Nikos Skalkottas

[indutrial]

Running a search yielded one rather ancient topic dedicated to this brilliant composer, but I didn't want to be a forum necrophiliac, so here's a new one...

Having finally located copies of all 32 pieces in the '32 Piano Pieces' Skalkottas put together circa 1940 and a few of his excellent chamber works (including the massive bassoon/piano piece, Sonata Concertante), I am finally starting to seriously delve into some of Skalkottas' work and it is really exciting stuff to study. I would go far as to say that some of his pieces (to me) rank amongst the finest compositions I've heard from the first half of the twentieth century. Here's an excerpt from a Musicweb.co.uk review of that specific work's excellent recording by Nikolaos Samaltanos:

"[Skalkottas] is notable for the wit and Mediterranean warmth he brings to his individual treatment of what he learned from Schönberg. He uses a 12-note system of his own and veers between free atonality to multi-serialism, but not eschewing tonal, modal and jazz ingredients. His chords are colourful and the music is characterised by enormous energy and rhythmic subtlety and repays studying at the keyboard (I have Universal 12792, 12958 & 12370). The Thirty-Two Pieces (1940) are exhilarating and even draining to hear straight through, such is their intensity, and the break between the discs comes at just the right moment. They last 95 mins and are intended to be performed as a whole. Their variety is limitless, from baroque passacaglia to tango and jazz. They represent one of the great piano cycles of the century which should take its place alongside those of Albeniz, Shostakovich, Messiaen, Stockhausen and Finnissy."

I'm curious what anybody thinks of Skalkottas' works for piano or otherwise. I'm damned glad that I downloaded a ton of his stuff from EMusic this past month and I'm amazed at the great job BIS has done in putting out so much of his work.

Studying his music has been very difficult, since his harmonic vocabulary is almost wholly non-tonal to some degree. However, it's a far far cry from atonal music, so let's try to avoid bringing that debate into this topic (like it often does with Scriabin/Sorabji topics).

[retrouvailles]

I, too, have downloaded quite a bit of his music. I find his chamber music especially inviting. The way he uses the twelve tone technique is more attractive than I have heard some of the other 2nd Viennese School composers use it. Also, his 32 piano pieces are especially unique. My favorite is probably the ragtime, which shows the sense of humor that he had. I see them as an equivalent to the Messiaen Vingt Regards in terms of their breadth and their meaning. They are extremely varied, as the anecdote mentions. I have also heard some of his orchestral works, some of which are easier to listen to (meaning their tonality and harmonic language is clearer). His music, on the whole, does require some patience though. As a starter, I would recommend his large orchestral work "The Sea", which is very tonal, very grand, very emotional, and very colorfully depicts the ocean. It has quite a bit of nationalist influence, which is something Skalkottas is known for doing, even in his more abstract 12 tone works.

[webern78]

I have some of his orchestral stuff. Not terribly impressive, sounds like a more dissonant Liszt (but paradoxically not as harmonically interesting). I'll have to try his chamber or piano music.

[jaypiano]

I'm with you all in appreciation of the extraordinarily talented but unbelievably underrated Skalkottas.
To my dismay, I see that of his 32 Piano Pieces cycle, I am missing numbers 2, 3, 4, 8 through 13, 16 through 20, 24, 26 through 31.  Could somebody kindly post these?  Thanks!

[indutrial]

I'm with you all in appreciation of the extraordinarily talented but unbelievably underrated Skalkottas.
To my dismay, I see that of his 32 Piano Pieces cycle, I am missing numbers 2, 3, 4, 8 through 13, 16 through 20, 24, 26 through 31.  Could somebody kindly post these?  Thanks!

Most of the 32 Piano Pieces are contained in three volumes that were released by the sadly defunct Margun Music. Those 20-odd parts are not as easy to find as the ones that Universal Edition released, which have been scanned and dispersed all over the net. I've actually had the Margun books out of the library for a while and I need to scan them when I get access to a scanner again. I'll let you know but I can't promise anything in the immediate future.