ABSTRACT
Skalkottas left Berlin in the throes of National Socialism and unwillingly returned to his native Greece. Around the time that Skalkottas returned to Greece, the liberal government of Venizelos fell at the general election of 5 March 1933, leading to further political unrest. Thornley suggests that Skalkottas either moved to the back desk of his own volition, to avoid orchestral politics, or that he was moved back to make way for younger and more ambitious players. Skalkottas composed the Concertino for two pianos for his friends from Berlin Antonis Skokos and his wife Katina Paraskeva, who were the leading piano duo in Greece in the 1930s and 1940s. Skalkottass continuous creativity and obsession with composition allowed him to eliminate the external world, and it is tempting to speculate that the passion and energy that seemed so obviously lacking in his everyday persona was transmuted into the ceaseless vitality and intensity of the music itself.
