Eleni Karaindrou – Euripides: Medea (2014) [Official Digital Download 24bit/96kHz]

Eleni Karaindrou – Euripides: Medea (2014)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 45:17 minutes | 837 MB | Genre: Classical
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © ECM

Greek composer Eleni Karaindrou’s collaborations with stage director Antonis Antypas have generated some of her most powerful music. Medea, like the earlier Trojan Women, comes out of this association. Created to accompany performances at the Ancient Theatre of Epidaurus, the music vibrates with emotional intensity. Karaindrou gives her themes to a small ensemble, its sound-colours creating an ambiance both archaic and contemporary, as textures of santouri, ney, lyra and clarinets are combined and contrasted. Even with reduced instrumental forces the composer seems to imply an orchestral scope. Giorgos Cheimonas’ Modern Greek adaptation of Euripides provides the lyrics, movingly sung by a 15-piece chorus under the direction of Antonis Kontogeorgiou and, on two pieces, by the composer.

Euripides’ play, first staged in 431 BC, counts amongst the darkest of the dramas of antiquity, a harrowing tale of betrayal, rage, retribution, madness, and infanticide. When Jason abandons Medea to marry Glauce, daughter of King Creon, and thereby strengthen his political influence, Medea responds with a fury that knows no bounds. In a programme note for the Epidaurus production, Antonis Antypas writes “Medea’s divine lineage [in Greek mythology she was the niece of Circe, granddaughter of the sun god Helios] and preoccupation with the heroic code of honour gird her and put the knife in her hand. Her passion for Jason has humanized her, but when Jason’s betrayal reveals her sacrifice to have been in vain, she regains her divine stature and the right to punish her mortal husband for his hubris.”

Karaindrou counterpoints the plot with music that builds tension also through restraint and silences. Already the pulsing of the bendir on “Ceremonial Procession” and the baleful melodies for ney and clarinet seem to anticipate the misfortunes ahead. The themes passed from clarinet to cello in “On The Way To Exile” are laden with melancholy. In her liner note Eleni praises the commitment of the players, “travelling with me through Euripdes’ bleak world of poetry, unfolding their song, compassionate toward the play’s characters.” They convey “sounds of the Orient, Greek but also global” to underline the drama of the barbarian Medea, “whose love for the Greek Jason made her renounce her homeland, father and mother.”

Eleni Karaindrou’s is the first voice heard on the album, singing Medea’s laments. Thereafter the chorus take up the tale, enumerating the consequences of “love’s great malevolence”.

Tracklist:
1. Eleni Karaindrou – Argo’s Voyage (01:41)
2. Eleni Karaindrou – Ceremonial Procession (03:48)
3. Eleni Karaindrou – On the Way to Exile (04:51)
4. Eleni Karaindrou – The Haze of Mania (01:14)
5. Eleni Karaindrou – Medea’s Lament I (01:46)
6. Eleni Karaindrou – Woman of Mourning (01:20)
7. Eleni Karaindrou – Medea’s Lament II (01:45)
8. Eleni Karaindrou – Loss (01:43)
9. Eleni Karaindrou – Backwards to Their Sources (03:40)
10. Eleni Karaindrou – A Sinister Decision (03:55)
11. Eleni Karaindrou – Love’s Great Malevolence (03:22)
12. Eleni Karaindrou – For the Sake of a Greek’s Words (01:51)
13. Eleni Karaindrou – Do Not Kill Your Children (04:30)
14. Eleni Karaindrou – An Unbearable Song (01:21)
15. Eleni Karaindrou – All Hope Is Lost (03:24)
16. Eleni Karaindrou – The Night of Killing (02:48)
17. Eleni Karaindrou – Silence (02:09)

Personnel:
Socratis Sinopoulos – constantinople lute & lyra
Haris Lambrakis – ney
Nikos Guinos – clarinet on 1, 2, 6
Marie-Cecile Boulard – clarinet on 1, 2, 6
Alexandros Arkadopoulos – clarinet
Yiorgos Kaloudis – violoncello
Andreas Katsigiannis – santouri
Andreas Papas – bendir
Eleni Karaindrou – voice on 5, 7
Choir directed by Antonis Kontogeorgiou

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