Dare to Dance / Try Not to Dance

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Distinguished soprano and conductor Mata Katsouli is coming to the GNO Alternative Stage at the SNFCC to conduct a sixteen-member string ensemble at a unique concert scheduled for Saturday, 18 January 2025, at 20.30. The programme of the concert under the title Dare to Dance / Try Not to Dance features works by Yasushi Akutagawa, Edvard Grieg, Wojciech Kilar, William Lloyd Webber, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, with those by Akutagawa, Kilar, and Lloyd making their debut in the Greek music scene.

The concert Dare to Dance / Try Not to Dance explores the connection between humans and rhythm – a connection inextricably intertwined with human existence –while inviting audiences to engage in an intimate dance through a fascinating musical journey from the river Volga to Japan and from Norway to the Carpathians. Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings, Op. 48 (1880) converses with Edvard Grieg’s Holberg Suite (1884) and William Lloyd Webber’s Serenade for Strings (1939). Simultaneously, the traditional Japanese rhythms in Yasushi Akutagawa’s Triptych (1953) blend with the vibrant and intense rhythms of Polish composer Wojciech Kilar’s Orawa (1986), which is inspired by an area of the same name in the Carpathians.

Human beings have always danced to celebrate, connect with one another, and express themselves. From primitive civilizations to this day, music, with its spectral nature, is grounded and coordinated with the body through rhythm. “I still remember with emotion teaching music at centers for immigrants, where children, despite their challenges, find joy and regain hope by playing the rhythm of “We Will Rock You” through body percussion. They insistently asked that every meeting end with this song. At fairs, rhythm is what keeps us standing for long hours and brings us closer, verifying that dancing and music are fundamental to our social lives”, remarks Mata Katsouli.

Musician Mata Katsouli performed leading roles as a soloist until 2011. Then, the GNO honoured her by entrusting her with the direction of the newly-formed Children’s Chorus, a position she held until 2017. She also studied Orchestral Conducting at the Ionian University.

About the concert Dare to Dance / Try Not to Dance on the 18th of January at the GNO Alternative Stage, Mata Katsouli notes: “Between the long pieces of the programme (Dare to Dance), we will incorporate the Serenade for Strings (1939) by William Lloyd Webber, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s father, as a crack in time. All three parts of the work (Barcarolle, Romance, Elegy) serve as a voice calling, inspiring, and leading us to mental uplift, inviting us to an inward-looking and intimate dance (Try Not to Dance).

Tchaikovsky’s iconic Serenade for Strings,  Op. 48 (1880) connects us with the classical form of the sonata in the first movement (Pezzo in forma di sonatina), extends its arm inviting us to the Viennese Waltz with a cheerful smile in the second movement (Valse), nostalgically reveals romantic moments in the third movement (Élégie: Larghetto elegiac), and finally, hums to us a traditional song of fishermen of the Volga River (Finale -Tema russo). Everything shows that the fourth movement of Haydn’s Symphony No. 104 runs through Tchaikovsky’s veins. Yasushi Akutagawa weaves his Triptych (1953), combining sounds and rhythms both from the Japanese musical tradition and Stravinsky and Prokofiev's Russian School of Music, which he experienced firsthand while secretly journeying through Russia.

In the second part of the concert, we are transported to Norway. The transcription for strings of Edvard Grieg’s Holberg Suite (1884) was written five years after Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings. In the second half of the 19^th century, at the peak of the Romantic era, there was a surge in string compositions. The suite is based on five French Baroque dances marked by diverse styles and rhythms.

Next comes the Serenade for Strings by William Lloyd Webber, the father of the famous Andrew Lloyd Webber. English composer, organist, and composition professor William Lloyd Webber, refusing to give in to his contemporary musical trends of atonality and experimental writing, gave us works brimming with romanticism and tenderness.

The programme concludes with Wojciech Kilar’s Orawa (1986), which was inspired by the folk rhythms of Górale, the inhabitants of mountainous areas. Their music is characterized by polyrhythms, polyphony, and asymmetric structures. “