Until
recently we believed that the earliest known performances of the Quartetto Quasi una Fantasia was the one
of 1924 in Paris: in the course of other research there, we discovered two
programs of concerts with Kalomiris’ music, which took place within some twenty
days of each other. The first (Saturday, 15 March 1924), conducted by Gabriel
Pierne at the Concerts Colonne, included the second and third movements of the Levendia Symphony as well as two songs from Mayovotana: I Gria Zoi and Sperma tis
Hamkos, sung by soprano Speranza Calo. The second (Saturday, 5 April 1924)
was supposed to have been sponsored by the Odeon
Hellenique d’ Athenes (sic: the Hellenic Conservatory). It was announced as 1er Concert des Compositeurs Hellenes
(sic!) and took place at the Salle Pleyel. Only two Greek artists participated
in it: soprano Speranza Callo (who sang Lethe
form the Quintet with Song, the only
movement performned, and five arrangements of folk songs), and violinist
Bamieros. The program began with the Quartetto
Quasi una Fantasia, performed by Pierre Jamet (the subsequently famous
French harpist (b. 1893) as Basil Kyriakou pointed out to us), Boulze (flute),
F. Gillet (english horn) and Lefranc (viola) and finished with the Trio. Two foactors are particularly
significant: a) The program includes all three chamber works of Kalomiris
extant at that time. b) The presence of Pierre Jamet, who had taken part in the
world premier (9 March 1917) of Debussy’s Sonata
for flute, viola and harp. In our program notes for the 1984 performance of
the Quartetto in the United States we
tended to discard as rather improbable any connection between this work and
Dubussy’s Sonata. The participation
of Jamet in the 1924 concert (already an acquaintance of Pierne who possibly
helped organise it) suggests different thoughts to us. However, everything
remains to be proven. Finally, quite recently, in one of many sketchy
“worklists” which Kalomirs often published (Erga
Manoli Kalmiri: ekdoseis, chronologies, ermineftes (Works by M.K.:
editions, dates performers, undated; printed around 1945, as from internal
evidence) we find the following comment on the Quartetto: Repeatedly
performed since 1922, and in 1924 in Paris. Evidence of the 1922 world
premiere (obviously in Athens) remains
to be discovered
(Note
by George Leotsakos).