lumen de lumine
One of Constantine’s frequent collaborators, pianist Maria Pikoula, is also featured pianist in From Sappho’s Lyre, having recorded no less than two hours of his chamber music. Pikoula gave the world premiere of Portraits (for two pianos) in the early 2000s in Toronto and has since recorded, edited, and performed Constantine’s work in the United States and Europe.
Recorded and mastered at Futura Productions in Roslindale, Massachusetts, by well-known producer John Weston, pianist Maria Pikoula’s first released CD Variations and Inspirations includes a deeply felt take of Caravassilis Lumen de Lumine (from the Book of Fantasias). In the liner notes, Pikoula remarks: “I also include in this album two musical works that are very to my heart and which deeply resonate with me in a spiritual sense, Gretchen am Spinnrade by Franz Liszt and Lumen de Lumine by Greek Canadian composer Constantine Caravassilis.”
—about lumen de lumine
Lumen de Lumine was written after my first encounter with Canada’s Northern Lights in the summer of 2004, near Winnipeg, Manitoba. Experiencing this extraordinary natural phenomenon left me with a deep conviction that, in spiritual matters, light can only be born from Light.
Some years later, I brought the piece to the home of the late Canadian composer Ann Southam and played it for her while we spoke about minimalism. Although Ann did not want me to change a single note, and we both regarded the work as finished, after her passing I felt compelled to revise the opening. The piece now begins with the tolling of the bells from the Metamorphosis Church in my hometown of Pythagorion on the island of Samos, Greece, as heard before and during a funeral procession—an aural farewell marking Ann’s departure from this world.
Lumen de Lumine is dedicated to the loving memory of my teacher and mentor, Ann Southam, OC (1937–2010).
—Constantine Caravassilis
Listen to Lumen de Lumine on YouTube: