The audience doesn’t want to let the orchestra go. The debut of Greece at the Young Euro Classic festival was so triumphant that the hall light and the conductor’s mask caused by the corona set their mark for the definitive end of the encores. It is a very young youth orchestra that has received such an enthusiastic response.
The Greek Youth Symphony Orchestra (GYSO) was founded only four years ago to familiarize young musical talents in the country with the symphonic and operatic repertoire in rehearsal phases. They study at home and abroad. The GYSO works as Orchestra-in-Residence on the Megaron, the concert hall of Athens. His previous concerts also include concert performances of Mozart’s “Figaro” and “Don Giovanni”.
The Greeks spread a compelling atmosphere on the podium of the concert hall, made up of serious ambition and joy in making music. This is what Dionysis Grammenos, the founder and director of the GYSO, stands for, and its conducting is an informal invitation to accurate performance.
As a compositional contribution from home they bring “Greek Dances” by Nikos Skalkottas. This is a musician who is considered to be the first representative of twelve-tone music in Greece. He was able to develop his personality in Arnold Schönberg’s master class at the Academy of Arts in Berlin. Schoenberg believed in him and his great talent, as did Mikis Theodorakis later. After Schönberg’s flight in 1933, Skalkottas returned to Athens, where he died in 1949. He fell into oblivion here as there, in 1954 Donaueschingen recorded an attempt with his music under Hans Rosbaud.
This Beethoven breathes an astonishing freshness
In the Greek perception today, however, his name exists again, especially with his dances, harmonious, self-confident new creations from the spirit of Hellenic folk music. Five of the 36 “Greek Dances” go across the stage in this concert with brisk energy, rapid pizzicato and pounded rhythms, in the middle “Arkadios” sounds loveliest with finely honed romantic melodies.
A Beethoven interpretation that breathes astonishing freshness succeeds the guests with the “Eroica”. Grammenos, who studied clarinet in Weimar and then turned more to conducting, lets you feel that he comes from the instrument. He maintains the cantability of the solo winds and animates the homogeneous string groups to play the small note values with pinpoint precision. In the finale he surprises with a long general pause before using the oboe, which leads “con espressione” to the triumphant song of the score.
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