Hatzis' stirring Menorah for violin and piano is a technically demanding work. The first movement, Shabbat Blessing, evokes a devotional Jewish melody, with a flickering, polyrhythmic piano accompaniment, before metric modulations and twelve-tone statements disrupt the work's early tranquility. Second movement Kaddish Yatom's jarring, impersonal extended techniques recall a generational trauma, while quotations of Wagner compete with iterations of twelve-tone rows amid disorienting tempo and register shifts in a symbolic battle of worldviews.
Born in Greece, educated in the United States and a Canadian citizen since 1985, composer Christos Hatzis (b.1953) is becoming widely known as a leading figure in contemporary classical music. His works are performed and broadcast throughout the world, and their frequent combination of a powerful spiritual foundation with an immediately accessible appeal has made a deep emotional impact upon audiences and performers alike.
