Jani Christou - Vol. II

On January 8th 1970, in a car accident a few kilometers outside Athens, the contemporary music world lost one of its most exciting and provocative talents. Although Jani Christou was only 44 when he died, he was regarded by many as one of the leading composers of his generation. He was controversial, highly talented, and greatly admired both in his own country and abroad. And yet although his name remains respected in contemporary music circles to this day, performances of his music are extremely rare.

One of the leading exponents of 20th century music, the composer-philosopher Jani Christou was raised in the wealthy milieu of the Greek community of Alexandreia, Egypt. He began piano lessons at an early age and went on to study under Gina Bachauer, who also initiated him in music theory.
Following his graduation from Victoria College, he went to England to study philosophy (linguistic logic under L. Wittgenstein and symbolic logic with Bert. Russell) at King’s College, Cambridge (1944-8). Meanwhile, he studied music theory with Hans F. Redlich at Letchworth and later he attended the summer theory courses at the Academy Chigiana in Sienna, Italy, with Vitto Frazzi and F. Lavagnino. He was initiated in psychology of the subconscious by his elder brother Evangelos Christou psychoanalyst, who was studying at the Jung Institute in Zurich, and whose thought and personality as well as his unexpected death in a car accident in 1956 –peculiarly prophetic of the composer’s own death – had a tremendous impact on him.
From 1949-50 on, he commenced his musical activities with compositions that relied on philosophical and metaphysical bases, in a world of myth, ecstasy and mysticism, where music is a ritual and where trivialities of everyday life are transformed. The personal character of his music is evident throughout his work, which is, as far as technique is concerned, based on the most avant-garde idioms of western music. However, the essence and psychology of his work has its roots in the philosophy of the great civilizations (from the pre-Socratics and Aeschylus to the eastern ancient civilizations) as well as in the future as envisioned by the composer.

The best extant recorded works of the avant-garde composer Jani Christou (1926-70) performed during his brief life, most of which under his personal supervision, guidance and instruction. The accompanying inset contains photographs of and texts by the composer, significative of his musical purposes or purely aesthetic and philosophical, along with texts for the better understanding and/or the circumstances under which the works were performed, written by such distinguished musicologists as John G. Papaioannou, Anna Lucciano, Yorgos Leotsakos, Piero Guarino, Hans Ferdinand Redlich and Michael Stewart.
(2002 Discography Award by the Greek Union of Drama and Music Critics)