Abstracts of issue 2/1985 (2)

Katy Romanou

Marios Varvoglis

Marios Varvoglis (1885-1967), a Greek composer, contributed greatly to the creation of a national school of composers in Greece. Nevertheless, his centenary is not becomingly celebrated, due to the fact that this country is still unable to provide adequate means for the study and propagation of the Greek composers work. Thus, although Varvoglis few published and performed compositions give evidence to an artist comparable to quite a number of famous Western composers, his work remains basically unknown. What is, however, vastly known to the West is his image, thanks to his portrait – entitled Le beau Marius – painted by his close friend Modigliani, during Varvoglis stay in Paris (1902-1920; studied at the Conservatoire and the Schola Cantorum). Back in Athens, Varvoglis became a most influential teacher, while he never ceased to compose.
As an active member of composers unions, a director and conductor of performance groups and a music critic, he dedicated himself to the propagation of Greek music.
After the Second World War and the subsequent civil war in Greece, suspected of communism, Varvoglis was arrested and imprisoned in an English concentration camp. On his return home, both his health and his professional stability were shaken. He tried repeatedly to be elected to the Athens Academy – in order to solve his augmenting financial problems – but in vain.

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