WITH A TWIST@ MEGARON UNDERGROUND
ADAGIO – MUSIC FOR EASTER
The annual Adagio Cycle combines religious and lay works, in search of the Divine and the Human Passion.
In the Understage area of the Alexandra Trianti Hall, the musical saw in the hands of Nikos Giousef, and accompanied by piano, samplers and analog synthesizers, is transformed into a voice. ‘An otherworldly child’s voice’, ‘a Siren’s voice’ or ‘a castrato voice’, as it has been described, it easily climbs to tonic heights that the human voice can only reach with great effort.
An evocative, adagio evening, with Barber’s and Albinoni’s Adagios, arias from Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, the Zakynthian Easter psalm Ίνα τι εφρύαξαν έθνη [Why do the nations rage] set to music by Ioannis Planiteros, Schubert’s Ave Maria, the adagio from Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater Dolorosa, Mozart’s Lacrimosa, but also such pieces as Τράτα [The Trawl] by Nikos Skalkottas.
Nikos Giousef soprano and baritone musical saw
Irene Tiniakou piano
George Katsanos analog synthesizer