News
NEW SACD (Super Audio CD) WITH BIS !!
PAPER MOON, SONGS BY MANOS HADJIDAKIS (2023)
Elena Papandreou, guitar
BIS SACD-2636
Release: 6 January 2023
Total Time: 73’09’’
Works by Manos Hadjidakis arranged for guitar by Roland Dyens and Orestis Kalampalikis
and a new piece by Leo Brouwer inspired by Manos Hadjidakis
American Record Guide
The beauty of this work cannot be contained in this reviewer's words. Good listening, excellent performer.
[Elena Papandreou] demonstrates her formidable expressive proficiency. She handles it all with a seemingly effortless technique and a poetic sense of her instrument.
[Brouwer is] realized to perfection.
Jim McCutcheon June 2023
Gramophone (England)
Elena Papandreou's poetic playing makes you think you are hearing the words even though there is no vocal part.
The recording captures every nuance of Papandreou's playing: as sweet, one might say, as the smell of jasmine.
lvan Moody, May 2023
Soundboard (the Journal of the Guitar Foundation of America)
This is a wonderful album. Every moment of this release is to be savored. Perfect recorded sound (surround sound if you have a SACD player) and notes that couldn’t be bettered.
Al Kunze October 2023
Gendai Guitar (Japan)
Papandreou knows the key to Hadjidakis' music and her unique sound can be heard in these performances.
Hirofumi Watanabe March 2023
Gitarr och Luta (Sweden)
in her performance is the sensation that she is truly singing through the guitar, with an urgency and sincerity that makes this really moving music. The sound processing is pristine, the phrasing wonderfully alive, the dynamic billowing and hearing the wide palette of nuance and expression she demonstrates, is sheer joy. She tells stories with her guitar, and even if these stories cannot be concretely understood or translated into comprehensible words, it is a pleasure to follow their windings from beginning to end.
Ange Turell, February 2023
Fanfare (USA)
Papandreou plays exquisitely. She maintains the listener's interest through a long program by producing a wide variety of colors. If you love the guitar, I can recommend this release with enthusiasm.
Henry Fogel August 2023
e-classical download (studio quality):
https://www.eclassical.com/performers/papandreou-elena/paper-moon-songs-by-hadijdakis-for-guitar.html
Leo Brouwer, for the concert of Elena Papandreou at 2018 Guitar Foundation of America (GFA) convention:
Recently I heard, after some years, Elena Papandreou the guitar soloist, in a great recital.
She mastered not only the performance, but the art of programming!
It was a joy for me to hear excellence, in music and interpretation. Some
times professionals like her, just rest on the masterpieces repeated
exhaustively...
... Papandreou demonstrates to the public what they want to hear: a wide
variety of good music, no banality and a lot of new stuff.
Thanks a lot, Elena for your recital!
Leo Brouwer, October 2018
Roland Dyens for the CD "Elena Papandreou Plays Roland Dyens" (BIS-CD-1366)
It’s a great pleasure and such an honor to see your own music partly recorded on a full CD devoted to….your music. On the other hand, it could be a bit scary too since composers, sometimes, might not be the greatest fans of their own works.
It’s my case...
Nevertheless, thanks to Elena Papandreou and her deep artistry I did not only enjoy listening to her special tribute from Alpha to Zeta but also took advantage of the many unexpected aspects of my music that this outstanding artist has been able to bring out all along the CD, through every tiny part of the pieces selected by her. More than a composer's dream, it’s a real present she did to me actually.
This is indeed what we call talent. And Papandreou is full of it.
Merci Elena.
Efkharisto poli.
Roland Dyens, April 2005
FRÉDÉRIC CHOPIN
3 NOCTURNES for guitar
TRANSCRIPTION: ELENA PAPANDREOU
you may order here:
http://www.panasmusic.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=1672
"Papandreou plays magnificently...
I haven't been this excited about a new release in ages.
The music is a treasure, the performances magnificent. Get this one."
KEN KEATON
AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012
Works by the Russian composer Nikita Koshkin:
Megaron Concerto, for guitar and string orchestra
Guitar Quintet, for guitar and string quartet
L’ Istesso Tempο, for cello and guitar
Polka Papandreou, for guitar and string orchestra
The works are all world première recordings and they are all (except the Guitar Quintet) dedicated to Elena Papandreou.
Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Lan Shui conductor
New Hellenic Quartet
Angelos Liakakis cello
BIS-CD-1846