Interview with the Newspaper Mesimvrini

Description:

In this interview published by Μεσημβρινή newspaper, Yorgos Sicilianos discusses the premiere of his Violin Concerto Op. 51, performed by Georgios Demertzis and the Athens State Orchestra under the direction of Karolos Trikolidis, set to open the First Balkan Music Festival on April 17, 1989. Sicilianos explains that although the concerto is structured in three movements with a cadenza before the end of the first movement, it deviates from traditional concerto forms. The composition is based on three musical motifs that reappear throughout, creating unity and variety while driving the structural elements of the piece.

Sicilianos highlights the unique inspiration behind the concerto, derived from a play by Samuel Beckett titled That Time, in which the actor uses only facial expressions and movements while the text is heard through three loudspeakers. This theatrical structure influenced Sicilianos’s approach to musical form. He aimed to capture the profound metaphysical anxiety present in Beckett’s work, translating it into a purely musical context. Sicilianos emphasizes that his intention was not to write programmatic music but to convey this deep existential tension as he experienced it.