Kidoniatis, Costas

Konstantinos-Dionisios Kidoniatis was born in Tripoli in 1908, in a noble Peloponnesian family. All children of the family received a solid education. His older brother, Solon Kidoniatis, became a famous architect, professor at the Athens Polytechnic University. and academician. Kostas Kidoniatis began his musical life at an early age. He received his first music lessons from his brother Solon and sister Danai. At the age of 8 he became the smallest of the students of the "Athenian Mandolinata" Nikolaos Lavdas. The piano lessons were taught by Marika Laspopoulou - Vlastari, first taking private lessons from her, and then in her class at the Greek Conservatory. After which he transferred to the class of the famous pianist Anthony Skokos (who, in turn, was a student of Egon Petri ), who followed in 1928 to the Athens Conservatory. He graduated from the Athens Conservatory with honors in 1933.

Konstantinos Kidoniatis (right) and violinist V. Stavrianos escorted Dimitris Mitropoulos to Piraeus, who was leaving for Italy, 1935.

At the same time, Kidoniatis studied music theory from Marios Varvoglis at the Greek Conservatory, as well as higher theory (music) from Dimitris Mitropoulos and Filoktit Ikonomidis at the Athens Conservatory. Kidoniatis developed friendly relations with Dimitris Mitropoulos, which he maintained until the death of Mitropoulos ^[2] .

In the period 1933-36, Kidoniatis continued his studies in Paris with Marguerite Long (piano), and then (1936-1939) at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels with Ε. Quetosquet (piano), R. Ledent (orchestration), L. & J. Jongen (composition) and Desiree Defoe (conducting art). He graduated from the Royal Conservatory with honors, first prize and special honors in the fugue.

He gave many recitals and accompanied his Greek fellow practitioner and friend violinist Vasilis Stavrianos and Australian Amanda Webb (Amanda Webb, wife of Arthur Grimumo ) in France, Spain and Belgium. Kidoniatis was also a soloist in the orchestra of the Brussels radio station.

With the outbreak of World War II , in 1939, Kidoniatis decided to return to, still neutral, Greece. He taught here the theory of music and musical forms at the Athens Conservatory (1939-1978), piano, higher theory and composition at the Conservatory of the Philharmonic Society of Patras (1949-1978, and from 1964 was its director) and at the Conservatory of Piraeus (1962-1975, and since 1967 was its director). He became the permanent leader of the Symphony Orchestra of the National Broadcasting Corporation (until 1962), giving two concerts a month, each 1st and 16th, according to established tradition, and performing most of the work of his Greek colleagues. After the war, he also became a regular pianist at the State Orchestra of Athens (1955-1973), and in 1976 created and directed it at the Palladion Conservatory (Παλλάδιον Ωδείον) until 1980.

Kidoniatis was a member of the Union of Greek Composers and its governing council. He became a permanent pianist and musical director and conductor of the Costa Nikols ballet. He is a permanent composer of the Piraeus Theater by Dimitris Rondiris (1957-1980), for whom he composed music for 8 ancient Greek tragedies. In 1963, the Piraeus Theater introduced Electra Sophocles and Oresteia Aeschylus in Moscow (director D. Rondiris, choreographer Lucia, music by K. Kidoniatis) ^[3] .

Kidoniatis was also a regular accompanist of the Athens Art Bureau, George Kurakos, at whose request and for 30 years he accompanied the performances of such musical luminaries of his era as Yehudi Menuhin , Ruggiero Ricci , T. Varga, Ivri Gitlis , Gaspar Casado , E. Mainardi, their fellow countrymen opera singers Maria Kallas , Elena Nicolaidi , Nicholas Moskhonas, Thanos Burlos and Anna Tassopulu, as well as the Greek violinists V. Colasis, Sophocles Politis, Dimitris Horafas, Frederico Voloninis and the cellists E. Papastavru, Viron Fiedzis , I. Chronopoulou, S. Tahiatis and others ^[4] . He gave hundreds of recitals, including concerts in the Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, and performed as a soloist with both the Athens State Orchestra and the Symphony Orchestra of the National Broadcasting Corporation. He formed a trio with S. Politis (violin) - S. Tahiatis (cello) and V. Colasis (violin) - Riccardo Boadellia (cello) with whom he toured Greece.

The work of Kidoniatis is diverse and ambiguous. Among other things, he wrote: 4 symphonies, 9 concerts for various instruments, many chamber music works, dozens of songs for voice and piano and for a four-voice male choir to verses of the leading figures of Greek poetry (I. Griparis, G. Suris , A. Sikelianos , etc. ), 2 oratorios.

He wrote the Greek Te Deum, for a large symphony orchestra, soloist and choir. As a composer, musicologists rank him as a so-called. "Second National School."

In total, according to the Kolovos Catalog, he wrote 105 works. (In the catalog in front of the number of works of Kydoniatis is “ΚΚ”, which means “Kolovos Catalog”).

He also owns the processing and final form of 25 songs of the National Resistance , for both mixed and four-voice male choirs. All these works are not included in the Kolovos Catalog. In addition, he wrote three great pedagogical works (“Musical Forms” (1954), “3 Years of Mandatory Harmony ” (1956), and “Solfeggio Ι and II accompanied by a Piano” (1980). The music of Kidoniatis written for the Olympics in Mexico City stands out. in 1968.

At the opening and closing ceremonies of the modern Olympic Games, the Olympic anthem of the Greek composer Spyros Samaras (1861-1917) is always performed.

Kydoniatis became the second Greek composer, after Samaras, who wrote music for the opening ceremony of the modern Olympics, he wrote music for the Olympics in Mexico City in 1968.

Kidoniatis used for this what he knew well: ancient Greek music and Greek dances and melodies, thus singing the cultural value of the Olympics. It is noteworthy that, along with Kidoniatis, the Mexican organizing committee invited to participate in preparations for the Olympics, his colleagues in the productions of ancient Greek tragedies in the Piraeus Theater, directed by D. Rondiris and choreographer Lukiyu ^[5] .

The baton of participation of modern Greek composers in the ceremonies of the subsequent Olympics was taken by Kidoniatis Theodoros Antoniu ( Olympics in Munich 1972), Mikis Theodorakis ( Olympics in Barcelona 1992) and Vangelis Papatanasiou ( Olympics in Sydney 2000) ^[6] .

Despite the existence of a huge number of works by Kidoniatis, these works remained unpublished for many years. To a large extent, they remained unrecorded. Only 4 of his works were published (his two first sonatas for violin and piano, the 2nd sonata for piano and cello, the 4th suite for piano) as part of the series “Works of Greek Composers” by the Greek Ministry of Culture in the 70s. As for the CDs , 3 CDs were released with his works for piano performed by Aris Garoufalis, 3 suites for oboe, clarinet and bassoon performed by Christos Argiropoulos, Elijah Kolovos and Miltos Ikonom, a CD with verses by Konstantin Kavafis , where the poet’s poems Dimitris Malavetas read, and Kidoniatis played his work on the piano, one disc for wind music, recorded by the chamber music ensemble “N. Mandzaros ”, a disk with the 1st sonata for piano and cello, performed by Tanasis Apostolopoulos (piano) and Renat Ripo (brow) in the series“ Instead of a Dream ”, published by the Union of Greek Composers with works by only Greek composers, as well as disk D. Rondiris, where this theater director reads excerpts from ancient tragedies and Kidoniatis performs on the piano excerpts of his compositions for these tragedies.

Kidoniatis, by virtue of his temperament and realizing his place in Greek music, did not waste his time on everyday professional issues, but defended artistic values ​​and noble national aspirations. - Kidoniatis followed a lonely road, becoming an example for the Greek music society. - Today, the recognition of Kidoniatis is growing slowly but steadily.

In 2004, with the support of the municipality of Tripoli, the book of composer Georgios Katralis Konstantin Kidoniatis 1908-1906 was published. Life and Work

• Εκπομπή του Γιάννη Μάντακα στο ραδιοσταθμό Θεσσαλονίκης το 1960
• Ένας σπουδαίος μουσικός δημιουργός (Ριζοσπάστης)

• Τάκης Καλογερόπουλος, Λεξικό της Ελληνικής μουσικής, εκδόσεις Γιαλλελή, 2001
• Γεώργιος Κατραλής: Κωνσταντίνος Κυδωνιάτης