Bach “meets” Mozart, Queen rock and Broadway musicals, jazz, funk and Greek traditional music in a special concert of exploration and discovery that will take place on Tuesday 25 October at 21.00. and Wednesday, October 26 at 20.15′ at the Municipal Theatre “Apollo”, with Anastasios Pappas (piano), Vilene Karapetian (double bass), Sotiris Douvas (drums) and the String Orchestra of the Municipal Conservatory of Patras “Mikis Theodorakis”.

The first piece of the evening is by the classical and jazz pianist – composer Keith Jarrett and is called Fugata for harpsicord. It is a work which is included on the 1974 double album for solo piano entitled “in the light”. It is a work which is on the fringes of baroque music with some “shades of light” from the composer’s familiar style.

The following is the first movement from W. A. Mozart’s piano concerto. KW488. Of particular interest is the Cadenza (an improvisational movement where the soloist shows off his virtuosic skills towards the end of the work) which was written by Chick Corea.

A program that moves between classical and jazz could not be without an arrangement on Bach’s works. Composer and pianist Konstantin Vilensky saw to that with four variations on well-known Bach themes. More specifically, we will hear jazz variations on the concerto 1) for harpsichord and orchestra BWV1056 in F minor (in this one Vilensky transposes it to G minor) 2) the piano prelude BWV847 in C minor 3) the piano prelude BWV853 no. 8 in E flat minor and 4) the third movement from the Third Brandenburg (finale) concerto BWV1048 in G major. (1st Panhellenic Performance)

The evening will continue with another of Johann Sebastian Bach’s well-known works, the well known Air on the G string. With an imaginative arrangement for jazz piano trio by J. Loussier.

Then the work “Jazz a la Francaise” by the French composer and pianist Claude Bolling for jazz piano trio will be performed. From this work, pianist A. Pappas has selected three characteristic pieces in which we can hear elements of classical (baroque and romantic period, impressionism) and jazz swing to Latin (Bossa Nova).

The next work is an arrangement by A. Pappas for jazz piano trio and orchestra of the well-known song “The Man I Love” by George Gershwin. Here the course of the arrangement is reversed : while it is usual in pieces by classical composers such as e.g. Bach Mozart heard in the program, the arrangement takes them to the jazz realm, in this case a well-known jazz piece contains elements from two of the most famous piano concertos of the romantic period in classical music (Rachmaninoff’s 2nd piano concerto and Grieg’s piano concerto).

The evening will continue “out of control” as we leave the “serious” music and an arrangement of the “anthem” of rock music will be heard. The well-known “Bohemian Rhapsody” (F.Mercury – Queen) for piano trio Jazz and string orchestra.

The last piece of this great concert has a special connection with Patras since the first performance took place in 1987 at the Roman Conservatory of Patras. This piece was a commission by the then artistic director Thanos Mikroutsikos to Kyriakos Sfetsas for the Patras International Festival. From this colossal, in duration (more than 70 minutes), work called “Lyric Suite”, the first piece entrance (entrance) will be performed.