Emilios Riadis

Riadis during his time in Paris

Emilios Riadis ( Greek Αιμίλιος Ριάδης , French mostly Emile Riadis , actually Emilios Kou Αιμίλιος Κου, mostly transcribed Khu ; * May 13, 1880 in Thessaloniki ; † July 17, 1935 ibid) was a Greek pianist and composer of classical music .

Life

from "Three Gypsy Songs", manuscript

Riadis was the son of the supposedly Greek- born pharmacist Errikos (Heinrich) Chou (or Hou, possibly originally "Houis") and the Greek Anastasia Grigoriou-Nini , who came from Teschen in Silesia. He took his first lessons in piano and harmony in his hometown from the Wagner student Dimitrios Lalas (1848–1911). From 1908 to 1910 he studied piano and composition at the Royal Academy of Music in Munich (with Anton Beer-Walbrunn ); from 1910 to 1915 he continued his studies with Gustave Charpentier and Maurice Ravel in Paris, where he received some attention from French and Greek colleagues; Florent Schmitt is said to have called him the "Greek Mussorgsky "; from Ravel the name mon geniale élève ("my ingenious pupil") is passed down.

At the beginning of the First World War he was arrested as a citizen of the Ottoman Empire and in 1915 returned to his now Greek hometown, where he was professor of piano at the state conservatory founded in 1914 from 1916 until the end of his life, and from around 1920 also its vice director. In 1923 he received the national state prize for art and literature. The composer, who speaks seven languages, was seen as solitary and eccentric, his contacts with contemporary composers such as Kalomiris and Mitropoulos or the poet Kostis Palamas were rather sporadic, so that little is known about his biography after his repatriation. Although his productivity as a composer in Thessaloniki is said to have decreased significantly, he still composed a few chamber music works and gave lectures on Chinese and ancient Egyptian music as well as Mozart. Riadis died of brucellosis a few days after his mother in the city hospital in Thessaloniki ; on his deathbed he is said to have spoken about a string quartet composed in his head.

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Beginning of the music history of Riadis in the manuscript

Riadis' early work is characterized by song compositions in the style of the Greek National School . In addition to Greek folk music, he was also interested in Turkish and Asian music, which went into his compositions. The piano accompaniment of these mostly very simple songs is subtle, transparent and impressionistic and at times imitates various folk instruments. A lot of chamber music has survived from the period from 1892 onwards, but most of the larger-scale works remained unfinished. In these works, too, a strong interest in the not well-tempered music of the Orient can be felt, which is expressed, among other things, in the very frequent use of double accidentals. Riadis experienced his most productive time as a composer during his stay abroad, where he was particularly influenced by his teacher Ravel. Today, Riadis is also perceived as the main representative of a Greek impressionism .

From a young age Riadis published in various magazines such as Ethnikon Imerologion ( Ἐθνικὸν Ἡμερολόγιον ) or Makedonikon Imerologion ( Μακεδονικὸν Ἡμερολόγιον ) poems under the name of Emilios Eleftheriadis, later created his pseudonym from the one he left in 1934 officially enter. In addition to prose texts, he also wrote around 200 pages of a history of music.

Riadis was extremely self-critical, the surviving sketches often show many versions that had been started, and even printed works were further edited by him. With the exception of a few song compositions, only a few works were printed during Riadis' lifetime; some of the chamber music compositions were reconstructed from the manuscripts by the composer Nikos Christodoulou and the conductor Byron Fidetzis in the second half of the 20th century . Some works were not found again until the turn of the millennium, which gives hope for further discoveries.

Works (selection)

Manuscript page, end of the first act of the opera Galateia .
Handwritten entry Riadis':
“Αιμίλιος Ριάδης, Μακεδών, Σεπτ. 1912, Παρίσι, με την ελπίδα να κάμω κάτι καλλίτερο και Ελληνικό αργότερα "- " Emilios Riadis, Macedone , Sept. 1912, Paris, with the hope that I will do something better in Greece " .

Opera fragments

• Galateia , musical drama in three acts, libretto P. Ch. Jablonski, 1912–13, 1st act in piano reduction, 2nd act in score, sketches of 3rd act in piano reduction
• La route verte , opera in one act, libretto J. Valcler, 1914, piano reduction sketches

Incidental music

• Salome ( Oscar Wilde ), 1922, received only 96 bars as a piano reduction
• Hekuba ( Euripides ), for orchestra, 1927
• Riquet à la houppe (T. de Banville, transl . From Riadis as Ο Ρικές με το τσουλούφι), 1929

Instrumental music

• Nanourisma (lullaby) for violin and piano, 1908
• Fugue in c minor 1909 for piano
• Prélude tragique or Symphonietta for piano 1911; Version as Ombres macédoniennes for two pianos, 1912
• Trois danses grecques for piano, 1925
• Hommage à Ravel for piano
• Two sonatas for violoncello and piano
• String quartets in G minor, D minor
• Invocation à la paix for orchestra

Choral music

• Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom and various other liturgical chants

Song compositions

• 18 published songs, including numerous Greek, Albanian and Macedonian folk songs
• about 50 unpublished songs

Audio samples

• Trygos (Τρύγος; MP3; 923 kB) from Five Dance Songs (Πέντε χορευτικά τραγούδια)
• Excerpt (MP3; 976 kB) from the string quartet in G minor

literature

• Giorgos Leotsakos : Emilios Riadis (1880–1935) , booklet for Emilios Riadis - Works I , Lyra No. CD 0116, Athens 1994.
• Giorgos Leotsakos : Emilios Riadis , in: The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians , London 2001. ISBN 0-333-60800-3
• Dimitra Diamantopoulou-Cornejo: Les mélodies pour une voix et piano d'Emile Riadis: Aspects esthétiques entre les musique française et grecque au début du XXe siècle , Tours (France) 2001.

Web links

• Ριάδης Αιμίλιος on wiki.musicportal.gr (Greek)
• Private site about Riadis (French)
• Bibliography (French / English / German)
• Bibliography on Riadis (Greek)
• Discography (French)
• The Emilios Riadis Archive at the Greek Music Library "Lilian Voudouri" with a detailed catalog of works and bibliography (Greek / English)