Zoe Samsarelou: Ek-stasis: Dionysus, Nymphs and Satyrs
Divine Art

On her double-CD collection Ek-stasis, Greek pianist Zoe Samarelou deploys a smart strategy to organize a huge amount of material (143 minutes, to be exact) into a cohesive design. In ordering the pieces according to themes, the recording assumes a satisfying structural form and establishes connections between works that might otherwise seem unrelated. As intimated by its title, the project grounds itself in the myth of Dionysus (Bacchus), the Ancient Greek figure famously associated with wildness, abandon, and ecstasy and diametrically opposed to Apollo, who's tied to reason, harmony, and balance (it was Nietzsche, of course, who in The Birth of Tragedy examined the “Apollonian” and “Dionysian” as contrasting principles). Dionysus's followers included satyrs, maenads, and nymphs, hence the album title. It hardly surprises that artists are more typically associated with the wilder of the two principles for their ecstatic flights of creative inspiration.

Samsarelou's treatment less fixates on this ecstatic dimension, however, and instead presents an interconnected narrative that progresses through numerous sections. Performing material by Greek and French composers (including three world premiere recordings), the pianist explores themes such as seduction, metamorphosis, transcendence, instinct, and catharsis. Couperin, Rameau, Dandrieu, Daquin, Dukas, and Debussy rub shoulders with a large cast of Greek composers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries in this thoughtfully curated programme. In detailed liner notes, Samsarelou, who has been a professor in the Piano Department at the State Conservatory in Thessaloniki since 1994, provides historical context and clarifies how certain pieces explore different facets of the myth. The focus of Dimitri Terzakis's 2003 piece Ein Satyrspiel, for example, is a game played between nymphs and a satyr, the former teasing and the latter aggressive. Nestor Taylor's 2017 setting “Erinyes," on the other hand, considers in musical terms three goddesses of vengeance and retribution known as the “Bacchae of Hades” who called the Underworld home.

While the journey is long, it's populated with many scenic sights and performances that are unfailingly engaging. Consistent with the section title ‘Seduction,' the opening pieces, François Dandrieu's pretty “La sirène” and Déodat de Séverac's bewitching Les Naïades et le Faune Indiscret (an album standout), offer enticing points of entry. Even at this early stage, Samsarelou's assured command of the material is readily apparent. The first of two Terzakis pieces, 2005's Satyr und Naïaden, exudes a noticeably Greek character but is more memorable for its mischievous playfulness (it's fascinating too for dipping its toes into its blues and jazz idioms).

Moving on to ‘Pathos,' Paul Dukas's haunting La plainte, au loin, du faune pays homage to Debussy, who had died two years earlier (Dukas's work was part of Le Tombeau de Claude Debussy, which comprised ten pieces commissioned by Henry Prunières in 1920 to commemorate Debussy). In moments reminiscent of J. S. Bach, François Couperin's rousing “Les Satyres” immediately arrests the ear at the start of ‘Illusion' and sets the stage for a suitably dreamlike rendering of Debussy's Prélude à l'après-midi d' un faune, the inspiration, of course, for Dukas's tribute. Returning us to the present day, Lina Tonia's Prelude of a lost dream perpetuates the mood when it smoothly alternates between graceful melodic patterns and rapid gestures. ‘Metamorphosis' is highlighted by the lyrical, salon-styled lilt of Mischa Levitzki's The enchanted nymph and the poetic diminishment of Echo's voice that occurs within Nikos Skalkottas's Echo, AK 77 (1946). Returning for the third and fourth time, Couperin initiates ‘Transcendence' with two stately pieces from Les Bacchanales, “Tendresses bachiques” and “Fureurs bachiques,” and paves the way for Taylor's driving “Erinyes” and Nikos Skalkottas's foreboding Procession to Acheron, AK 79c (1948).

Introducing the programme's second half and its ‘Instinct' section are Jean Philippe Rameau's energized “Les cyclopes,” Jules Massenet's macabre “Le bapteme par le vin,” and Sergei Bortkiewicz's devilish “Valse grotesque (Satyre).” Debussy reappears, this time in the ‘Catharsis' set, with two alluring pieces from Six epigraphies antiques, “Pour invoquer Pan, dieu du vent d'été” and “Pour la danseuse aux crotales.” Whereas the first half includes standalone pieces, the second includes two multi-movement works, Harry Farjeon's Pictures from Greece, Op. 13 (in the ‘Mythos' section) and Paul Juón's Satyre und Nymphen – 9 Minuaturen für klavier, Op. 18 (‘Paradox'). Farjeon's “The Dryads” engages immediately with its youthful elan, “The Fates” for its solemn mystery, “The Muses” wry prettiness, and “The Graces” wistful melancholy. Juón's lunges into action with the vivacious “Etude (Najaden im Quell)” before settling into the languour of “Idylle (Pat mit der Syrinx),” “Réverie (Träumende Oreade),” and “Valse lenter (Dryaden reigen im Mondschein).” Sombre and elegiac episodes surface (lighter ones too) before Aspasia Nasopoulou's chromatically adventurous “Krokeatis Lithos-Lakonia” brings the project to a provocative end.

August 2023