ALEXANDROS KAROZAS
When Kaváfis picks up on the everyday experience of waiting in vain for sailors ("The Prayer"), Karozas
lets the song follow folk song lines. The poet allows himself a lot of fun when describing the ridiculous
preparations for the arrival of the barbarians, and finally realizing that they are not coming: "What will
become of us without the barbarians? / Any solution was these people." The composer, who has put his
knowledge and craftsmanship into thousands of precisely given notes, lets the unusual duo improvise tuba
and guitar in between, until not a few orchestral musicians are infected by the broad grin of John Sass.
Bruno Ganz brought the lyrics closer to the non-Greek part of the Konzerthaus audience. The Greek
community in Vienna cheered Giorgos Dalaras on Sunday - rightly so - who gave another proof of his
versatility that evening. The conductor, choir, orchestra and soloists deserved the long-lasting applause, as
did the composer's standing ovation. Alexandros Karozas is also thankful that his work recalls that Greece
is better than corrupt bureaucrats and irresponsible oligarchs.
.
Gerald Jatzek
Wiener Zeitung, 2011
The better Greece
Konstantínos P. Kaváfis (1863-1933) was a man full of contradictions.
He is considered a pioneer of Greek modernism and was almost never in
Greece. He wrote away from the literary scene of his time, published little and
was still considered a great poet during his lifetime.
Alexandros Karozas has set his poems to music. This begins with the
instrumentation of his extended oratorio, in which the Santouri (Asia Minor
instrument) has as much space as the guitar,
the tuba and the classical orchestral instrumentation with special emphasis and
sonic range of the clarinet.
The poet follows his street, which always leads him through the city, through
the microcosm of Alexandria, where the history of three continents unites, and
the composer follows him. Postmodernism here does not mean arbitrariness,
but the kaleidoscopic composition of such different traditions as Shostakovich,
Orthodox church music, Weill and Theodorakis, which is probably once cited.
"Alexandros Karozas is also thankful that his work recalls that Greece is better than corrupt
bureaucrats and irresponsible oligarchs.”