From Berlin to Athens - Piano Works by Nikos Skalkottas

Nikos SKALKOTTAS (1904-1949)

From Berlin to Athens

Griechische Suite (1924) 

(Suite) for piano (1924) 

Sonatina (1927) 

15 Kleine Variationen für Klavier (1927) 

Suite no.2 for piano solo (1940) 

Suite no.3 for piano solo (1941) 

Suite no.4 for piano solo (1941) 

The Gnomes: Dance Suite for solo piano (c.1939) 

Lorenda Ramou (piano)

Recorded: 2017, Reitstadel, Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz, Germany

Review:

Eighty-eight minutes? Well, 87'43" of intelligently programmed piano music by Skalkottas, including three world premieres, complementing BIS’s previous groundbreaking releases from Nikolaos Samaltanos (11/01) and Lorenda Ramou herself (12/06). The programme falls into three phases, not quite chronologically arranged. First come four works from his Berlin student period: the delightful Greek Suite (1924), one of his earliest surviving compositions, a vibrant reflection of trends in Greek music of the time. Even more striking is the slightly incomplete piece known as (Suite) – the first two pages are missing – of the same year with its grave and haunting central Molto moderato and whimsical virtuoso finale, Shimmy tempo. (Skalkottas did ‘jazz’ – who knew?)

The Sonatina and Fifteen Little Variations date from 1927 and appeared in BIS’s series before. They show a growth in expressive and technical refinement in Skalkottas’s piano-writing, features which flowered in the works in the second part of the recital, Suites Nos 2 4 (1940 41), composed in Athens. Unrelated to the Suite No 1 (1936, 11/01), Nos 2 4 chart a stylistic move from expressionism to a more objective neoclassicism. Unlike the Berlin suites and Sonatina, these later works are all in four movements, more varied in format. Finally, from 1939, comes Skalkottas’s original dance suite for the children’s ballet The Gnomes, which Yannis Samprovalakis unearthed in 2015. It was rejected as too advanced for children and replaced by the more familiar score, based around arrangements of several pieces from Bartók’s For Children (3/05). Written in the hybrid manner combining nationalist and expressionist elements featured in other scores of the period, this is not top-drawer Skalkottas, perhaps, but is entertaining nonetheless.

Ramou navigates her way through these sometimes knotty scores, which she clearly knows inside-out, with consummate musicianship. The piano tone is warm and full although the over-resonant acoustic is not ideal (Samaltanos fared better). However, with BIS’s superb recorded sound, every nuance is captured in a constantly fascinating and rewarding issue.

Guy Rickards (Gramophone)