The five pieces brought together in this programme offer a concise overview of Giorgos Koumendakis’s piano music. The first four belong to Mediterranean Desert, a cycle of miniatures inspired by the flora and fauna of the Mediterranean. Only Mantinada for Piano is an independent work.

In Mediterranean Desert, Koumendakis does not seek to imitate animals literally, but rather to translate their movements, behaviour and even a form of imagined psychology into music. In Wrasse, the fish’s agility and colours give rise to luminous, virtuosic writing in which humour mingles with melancholy, like a children’s song heard underwater. Much shorter, Fly distils a nervous, insistently rhythmic energy. Its incisive articulation and sharply defined motifs evoke Baroque keyboard writing, particularly that of Bach and Scarlatti.

Through writing of stark simplicity, The Larva and the Moth of L. van B. reveals a more elusive depth. The initials in the title refer to Ludwig van Beethoven, whose spare late style haunts the piece like a distant memory. Its fragility and introspective character are also tinged with a subtly Greek melancholy.

Originally composed for the opening ceremony of the 2004 Athens Olympic Games and later incorporated into Mediterranean Desert, Couple leaves the animal world behind to evoke the bond between two people. In just over a minute, the piece traces an intimate song with remarkable economy of means, its melancholy recalling the world of Manos Hatzidakis.

Composed in 2016, Mantinada for Piano draws directly on the Cretan oral tradition. The mantinada is a poetic form intended to be sung or recited. In this work, the pianist speaks a text written by the composer while playing: the voice and piano follow their respective lines, overlapping to create a polyphonic narrative. Dedicated to Stéphanos Thomopoulos, the piece was premiered by him in 2017.

From animal miniatures to the memory of Beethoven, and from Baroque writing to song and Cretan poetry, these five pieces reveal how Koumendakis transforms a wide range of references into an unmistakably personal musical language.