Never before in classical music history has there been a concert especially written for 10 pianists and an orchestra. Until now. The Cyprus Steinway Club and the Ministry of Education and Culture are proving to be true pioneers in Cyprus’ cultural scene.
As part of this month’s Kypria Festival, the Strovolos Theatre in Nicosia is to host this exclusive event in classical music history. The concert is the brainchild of the president of the Club, Stavros Kyriakides and the world-class Cypriot composer, Savvas Savva.
As Kyriakides explains: “The Steinway Club cares tremendously about the promotion of the culture of Cyprus abroad, so for this unique project we will be co-operating exclusively with young Cypriot musicians who have already made a name for themselves and live either here in Cyprus or abroad.”
In this ambitious premiere concert, composer Savvas Savva himself will perform on the piano with Nicolas Constantinou, Eleni Mavromousaki, Manolis Neofytou, Julietta Demetriades, Mikella Papamichael, Plotinos Mikromati, Ourania Menelaou, Costantinos Stylianou and Maria Antoniou. The orchestra for the concert will be the Cyprus State Orchestra, under the baton of maestro Maciej Zoltowski.
Savvas Savva faced quite a challenge, as no music has ever before been written for such a concert. Kyriakides is a long-time friend of Savva and admits to having locked his friend in a room for three months, depriving him of going out for a beer and encouraging him to write the composition.
Savva says: ”After three months of intensive writing, one week of non-stop printing, 400 sheets of paper and three ink-cartridges in the printer, I delivered the music to the club so it could be passed on to the pianists.”
His composition is interwoven with the character of Cyprus and its people. Entitled ‘Mediaeval Cyprus’, the concert is in three movements, all of which have been given their names from the history of the isalnd. Kolossi Castle: War & Peace, Karmi & Bellapais: From Dawn to Sunset and Petra tou Romiou: Adonis and Aphrodite.
Savva describes his work: “The programme will be in two parts. In part one, the 10 pianos – without the orchestra – will perform two Cypriot and two Greek traditional dances, which I have arranged for this occasion. In part two (after an intermission), the pianists will be joined by the orchestra to perform the concerto which I have written especially for this concert.
“Each of the pieces captures the rich history of the island, which was particularly colourful during this period.”
The concert will be recorded and at a later date distributed free of charge by the Steinway Club and the Ministry of Education and Culture around the world, to help promote Cyprus. Seven of the pianists will come to Cyprus form England, Germany, Greece and the United States, while the 10 pianos are being brought to Cyprus especially for this concert.
Kyriakides adds: “It’s a very expensive project and it’s not easy. We don’t have 10 concert grand pianos in Cyprus and if we did they’d all be in different conditions. We had to bring 10 brand new pianos plus the pianists from abroad. It is not something you get to see every day and it’s not likely we will see it repeated.”
News of the concert has attracted international attention from both musicians and music lovers who are flying in especially for the concert. “We are very excited, we’ve already had confirmation from people who have heard about it who are flying in especially from Australia, Germany, UK, USA, Holland and Greece,” said Kyriakides.
Although this spectacular concert will last for just a few short hours, its memory will live on as the club along is to donate seven of the pianos to schools around the country. Worth thousands of pounds, the donation marks the importance Steinway places in classical music education in Cyprus.
The club sprang out of the Cyprus Steinway Company, which opened in 1995. Steinway pianos are widely regarded as the best pianos in the world. Handmade and taking three years to produce, it is the first choice for 99 per cent of concert pianists.
“In 1998 we founded the Steinway Company for Young Pianists,” Kyriakides explains, “and we’d been pretty active until 2001, when we decided it was about time we’d run everything on a more professional basis and so the club was born.”
The club is placed under the auspices of Fotini Papadopoulou, the First Lady of the Republic of Cyprus while the patron is Vladimir Ashkenazy, one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century.
The club is a non-profit cultural organisation whose aim is to promote culture in Cyprus. Every year, Steinway promotes young Cypriot musicians in the European Union Youth Orchestra, who compete with 25 other countries to earn their places. As the Steinway club works together with the Ministry of Education, the future for young Cypriot musicians looks bright.
“We have come a long way in the last 10 to 15 years,” Kyriakides reflects. “Cypriots are actually studying performance piano now and parents are appreciating that this can be a career like anything else.
“Some people have the gift and the talent and its great that they can have a career. For this unique project we wanted to give young blood an opportunity to show what they can do.”
