Skalkottas: Two Concertos

Featuring

Martyn Brabbins
George Zacharias
Alexandros Koustas
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Nikos Skalkottas

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Performer Biography

George Zacharias, the violinist on this recording, earned a PhD from the Royal Academy of Music for his thesis on Skalkottas's compositional ideology and techniques.

Composition History

After returning to Athens in 1933 due to the rise of Nazism, Skalkottas left many of his early works, including string concertos, with his landlord as a guarantee for unpaid rent.

Compositional Technique

The Concerto for Violin, Viola and Wind Orchestra is one of the first instances in classical music to feature a fully-fledged saxophone section, including soprano, alto, and tenor saxophones.

Composer Biography

Nikos Skalkottas, the composer, was one of Schoenberg's elite composition students but also began his career as a concert-level violinist.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Skalkottas developed an idiosyncratic serial system, described as 'fractal serialism,' which aimed to combine the mathematical structure of serialism with the warmth of tonal romanticism.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Skalkottas's 'Treatise on Orchestration' reveals his concept of 'transcendental sound,' which he defined as a 'unique sphere of musical sound' that governs all music.

Compositional Technique

In the Concerto for Violin, Viola and Wind Orchestra, Skalkottas uses a march-like main subject reminiscent of military bands and a second subject that pays tribute to jazz, which was banned by the Nazi regime at the time.