Composer Nikos Skalkottas is known outside Greece largely for the 36 Greek Dances, a dozen of which appear here. They are sprightly, distinctive works, influenced by Bartók but taking a step back in the direction of popular style, and they are given idiomatic performances here by the Athens State Orchestra and conductor Stefanos Tsialis. However, there is more to Skalkottas than these, and the Athens group is to be commended for undertaking what is apparently going to be a Skalkottas series (this is the second album to ...
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Composer Nikos Skalkottas is known outside Greece largely for the 36 Greek Dances, a dozen of which appear here. They are sprightly, distinctive works, influenced by Bartók but taking a step back in the direction of popular style, and they are given idiomatic performances here by the Athens State Orchestra and conductor Stefanos Tsialis. However, there is more to Skalkottas than these, and the Athens group is to be commended for undertaking what is apparently going to be a Skalkottas series (this is the second album to appear). Skalkottas was a student of Schoenberg and was influenced in his youth by the Second Viennese School. The Suite No. 1 for large orchestra that closes the program is a transitional work that includes both 12-tone and tonal elements; it is not immediately arresting, but the performance here gives a feel for what young composers must have felt as they tried to negotiate the multiplicity of styles they heard in the 1920s. The work was not premiered until the 1970s, and it receives...
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![Skalkottas: Dances of Waves [Athens State Orchestra; Stefanos Tsialis] [Naxos: 8574182]](https://www0.alibris-static.com/cover/o78500sbusx_t.jpg)
