The State Orchestra of Athens is celebrating its 80th anniversary this year, and the official start of its program took place on 21 October with a concert in the Christos Lambrakis Hall. Its director, Lukas Karitinos, has conducted Dimitris Minakakis’ Routes for Symphony Orchestra, Max Bruch’s First Violin Concerto, and Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony.

Commissioned by the state, Minakaki’s two-part composition seems to be oriented towards Paris in the early 20th century, Impressionism and Debussy, as well as jazz, which the composers of that time discovered and used in their works. Quite distinct episodes, especially the second part, gave more character to the sequence of images. It can be concluded that perhaps the work would benefit more from an interpretation that emphasizes mainly the orchestration, but also its modular structure.

With virtuosic comfort and confidence, Hope performed Bruch’s First Violin Concerto.

This was followed by the very popular First Violin Concerto by the German Max Bruch, undoubtedly one of his most famous works along with the Scottish Fantasy. The concert was performed by renowned violinist Daniel Hope, of German-Jewish origin, born in Durban, South Africa.

With absolute virtuoso comfort and confidence, he conveyed the extremely romantic character of the work, the dramatic tension, but also its lyricism, expressed in the slow second movement, but equally through the prominent paragraphs in the lively surrounding parts. In the 20th century, this Concerto gained immense popularity thanks to the recording of Yehudi Menuhin, with whom Hope collaborated. Menuhin had a deep friendship with the Indian composer Ravi Shankar, and it seems that it was no coincidence that Hope chose to perform outside of the program Shankar’s Evening Stew, which the composer dedicated to the world. He then said goodbye to the audience with a Brahms Lullaby in his own arrangement.

In the second part of the evening, another popular work was performed – Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony. The repertory work for any symphony orchestra, as well as for the state, must belong to those whose claims will now be the property of the musicians, allowing the respective principal musician to form his own interpretation. The speed and intensity chosen by Lucas Karitinos, especially in the last movement, was not supported by the violins, which lacked precision, and often, as in the second movement, the string ensemble lacked the necessary richness to support Tchaikovsky’s sweeping melodic phrases. The explosive climaxes of the intensely dramatic performance often ended in thunder, requiring strings of varying quality. The individual participation of wind instruments, especially the horn solo (Christos Salvanos), as well as the very good performance of the clarinet (Spiros Mourikis) and bassoon (Vassilis Liodakis) improved the result.