ALKIS BALTAS, composer

PIANO TRIO AND STRING QUARTET

ATHENS TRIO

Harris Hadjigeorgiou, violin

Dana Hadjigeorgiou, cello

Vicky Stylianou, piano

STRING QUARTET "+KINISIS"

Odysseas Korelis, violin

Franz Shestani, violin

Ilias Sdoukos, viola

Vangjel Nina, cello

The album PIANO TRIO AND STRING QUARTET includes two chamber music works. The Piano Trio was written in 1989 in Thessaloniki and is dedicated to the Athens Trio. It is a composition that refers to the personal experiences of the composer. The composition is divided into five sections that follow each other without interruption:

Introduction: based on the emotionally disturbed motif that the violin presents at the beginning of the work and continues with the entry of the cello and later the piano.

Passacaglia: although the work is not a twelve-tone composition, a twelve-tone sequence is heard from the piano which is freely repeated 14 times, as a persistent thought in which the mind is trapped. The violin and cello have strongly free parts that distract the listener so that the line of the persistent bass (passacaglia) always remains "hidden" in the second sound level. This disturbed part reaches a climax, as an expression of emotional despair.

Intermezzo: with a short bridge that relieves us of the previous turbulent section, we are led to the center of the whole work where the piano often plays the c minor chord. A symbol of hope and anticipation of redemption.

Development: with a very short musical passage (violin sul ponticello and cello con sordino and then with sharp and strong chords of the c minor on the piano), we are led to the development part (Allegro). Previous ideas are developed and often mutate in a melodic and rhythmic way.

Repeated exposure - Coda: without interruption follows the last part of the work (Meno mosso). It is also a brief reminder of the main musical ideas of the composition. It begins with the reappearance of the work’s motif of the beginning which, this time, is heard simultaneously with the twelve-cord series.

After - for the last time - the slow sound of the c minor chord, the coda follows. At very low volume and with slow notes the work closes gently and the music goes off with a cluster stroke in the very low area of the piano.

The first form of String Quartet was written in 2000. The composer decided to rework the composition in the summer of 2008. Some of the original ideas of the composition were kept, others not. The current form of the quartet is almost completely different from the previous one, in 2000.

The quartet consists of two parts, a fast, a slow and an epilogue (coda). The parts follow each other without interruption. The quartet is dominated by the musical idea which appears in the first meters of the work and then receives a continuous motif processing.

Immediately after the impetuous and full of energy first part (molto energico), a bridge follows which, without interruption, leads to the slow second part. This intermediate part of the work consists of short solos (cadences) of the four instruments. These little monologues are connected to each other with a slide up or down and represent the composer's thought on his teenage memories, when, in his paternal house, he (2nd violin) together with his Mother (1st violin), Father (viola) and his brother (cello) played, every Sunday, classical and romantic quartets. The same symbolism refers to the consonant minor sonorities that are heard from time to time during the whole work. The slow part of the quartet (lento) begins with a calm melodic counterpoint plot to lead, later, to a dramatic climax. Without interruption, an extended epilogue (coda, molto adagio) of the work follows. Its character is mournful and a persistent melodic and rhythmic pattern dominates here. With a constant decrease in dynamics the music will disappear, like a candle flame that flickers until it goes out completely. (Alkis Baltas)

Product details

01. Piano Trio [16:52]

02. String Quartet [24:41]

Total time: [41:37]