Concertino for Violin and Eleven Woodwind Instruments, KCN 58

In the late 1940s—a decade marked in Greece by violent wars and profound social transformations—Greek musical creation gradually and irrevocably distanced itself from the aesthetic models of the long-dominant “National School,” turning instead toward modernism and contemporary compositional trends. Among the first composers to contribute decisively to this transition was Leonidas Zoras.

   A spiritual heir to Manolis Kalomiris, Zoras had established himself in the consciousness of both the musical community and the public before the Second World War as a composer of strongly national character through works such as the songs for voice and piano Sketches (1925–36) and the symphonic compositions Greek Dance (1931) and Legend (1939). However, the composition studies he pursued at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik (1938–40) with H. Grabner, as well as privately with B. Blacher, broadened his horizons towards the contemporary musical trends of his time.

   Absorbed in his work as a conductor at the Greek National Opera during the early 1940s, Zoras returned to composition with renewed vigour in 1947. With the symphonic suite In the Fields (1947), the first version of Symphony No. 1 (1947), and the song cycle Nostalgic Songs (1948), he aesthetically reaffirmed his earlier compositional identity. Between 1950 and 1952, however, he entered a period of intense experimentation that would lead to a definitive transformation of his compositional style. The first work of this new creative phase was the Concertino for Violin and Eleven Woodwind Instruments or Piano (KCN 58 and 59).

   Drawing upon his extensive experience as a conductor, Zoras renews the timbral dimension of the conventional three-movement concerto form in this work by pairing the virtuosic violin writing with an ensemble of eleven woodwind instruments. A representative example of neoclassicism owing to the strict structural organisation that characterises all three movements, the Concertino frequently pushes tonality to its limits. Its coherence derives from the lucid and finely crafted thematic material of each movement, which undergoes constant transformation through variation and contrapuntal intensification, often obscuring the sense of a tonal centre through continuous transposition. The refined and transparent orchestration allows the violin line to breathe freely while engaging in compelling dialogues with the wind instruments.

   A study of the surviving manuscripts suggests that the composer conceived both versions of the work simultaneously. He recorded detailed orchestration notes in the piano score, but postponed finalizing the full orchestral score until performance opportunities arose.

   In the early 1950s, the activity of foreign cultural and other institutions in Athens enriched the city’s musical life by introducing contemporary repertoire and new aesthetic trends. During the 1952–53 season, the United States Information Service (U.S.I.S.) inaugurated a concert series entitled “Greek and American Contemporary Composers”. It was within this context, on 23 January 1953, that the Concertino received its premiere performance with soloist Spyros Krassas, a distinguished violinist and brother of Zoras’s future wife, Marina, to whom the work is dedicated. The composer’s modern aesthetic profile during this period is further completed by two additional recent works for voice and piano, both of which occupy a significant place within the Greek musical avant-garde. These are Instantaneous (1950)—perhaps the first setting of poetry by George Seferis in Greek art music, in which the composer explores the vocal miniature through concise haiku texts—and The Offering (1952), where the free verse of G. Th. Vafopoulos provides the stimulus for experimentation with Sprechgesang and free rhythmic flow (without time signature, barlines, or note values). Although audiences enthusiastically embraced Zoras’s new works, his emerging creative mark surprised contemporary critics and provoked divided reactions: M. Peranthis and A. Lalaouni praised the compositions, whereas M. Dounias considered them to be “moving within a field of dangerous experimentation.” Zoras himself, however, expressed confidence in the Concertino by publishing the version for violin and piano in Berlin in 1962.

SOFIA KONTOSSI