Самым выдающимся исполнителем лайки был Стелиос Казандзидис (1931-2001), он как вулкан извергал из себя похоронную мрачность, и его взрывную манеру никто так и не превзошел. В дуэте с ним часто выступали певицы, обычно Маринелла или Йота Лидия, а творчество его увековечивало радости и печали греческого трудового люда, перед которым с 1940-х гг. стояла печальная альтернатива: или терпеть гнет мелочных, а то и злобных властей на родине, или искать более сносной доли на чужбине. «Стелларас» (так его прозвали) за 50 с лишним лет работы завоевал невообразимую преданность множества поклонников: водители грузовиков писали на кабинах и кузовах «Ипархо» (так называлась самая прославленная его песня). А в день его смерти все проигрыватели страны, казалось, крутили песни Казандзидиса, его похороны в Элефсине собрали тысячи пожелавших попрощаться

https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Казандзидис,_Стелио%8

Markopoulos wrote his Concerto-Rhapsody with the aim of honouring the lyre, the most representative instrument of his native Crete, establishing in his composition the essence of musical symbiosis and associations of expression between a local instrument and the symphony orchestra by means of his melodic conception, his rhythms, his harmonic structures and the tone colours of the transparent orchestration that characterize his personal style.

The symbiosis and the similarity of sound between the lyre and the orchestra develop in the first movement, where the orchestra begins by accompanying the lyre’s extended melodic line, while in the second movement there develops an organized dialogue with the exposition of the basic theme by the orchestra. In the third movement (Presto) the symbiosis is converted into musical contrasts, even conflicts, where the composer has the lyre rendering motifs of a popular Cretan dance. The work was given its première in the summer of 1987 in the Nikos Kazantzakis Park Theatre of Irakleio in Crete and was conducted by the composer. Later it was performed in Athens at the Lycabettus Theatre, in London and in Brussels. Since then it has been performed numerous times, the main interest of the Concerto-Rhapsody being in its originality of form and distinctiveness of sound. In 2001 the composer made a further elaboration on the work, expanding the symphonic element with a greater number of strings. It is in this new version that the work has been recorded.

Note: The lyre is a stringed instrument whose existence is documented since the Byzantine period in the ninth century. It is has three strings tuned in fifths (D-A-E) and is mostly played in Crete. The lyre player does not use the tips of his fingers to play, as for instance with the violin, but his nails, plucking the strings from the side.

В 2009 лейбл Naxos в серии Greek classics издал диск Я. Маркопулиса 2009-Shapes In Motion с классическими произведениями композитора, включая рапсодию для Критской лиры и симфонического оркестра.