Instrumentation: 3 (3.=Picc.), 2, 3 (3.=Bass Cl.), 2 – 4, 3, 3, 1 – Timp., 3 Perc. – Strings

Symphony no. 2 is an attempt to record personal musical experiences and emotional states.
The first of the four movements, Allegro deciso, follows the pattern ‘Thesis – Antithesis – Synthesis / Thesis II – Antithesis II – Conclusion’, and, though reminiscent of traditional musical forms, could not be identified with them for two reasons: firstly because it divides this movement into two equal parts instead of three, and secondly because it is not based upon repeated melodic themes, but on music cells that focus on the minor sixth interval and recur altered to a greater or lesser extent, in a different expressive climate each time.
The brief Intermezzo, like the Adagio that follows, is written in a free form, the musical material of both being interwoven with melodic elements already heard in this work or derived from my earlier compositions, yet adapted to different conditions of musical expression and elaborated with an appropriate technique.
The Finale, on the other hand, also based upon music cells, partly follows the same pattern as the opening movement: ‘Thesis – Antithesis’ alternate to give the impression of a brisk and often expressively charged Rondo.
Commissioned by the Athens Concert Hall Organisation, this work was completed in Athens, in the spring of 1997, and is gratefully dedicated to the memory of Dimitri Mitropoulos.
Y. Y. Sicilianos