The Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra embarked on a particularly interesting musical journey through time, starting from the music of the late Middle Ages and ending in the present day.
This musical journey began with an excerpt from the 'Mass of Our Lady' by Machaut from the late Middle Ages, followed by the motet 'Sicut Servus' by Palestrina from the Renaissance period. The first of the two fantasias by Purcell in the program, No. 7 in C minor, arranged and edited for string orchestra by Demosthenes Fotiadis, took us to the Baroque era.
The central work of the program was the concerto for piano, saxophone quartet, and orchestra 'Isokratima of a Middle-aged Man' (2009) by Giorgos Koumendakis, who was present at the concert, as well as at the recording of the work by the TSSO in the previous days.
After Koumendakis' work, the musical journey continued with a return to the Renaissance and an excerpt from the 'Super Laetatus Sum' Mass for 8 voices by Francesco Leontaritis, in an impressive combination of the music of two Cretan composers separated by half a millennium. This was followed by an excerpt from Carissimi's 'Credo', which served as a bridge to the early Baroque, followed by Purcell's second fantasia, No. 9 in C minor.
This impressive musical journey concluded with Shostakovich's wonderful 'Chamber Symphony', with the audience rewarding the performers with the warmest applause.
The conductor was Konstantinos Terzakis, who received the TSSO Orchestra Award at the recent 'Dimitris Mitropoulos' International Competition, and the soloist on the piano was the great Thessalonian virtuoso Vassilis Varvaresos. The 'Osmosis' Saxophone Quartet participated, with Christos Zenios (soprano saxophone), Antonis Fotiadis (alto saxophone), Theofilos Sotiriadis (tenor saxophone), Giannis Myralis (baritone saxophone), as well as an 8-member ad hoc vocal ensemble under the direction of Sofia Yoldasi, with the following members: Sopranos: Eleni Dimopoulou, Eirini Bilini-Moraiti Altos: Maria-Margarita Kevrekidou, Maria Kondylidou Tenors: Konstantinos Zambounis, Christoforos Psaltopoulos Basses: Alkinoos Papagiannellis, Vangelis Chatzistavrou
