Phasma-Music - CONTEMPORARY GREEK MUSIC FOR SOLO PIANO

CONTEMPORARY GREEK MUSIC FOR SOLO PIANO

Genre : Classical

Catalogue: Phasma-Music 044

UPC: 660989085995

The recording, editing and mastering were made by Kostas Kontos at the Music Technology Lab of the School of Music Studies of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (2018-2021).

A Steinway & Sons Model A Grand Piano was used for the recordings.

Front cover by George Manolas (digital painting named “Mount Athos”)

The picture of Fani Karagianni by Yannis Michaelides

Graphic design by Michail Travlos

premiere: April 1, 2022.

CONTEMPORARY GREEK MUSIC FOR SOLO PIANO presents a selection of solo piano works by 13 Greek composers of different generations, attempting to offer a stylistically diverse listening experience. The composers’ birth year ranges from 1904 to 1993 and the works’ creation year from 1939 to 2020. Within this broad chronological framework, two groups emerge: works from the older generation of Greek composers (N. Skalkottas, Y. Papaioannou, A. Kounadis, K. Nikitas), written between 1939 and 1966, and works from the newer generation (Ch. Samaras, C. Tsougras, V. Kitsos, G. Sakallieros, D. Maronidis, D. Economou, S. Dalampira, G. Koutoula, O. Papaioannou), written during the last 16 years (2005-2020). The second group of composers is centered around two of Thessaloniki’s important musical institutions, the School of Music Studies of the Aristotle University and the State Conservatory of Thessaloniki, as its members are connected through teacher/student/colleague relationships, tending towards the creation of a “Thessaloniki school” of composition.

The works are stylistically heterogenous, encompassing many of the trends, aesthetic stances and artistic currents of the 20th and 21st centuries: impressionism, folk song processing, neoclassicism/ neotonality, neoromanticism and mainstream 21st-century modernism, thus encompassing most contemporary music genres and also demonstrating the multitude of ways with which Greek composers reflected international influences while keeping their individuality and uniqueness.

The album is dedicated to the memory of my teacher George Hadjinikos, whose inspired teaching, love for music and painstaking efforts to promote the works of Greek composers (mainly Nikos Skalkottas’s) throughout the world has been inspirational and exemplary.

Many thanks to Kostas Kontos and Costas Tsougras, who devoted plenty of their time and effort for this project, without them it would have not been possible. (© Fani Karagianni)

Product details

CONTEMPORARY GREEK MUSIC FOR SOLO PIANO

Works by Greek composers of the 20th and 21st century

Fani Karagianni, piano

Costas Tsougras

Three Stylistic Studies, based on Macedonian Folk Melodies (2011)

01. I. Lullaby (study on Nikos Skalkottas) [02:25]

02. II. To Endeka (study on Yannis Constantinidis) [01:25]

03. III. Little Apple Tree (study on Manos Hadjidakis) [02:18

Yannis A. Papaioannou

04. The Plain with Poplars (Prelude nr. 16) (1939) [02:22]

Arghyris Kounadis

05. Three Ιdiomela (1956) [02:08]

Nikos Skalkottas

06. Passacaglia (1940) [07:02]

Kostas Nikitas

07. Andante (movement II from Piano Sonata) (1966) [03:42]

Christos Samaras

08. Prelude (2005) [03:37]

09. Prelude (2014) [02:13]

10. Prelude (2003 [02:42])

11. Prelude (2019) [02:25]

Vassilis Kitsos

12. “of every breath...” (2017) [05:31]

Stella Dalampira

13. Desaturated Reflections (2020) [03:52]

Glykeria Koutoula

14. Anamnesis Prelude (2020) [03:18]

Dimitris Economou

15. Sink (2013) [08:05 ]

Giorgos Sakallieros

16. Pause-S (2012) [05:31]

Orestis Papaioannou

17. Dance (movement II from Rhythmology) (2018) [02:03]

Dimitris Maronidis

18. Shadow Clock Lullaby (2013) [02:30]

Total time: [61:00]