Shonorities presents
George Leotsakos: 24 Haiku (voice, piano)
Shie Shoji -- voice
Evgenia Votanopoulou -- piano
Tuesday, April 29, 2014, 19:30, Hellenic American Union Theatre
Under the auspices of the Japanese Embassy of Athens
Programme Note
The 24 haiku, on verses by Matsuo Bashô (12, March 1961) Yosa Buson (7, April 1961) and Kobayashi Issa (5, May 1961) were composed before Leotsakos's first visit to Japan, in an ever ascending spiritual elation that gradually led him to an ever greater simplicity, not to say abstraction: having become acquainted with the major forms of Japanese traditional music from recordings (at that time extremely rare), he thought that every attempt of «imitating» it, or even approaching it, would be futile or even disastrous. Therefore if he has managed to imbue these shortest ternary forms with some Japanese flavour, this should be rather sought to his enchantment from the ukiyo-e lanscapes of great masters of Japanese pictorial art, such as Hokusai and Hiroshige. All 24 haiku have been performed in Greece at least once, since Leotsakos, as a conscientious music critic, for reasons very obvious, tends to politely discourage artists wishing to interpret his works.