Celebrating The Icons of Greek Music at the Festival of Chichester

They will be offering beloved melodies by Hadjidakis, Theodorakis and Xarhakos, composed for different reasons during almost the same decade: songs that dressed beautiful poems and coloured movies, that were inspired by political situations or talk about love and passion; some of them dynamic, some nostalgic but all of them deeply meaningful, Pavlos promises.

Usually Pavlos, son of a Brazilian father and a Greek mother, brings his Greek band Plastikes Karekles to the Festival of Chichester, but this year he is ringing the changes to offer something different.

“I used to do a lot of Greek music but just recently I have stepped back a bit but yesterday I did the first Greek concert I have done for a long time and it was just sensational to play that music again.

Pavlos’ first Chichester date this year was on Friday, June 17 when he offered the Bach Solo Cello Suites in St Paul’s Church.

Obviously this is now music in a very different mood.

But as Pavlos points out it is not completely different.

"The concert is dedicated to these three great icons of Greek folk music.

"Almost every song they ever played was like a Greek national anthem.

"But what connects them with Bach was that essentially they were classical composers.

"They were huge admirers of Bach and you can sense this classical influence that is still there even though they are still uniquely Greek.

"They are very much Greek composers but the music still definitely pays its respects to Bach.

"There is a connection with Bach and with the classical music that we play.

"These are pieces that you can hear in the concert hall or that you can hear just with a bouzouki and guitar in a taverna.”

Pavlos added: “The concert for us is a project that was started by Grorge Tsolakis, who is a dear friend and a singer guitarist in the group.”

Tickets from the Festival of Chichester website.