The subtitle "The Neoclassical Skalkottas" on this Naxos release could refer to this composer's work in general: he has been considered an avant-garde composer as a result of his links to the Second Viennese School, or as a later exemplar of Greek nationalism, but there was always a particularly joyous strain of neoclassicism in his music, and these four works, although all from the last few years of his life point to it and to the fact that Skalkottas merged all these various trends in his music. There is a good deal of ...
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The subtitle "The Neoclassical Skalkottas" on this Naxos release could refer to this composer's work in general: he has been considered an avant-garde composer as a result of his links to the Second Viennese School, or as a later exemplar of Greek nationalism, but there was always a particularly joyous strain of neoclassicism in his music, and these four works, although all from the last few years of his life point to it and to the fact that Skalkottas merged all these various trends in his music. There is a good deal of dissonance in this music, which doesn't sound much like Ravel or the German Neue Sachlichkeit that influenced Skalkottas. Instead, he cultivates a propulsive, brass- and wind-heavy sound that suggests the celebratory quality of ancient Greek drama. Direct folk influences are restricted to the Four Images for orchestra and the little Ancient Greek March for chamber orchestra that brings down the curtain, but there is a happy, lively quality to the Sinfonietta in B flat major for...
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![Skalkottas: Neoclassical Works [Ioannis Karampetsos; Athens State Orchestra; Stefanos Tsialis] [Naxos: 8574154]](https://www4.alibris-static.com/cover/o62038of3br_t.jpg)
