CONCERTO A PIZZICO by Victor Kioulaphides – Het CONSORT – tMt TV #58

The ‘CONCERTO per orchestra a pizzico’ by Victor Kioulaphides was composed for and dedicated to the Dutch Mandolin Chamber Orchestra HET CONSORT conducted by Alex Timmerman. The work was written in 2004 and is one of the larger works (aprox. 18 minutes) for plucked instruments by Kioulaphides. It is scored for 1st and 2nd mandolins, mandolas, guitars, a mandoloncello and a chitarrone moderno. The premiere of this delightful composition took place in the Concert hall of the Stedelijke Muziekschool in Groningen (Netherlands) on Saturday 19th of March (2005) in the presence of the composer. The Concerto consists of the following three movements: Sinfonia – Notturno – Rondo finale: “Telemanniana”. The last movement is video taped here. The complete ‘Concerto per orchestra a pizzico’ will be included on our new CD which is scheduled to be released for January 2008.

Victor Kioulaphides about the Concerto per orchestra a pizzico: “The form of the piece was determined during several conversations with Alex: We mused over the idea of a concerto in the usual sense, one presumptively featuring, accompanied by the rest of the ensemble; we also considered some sort of a concerto grosso with more than one soloist. The final outcome, i.e. taking the multiplicity of soloists to the maximum, was a work that features each and every section as occasional soloists, all the way from the first mandolins to the warm, soulful chitarrone”.
The Concerto per orchestra a pizzico is, as mentioned above, a work in three movements, fast-slow-fast: a Sinfonia first movement, a Notturno second one, and a Rondo finale, subtitled Telemanniana, fusing the jolly, francophile galantries of the Master from Magdeburg with the modern material of the earlier two movements -.
The whole composition can also be viewed and heard at the Music Archive web-site (search with the words: Music Archive +Victor Kioulaphides +Concerto Per Orchestra A Pizzico).

Besides this work Victor Kioulaphides composed several other compositions for the instruments of the mandolin family like for instance his Diferencias sobre Morenika, Idillio, El Malecon, De Grote Markt and the Variations on a Basque Melody, all works for solo mandolin. In combination with other instuments there are his Spanish Suite for mandola (Viola) and guitar and arrangements of Greek folk music like the Athenian- the Ionian- and the Aegean Mandolinatas for mandolin and guitar and -more classical- a setting for mandolin and guitar of the 5th Sinfonia-Overtura by the Greek composer Nikolaos Mantzaros (1795-1826).

Victor Kioulaphides was born in Athens, Greece, and moved to New York in 1979 where he studied double bass and composition at The Juilliard School and The Manhattan School of Music. Today he is a Member of ASCAP, American Music Center, American Federation of Musicians and his compositions are i.e. published by the Liben Music Publishers and the New York Classical Guitar Society. Besides his busy activities as a classical double bass player is a faculty member at the Lucy Moses School for Music and Dance.

The Mandolin Chamber Orchestra HET CONSORT plays solely on Roman instruments of the Mandolin family as there are the 1st and 2nd mandolin, the mandola and the mandoloncello. All the instruments are made by Luigi Embergher (1856-1943) or his direct successors like Domenico & Giannino Cerrone and Pascuale Pecoraro. Besides the mandoloncello, modern Spanish guitars and a chitarrone moderno (a huge guitar kind that is only played pizzicato) are used for the lower voices in the music that is performed by this orchestra. To achieve the best sound the plectrum played instruments are played with the long two pointed Roman plectrum and strung with Bronze round wound CONSORT strings made on the orchestra’s request by the German Lenzner/Fisoma string makers company.
More info about the Mandolin Chamber Orchestra Het CONSORT can be found at their website:
http://www.mandolineorkest.nl/index.html
To learn more about the Roman instruments made by Luigi Embergher one can visit the Embergher website: http://www.embergher.com/

Mandolin Mandoline Victor Kioulaphides Embergher Alex Timmerman Mandolin Orchestra Het Consort Sartori Händel Ceccherini Barbella

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