ConcertPulse
Constantinos Carydis
“Sing about your country, your native soil!,” could be the subtitle of the Greek conductor Constantinos Carydis’ programme. These are the words with which a kindred spirit encouraged the composer Joseph Canteloube to engage in his passion for the folk songs of his French homeland. In his arrangement, Canteloube wanted to “adorn the beauty of the songs from Auvergne, collected between 1923 and 1930, with the greatest possible natural poetry.” Nikos Skalkottas’ Four Images also transport us to a rural setting: harvest, sowing, grape harvest, and wine pressing are the four stages depicted in these impressions of Greece, composed in 1948. The climax of the evening is marked by the celebration of the “Legend of Rome” in Ottorino Respighi’s opulent instrumental color, inspired by magical places and the need to translate “truth into sound.”
