Austrian-Greek Music 2025: Mikis Theodorakis - Franz Schubert - Werner Schulze
Archaeological Museum of Patras
Saturday 23 August 2025, Time: 8:00pm
Admission free
On the occasion of the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of the Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis (1925-2025), and in frame of the Austrian-Greek Music Summer 2025, an initiative of the Austrian Embassy in Athens, the 2nd Golfo Festival in collaboration with the Centre for Music - Culture "Hellenikon Idyllion", and the Theatre Laboratory of Drama & Speech (ESPLo) of the Department of Theatre Studies - University of Patras, organize in Patras and Selianitika three concerts - tributes to Mikis Theodorakis, with parallel musical references to Franz Schubert and Werner Schulze.
The Vienna-based FRESCO Quartet, joining with the Greek cellist Lucia Loulaki, will present some brilliant compositions by Mikis Theodorakis, Franz Schubert, and Werner Schulze.
THE PROGRAM
Saturday, 23 August 2025, Time: 20.30
PATRA, Archaeological Museum (Amphitheatre)
Mikis Theodorakis (1925–2021)
— String Quartet No 3 - "Epoca Nocturna" - 1948, 8΄
— String Quartet No 2 - "The Cemetery" - 1946, 8΄
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Werner Schulze (*1952)
— String Quartet a-d-e-g, 2023, 7΄
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Franz Schubert (1797–1828)
— String Quintet in C major D 956 - 1828, 55΄
Wednesday, 27 August 2025, Time: 20:30
SELIANITIKA, Music-Culture Centre "Hellenikon Idyllion"
Mikis Theodorakis (1925–2021)
— String Quartet No 3 - "Epoca Nocturna" - 1948, 8΄
Werner Schulze (*1952)
— String Quartet a-d-e-g, 2023, 7΄
Franz Schubert (1797–1828)
— String Quintet in C major D 956 - 1828, 55΄
The Composers
FRANZ SCHUBERT
Franz Schubert (1797-1828) was an Austrian composer of the Romantic period. Born in Vienna, he showed musical talent at an early age and received a solid education. Despite his short life, he composed over 600 songs, numerous symphonies, chamber music, piano works and masses. He is particularly well known for his song cycles such as "Die schöne Müllerin" and "Winterreise". Schubert lived in modest circumstances and only achieved greater recognition after his death. His music is characterised by deep emotional expressiveness and harmonic innovation, making him one of the most important composers of his time. His String Quintet in C major, D. 956, is a monumental work of chamber music and one of the last pieces the composer completed.
MIKIS THEODORAKIS
Mikis Theodorakis (1925-2021) was a Greek composer, writer and politician. He was a resistance fighter against National Socialism during World War II. He was subsequently imprisoned and tortured during the Greek Civil War (1946-1949) and during the period of the Junta of the Colonels (1967). Theodorakis composed, among other things, four string quartets. “The Cemetery” (1946), as well as “Epoca Nocturna” (1948), refer to the events of World War II and are therefore in a dark mood. However, these works, by the then 21-year-old composer, also contain many familiar Greek motifs, the expressiveness of which characterizes Theodorakis' music as much as anything else.
WERNER SCHULZE
Composer, musician, author, scientist, university professor (University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, founder and director of the International Centre for Harmonics). Schulze's compositions include works for orchestra - including four symphonies - as well as chamber music, solo and study works and music for (mostly his own) poetry. Some of these works can be assigned to one of three focal points: 1. Gesamt- kunstwerke of a philosophical-theological nature, which are summarised under the generic terms Philosophy on Stage and Theology on Stage; 2. works associated with Greek antiquity (text, music, performance concept): Socrates, anchibasíe, Oedipus Tyrannus, Trygaios, Prometheus Desmotes; 3. dance-music-language works, partly in cooperation with the Jakarta/Indonesia-based theatre-dance-music ensemble Teater Tetas, whose artistic director he was from 2011-2017. Awards: 5 competition successes, 6 promotion and appreciation awards in composition, 2 in science and 1 in performing arts.
