Constantine Caravassilis is the composer of From Sappho’s Lyre, a recording from Orchid Classics of original music played by Tallinna Kammerorkester and Tenth Muse Ensemble and vocal soloists, setting poetry by Sappho, Jeffrey Duban and Sara Teasdale, that might make a good gift for the classically minded listener at this time of year.

When I saw the cover and the sources I was immediately reminded of Pierre Louÿs and his Chansons de Bilitis (Songs of Bilitis), known to readers and perhaps even more famous via Claude Debussy’s settings of the poems of his friend and room-mate. Louÿs was playing games with his audience via the claims of the authorship of the songs, which in fact were his modern compositions rather than discoveries of ancient texts.

In case you’re wondering why I’d be reminded immediately, it’s both as a pianist practitioner, as a Debussy scholar and as a fan of Louÿs having adapted his novel Aphrodite for the stage back in the 1990s. This entire discursive space of the classical poetic realm, whether real or fake, has intrigued me for literally decades.

So it was with some eagerness that I put Caravassilis’ music onto the CD player of my car to have a listen. It’s compelling listening.

Please note, these are modern compositions employing different groups of instruments, vocals and some narration. This is a mammoth recording, including some more modern sounding pieces. But I was especially captivated by the music inhabiting a middle ground between new-age meditative music and songs with more than a few hints of ancient days. Caravassilis shifts back and forth, employing a few different styles and idioms. When he’s in this one that seems like an evocation of the Ancient Mediterranean culture? I’m hooked. No it’s not as if we know what that music sounded like, nor does this really imitate that, but we’re not jarred, not disturbed from allusions and fantasies of the past. Yet it’s as ambiguous and poetic as the wind blowing through an empty amphitheatre. We are in a tonal realm, melodic without being overly virtuosic. The voices address us in a curious middle-ground between passion and ritual, as we might expect for what we know of Sappho.

The music of From Sappho’s Lyre is often very beautiful. These songs have made a pleasant accompaniment to my driving, that I recommend.