild and woolly, and sometimes
a pretty splashy and approximate approach. The Bis versions sound
so much more buttoned down and prepared though by no means unspontaneous.
The whole point is that we should surely catch the skirl, harshness,
rough and bellicose rustic flavour. Village festivities, bear
dances, threadbare town bands, wheezing woodwind contributions,
rubicund faces, wine and night-time carousal should all be there.
Arguably that is exactly what Fidetzis and Lyra deliver - knockabout
and rowdy to the core (try Vlachikov
- CD1 tr. 17). Brusque dissonances are lavished to grand effect
in the tragic Tsamikos II of the Second Set (CD 2 tr.
3) and in the barking horn propulsion and eerie wind instrument
skirling of Peloponnisiakos (CD 2 tr. 6). And is there
a Mexican overlay in Chostianos
(CD2 tr. 8) - a certain Copland composition leaps to mind.
A dervish-whirl of Kleftikos I (CD2 tr. 9) compares with another
of those shimmering dawn mists half RVW-Tallis and half Canteloube
in Mariori Mou (set. 2 No. 4)
The
rhythmic element in these dances is presented undiluted and with
all its ragged edges. String contributions are not polished and
sophisticated - try the Thessalikos, Set 1 (CD1 tr. 12). Tricky
rhythms throw the players and ensemble can slip drastically out
of focus. The Nissiotikos of the Second Set has the French
Horn under great strain (CD1 tr. 16). The Syrtos of Set 2 (CD1 tr. 13) is reminiscent of Khachaturian. The Cretikos III (no. 3 of the second set)
creates a shimmering misty outdoor picture which recalls both
Canteloube and Guridi. Other voices we may think of while listening
include Malcolm Arnold’s various sets of British Isles dances
and the string writing of Alan Hovhaness.
The
Bis documentation is good. Lyra however pull out all the stops.
While the quality of reproduction of the many photographs they
use is not up to Bis standard the many they do use are fascinating.
The notes are in Greek and English. They go into satisfyingly
deep detail. The reminiscences of conductor Byron Fidetzis are
well worth spending tome with.
Ultimately
not recommendable in the face of withering competitive fire from
the Bis set which gives these vigorous and gaudily painted dances
in more polished performances - though by no means quite as spontaneous
- and tops off the recommendation by providing the Odysseus overture
and the three alternative versions of the Dances.
Rob Barnett
Full Track Listing
CD 1
1st SERIES
An Eagle, tsamikos dance* Cretan dance I* Epirot dance I*
Peloponnesian dance I* Cretan dance II Klephtic dance II
Siphnian dance I Kalamatianos dance The dance of Zalongos
Macedonian I Boys, who threw it (Cretan Dance V) Thessalina dance
2nd SERIES
Syrtos dance Siphnian dance II (At Aghia Markella) Cretan dance III (I'll get up at the break of dawn)
Island dance (A girl from Mylopotamos)
Vlach dance Black Kerchief
CD 2
2nd SERIES
Kathistos dance Chiot dance (A ship from Chios) Tsamikos dance II (Down at the large plain)
Table dance (Cretan dance IV) Macedonian II (The Doe) Peloponnesian II (Lyngos, the handsome youth)
3rd SERIES
Dance from Hosti Epirot dance II Klephtic dance I
My Mariori, my Mariori Down in the Valtos villages Macedonian dance III
Chiot dance II (Down on the beach, short one)
Klephtic dance III The Kiss under the bitter orange tree
Arcadian dance Messolonghian dance Mazochtos (I'll turn into a swallow)
[* Performance according to the 1948 French Institute
Edition]
Urals State Philharmonic Orchestra (Sverdlovsk)/Byron Fidetzis
