The State Orchestra of Athens on February 3 was on top. The concert with which she celebrated her eightieth birthday took place in her now permanent home, the Christos D. Lambrakis Hall, and was a success in every respect.

The program itself was chosen according to the occasion: it included a work by a Greek composer, then a popular concerto, and finally a grandiose symphony, which was brought on stage by the entire orchestra. In particular, Nestor Taylor’s Song without Words, Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto and Gustav Mahler’s First Symphony were performed. The orchestra was led by Lukas Karitinos, artistic director of Kratika, and the soloists were soprano Celia Kostya and violinist Vadim Repin.

Lukas Karitinos conducted a well-chosen program with very good soloists.

Taylor’s “Vocalise”, essentially a concerto in which the voice is used purely instrumentally as a solo instrument in the absence of text, follows from works such as Reinhold Gliere’s Treble Coloratura Concerto (1943). However, the composer’s references to musical language and instruments are perhaps closer to Vaughn Williams and works such as The Antarctic Symphony (1953). However, the mostly well-written, atmospheric music stands out for its sensuality. With a full and extremely controlled voice, Kostya did an impressive job. The large size of the voice easily dominated the sound of the symphony orchestra, although it seemed that a less muscular, more ethereal voice could emphasize the transparency and sensuality of the writing even better.

Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto is clearly familiar to a Russian violinist of the caliber of Vadim Repin. Perhaps, in fact, this great acquaintance lurked the danger of an emphatically stereotypical interpretation, since it was this work that accompanied the violinist for about four decades, and it was with him that in 1989 he was declared the laureate of the famous “Queen Elizabeth”. Belgian competitions, up to 18 years of age. But such was the quality of processing in terms of the design of musical phrases and countless details of the work, intonations, dynamics and punctuation that Repin’s performance evoked, if not tenderness, then admiration. Also admirable is the highly skilled “Variations at the Carnival of Venice”, which he then performed outside the program with incredible accuracy and great humor.

And the orchestra itself was at its best, which was shown by the performance of Mahler’s First Symphony under the musical direction of Lukas Karitinos. The strings “sang” music with infrequent pulse and plasticity, the cellos gave a rich sound, the woodwinds, as usual, were trouble-free, and the wind instruments, especially the horns, worked smoothly. for a very good result, worthy of an anniversary concert.