George Tsontakis: Mirologhia; October; Violin Concerto No. 1

George Tsontakis: Mirologhia; October; Violin Concerto No. 1

George Tsontakis: Mirologhia; October; Violin Concerto No. 1
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Composer: George Tsontakis
Conductor: David Alan Miller
Orchestra: Albany Symphony Orchestra
Performer: Colin Currie
Performer: Eleni Calenos
Performer: Cho-Liang Lin
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown)
CD Release Date: 2008-10-28
Music Label: Koch Int'L Classics
Soundtracks:
  1. Mirologhia: I. Introit
  2. Mirologhia: II. Crotales and Angelorum
  3. Mirologhia: III. Soson Kyrie
  4. Mirologhia: IV. Labyrinth
  5. Mirologhia: V. Eonia Imnimi
  6. Mirologhia: VI. Mirologhia
  7. October: I. Autumnal; Shimmering
  8. October: II. Forlorn, but warn
  9. Violin Concerto: I. Both Mysterious & Sweet; Hyper-Fast Obnoxious
  10. Violin Concerto: II. Arresting; Somewhat Dramatic; Mysteriously Calm
  11. Violin Concerto: III. Seething

Music reviews of George Tsontakis: Mirologhia; October; Violin Concerto No. 1

Music Review: Three Works for Large Orchestra by One of America's Finest Composers
Rating: 5 Stars

Writing about music is daunting, particularly when one is trying to describe new music. How in the world does one convey how an unfamiliar piece sounds? It just isn't good enough to say 'this part sounds like Ravel' or 'that part sounds like Messiaen', particularly when such likenesses are only approximate at best. However, that said, I believe I could identify as by him any new piece of George Tsontakis's at fifty paces even if I couldn't put into words how I did it. His sound world is utterly unique to him. And it is utterly beautiful. As I said in an earlier review it is best with Tsontakis's music to sit back and let the music simply wash over you, without your trying to figure out form or construction. Tsontakis has complete command of his materials, is one of the most creative orchestrators currently composing, and has an unfailingly engaging gestural vocabulary. His music repays much repeated listening because he has such a fertile imagination that one hears unexpected new things each time.

'Mirologhia' is a concertante work -- it can't quite be called a concerto, and indeed Tsontakis does not call it that -- for percussion and large orchestra. Colin Currie, the brilliant British percussionist, is the soloist. The subtext of the piece is a woman's lamentation for her dead husband, killed in battle. Both the soloist and the orchestra members are occasionally called upon to sing or chant texts on that subject. The work is in six sections, two of which are short interludes. In the final section a soprano soloist (Eleni Calenos) pours out her grief. The work, like others of Tsontakis's works, e.g., his 'Man of Sorrows' George Tsontakis: Man of Sorrows; Berg Sonata; Webern: Piano Variations or Second Violin Concerto, makes much use of crystalline and delicate sounds from both percussion and the rest of the orchestra, one of Tsontakis's aural fingerprints. The performance by David Alan Miller and the Albany Symphony, and by the soloists, is above criticism.

'October' is a two-section tone poem about the coming of fall in Tsontakis's adopted home of upstate New York, in the Catskills. I is about the ending of summer, II about the approach of winter. Again, we are aware of Tsontakis's fecund imagination in such things as his use of a siren -- what does that represent? I don't know, but it triggers the listener's own imagination -- or in the second section a melody that sounds for all the world like a slight distortion of 'Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.' (Musical quotation and distillation is another of Tsontakis's fingerprints.) And then there are those Tchaikovskian chord progressions. Well, I for one, have always thought Tchaikovsky was an 'autumn composer'. Finally, there is gorgeous use of quiet. Tsontakis says 'All my orchestration is based on soft music and how to blend it. It's quietness that really enters the heart.' 'October' is not only striking, it is profound.

Tsontakis's Second Violin Concerto was recorded previously to great acclaim. George Tsontakis: Violin Concerto No. 2; Clair de Lune; The Past, The Passion Now we get his First Violin Concerto with the marvelous Jimmy Lin as soloist. Like his other concertos, this is not a typical concerto with heroic soloist set against the orchestra with obviously virtuosic ruffles and flourishes. Rather, it is a three-movement tone poem with the violinist as bystander, commentator, muser. Indeed, Tsontakis says "the soloist is an introspective 'anti-hero' ... delivering a message not larger, but *quieter* than life." In contrast to the sensitive comments of the soloist, in the first movement orchestral quotations appear: a silly (and repeated) citation of 'Hurray for Hollywood' makes a purposely vulgar appearance as does the theme song from 'I Love Lucy.' The last part of the first movement is marked 'Obnoxious'. The middle movement is dreamlike and lyrical with orchestra and soloist eventually reaching a fragile concord. The finale, at nine minutes the longest of the three movements, is a nervous moto perpetuo which is restless, edgy, exhortatory. The orchestral 'horn is the first member of the orchestra to grasp the soloist's message' and the cadenza is, surprisingly but fittingly, a duet between violinist and horn. 'The quiet anti-hero is willing to share his cadenza', the composer says. Violin and horn finally get the message across to the orchestra at large that cooperation is better than battle and the work ends with a vigorous peroration.

Once again Tsontakis has triumphed with the great and good help of David Alan Miller, the Albany Symphony, and soloists Cho-Liang Lin, Colin Currie and Eleni Calenos.

Scott Morrison
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