Mikis Theodorakis: The Beginning and the End

A century after the birth of Mikis Theodorakis, his symphonic works remain vibrant and relevant. While his timeless popular songs have inevitably garnered the lion’s share of recognition and resonance, Mikis was always, first and foremost, a great symphonic composer, admired around the globe. His musical ideas, spontaneous and authentic, are conveyed through a personal musical language—highly modern, deeply lyrical, emotionally charged, and above all, profoundly Greek.

The two works presented by the Camerata and George Petrou, the composer’s first and last, were written over fifty years apart. Despite representing two vastly distant artistic poles, they are infused with the undiminished vitality of a restless spirit that retained its freshness and sincerity until the very end.