Haralabos [Harry] Stafylakis

Piano Concerto No. 1: MYTHOS

for piano & orchestra (2023)

I. Prologue: Creation
II. Sonata: Legend
III. Scherzo: Destruction
IV. Fantasy: Lullaby

Instrumentation: 2(picc).2(corA).2(bcl).2(cbsn) / 4.2.3.1 / timp.+2perc. / str. / solo piano
Duration: 26 minutes

Composed for Jenny Lin and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra.

Commissioned by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Canada), Research/Creation Grant No. 435-2016-0076, in partnership with the University of Ottawa.

Premiered by Jenny Lin and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Daniel Raiskin conducting, on January 28, 2023 at Manitoba Centennial Concert Hall, Winnipeg, MB, Canada.

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Perusal score

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“I've come to the conclusion that mythology is really a form of archaeological psychology. Mythology gives you a sense of what a people believes, what they fear.”
―George Lucas

“The Greeks created gods that were in their image; warlike but creative, wise but ferocious, loving but jealous, tender but brutal, compassionate, but vengeful.”
—Stephen Fry, Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold

Though I grew up from an early age with the piano and its repertoire as an integral part of my daily life, I did not truly fall in love with the instrument until I discovered the music of Sergei Rachmaninoff as a teenager. His piano concerti, especially, moved me deeply; they began to reveal to me how the grandeur of Classical-Romantic musical idioms could be harnessed in a more modern context. Years later, when I first began transitioning out of metal songwriting into classical composition, one of my first attempts (ambitiously and wildly naively) was in the form of a piano concerto. Though I did not at the time have the tools necessary to succeed in such a massive endeavor, the attempt itself was invaluable to the development of my compositional voice. (Some small elements from that piece of juvenilia have wormed their way into this new opus...)

Piano Concerto No. 1: MYTHOS came into existence some 15 years later, following my collaboration with pianist Jenny Lin on my series of piano etudes. Born of my love for two of my favorite instruments – the piano and the symphony orchestra (yes, I consider it an instrument) – this concerto serves as a semi-biographical archive of my personal musical history.

Each of the four movements is modeled – loosely and idiosyncratically – on a traditional form and its archetypal function within a multi-movement work: prologue (prelude), sonata, scherzo, fantasy. Together they trace a dramatic-narrative arc that, I hope, conveys the sense of mythological grandeur that I feel when I consider the vaunted history of the piano concerto as one of our most important and celebrated orchestral genres.

The work is dedicated to Jenny Lin and Maestro Daniel Raiskin, without whom such a massive project would not have been possible.

—HS | www.hstafylakis.com