The cycle Adagio - Music for the days of Easter at the Athens Concert Hall becomes an occasion to search, through this year's events, for common paths between human suffering and Divine Drama, between the folk tradition of the East and Western music, between the music of yesterday and today.
Palm Sunday 17 April is the starting point for a journey through time and the wider Greek region, through the Moiroloi of the Virgin Mary, a rhyming work from the Middle Ages sung by women around the «tomb» of Christ, in the ethos and style of secular dirges.
In this concert, renowned Greek artists will combine most of the known variations in a single narrative form, attempting for the first time to render the entire text of the Oeologion.
The lyre virtuoso Socrates Sinopoulos meets well-known musicians who will create a unique and universal atmosphere in the Dimitris Mitropoulos Hall, with the timbre of the trumpet, which is reminiscent of the ancient or Byzantine trumpet and the bands of Good Friday, coexisting with the sound of traditional percussion from all over the world, as well as with the «voice» of the cello and the lyre.
Katerina Papadopoulou and the Domna Samiou Choir sing.
Participants: Andreas Polyzogopoulos (trumpet), Sofia Evklidou (cello) and Manousos Klapakis (percussion). The musical part is visually accompanied by photographic material by Konstantinos and Petros Sofikitis. The sound design is by Yannis Skandamis. The lighting was designed by Semina Papalexandropoulou. Scientific advisor, Miranda Terzopoulou.
Socrates Sinopoulos and Katerina Papadopoulou (conception, research) are responsible for the music and artistic supervision.
The Shepherdess of the Virgin Mary
O ye lovers, take away the mourning of Despina,
How he weepeth for the only begotten on that cross.
Cyprus
The widespread throughout the Greek area, the Moiroloi of Panagia or Cataloi of Panagia is a medieval long rhyming rhyme of scholarly origin and impressively wide popular acceptance.
Influenced by Gospel passages and ecclesiastical hymnography, it is an anthropocentric narrative lament for the martyrdom of Christ's journey to his death on the cross, seen through the eyes and feelings of his tragic mother. It expresses the compassion, the identification of the women who sing it with the maternal, human side of the Virgin Mary.
Adagio - Music for the days of Easter
Adagio continues on Monday 18 April (8:30 pm) with the concert Cantate Domino, featuring the mezzo Angeliki Kathariou and the Athens String Quartet (Apollo Grammatikopoulos - violin, Panagiotis Tziotis - violin, Paris Anastasiadis - viola and Isidoros Sideris - cello). They will present to the audience Franz Schubert's famous String Quartet No. 14 in D minor, «Death and the Daughter», a cornerstone of the chamber music repertoire, as well as two works by the acclaimed Greek composer Philip Tsalachouris. These are the composition Cantate Domino [Praise the Lord] for voice and string quartet (2019), in its first performance at the Megaron, and the Quartet No. 5, Prayer before the end of thought (2013).
The melodic journey towards Easter and Resurrection will be completed on Good Wednesday, April 20, with the concert of the Athens State Orchestra under the distinguished conductor Myron Michaelides. The orchestra will perform Johannes Brahms« Tragic Overture, Op. 81 and Prelude and Death of Isolde from Richard Wagner's musical drama Tristan and Isolde. The programme concludes with Mozart's swan song, the stirring Requiem. Featuring the soloists: Sofia Kyanidou (treble), Irini Karagianni (mezzo), Vassilis Kavagias (tenor), Christoforos Stamboglis (bass). Together with them, the choirs of ERT and the Municipality of Athens. Prior to the beginning of the concert, a free introductory speech by Titus Gouvelis is scheduled (19:30).
Ticket prices
8 € (students, young people up to 25 years old, unemployed, disabled, 65+, large families), 12 €, 18 €.
Telephone 210 72 82 333, www.megaron.gr
