Divine Art Signs Greek Pianist Zoe Samsarelou for Double Album

Zoe Samsarelou is a well-known Greek pianist and currently a Professor at the State Conservatory of Thessaloniki. She is also the Artistic Director of the International Pelion Festival. She studied the piano in Greece and Germany (Berlin and Hamburg). Having also studied archaeology and then pursuing a career as a pianist, she has been closely connected to mythology, history and the Arts her entire life.

This has led her to present in a new double album recording a unique series of compositions, under the title “Ekstasis – Dionysus, Nymphs and Satyrs”, which will be scheduled for release in the first quarter of 2022.

The god Dionysus (also known as Bacchus) had ardent supporters throughout the ancient Greek world, making his cult the most popular in classical Greece. He is primarily the god of fertility and vegetation and his worship was identified with mystical religious ecstasy. It is believed that ancient drama, the tradition of tragic and comic performance – one of the most complete forms of expression that combined poetry, music and dance – originated in Athens from the cult of Dionysus in the 6^th century B.C.E. 

The two discs (and digital programmes) include pieces (some of them recorded for the first time) by the following three groups of composers:

• by the French clavecinists, such as Couperin, Rameau, Dandrieu and Daquin
• by international composers of the 19th-20th century, such as Debussy, Séverac, Dukas, Schmitt, Bortkiewicz, Levitzki, Farjeon, and Juón, and 
• by many eminent Greek composers of the 20th-21st century, including Koumentakis, Marangopoulos, Nasopoulou, Skalkottas, Taylor, Terzakis and Tonia. 

All pieces chosen have a strong and direct relation to the myth of Dionysus and its symbolism. This unique programme highlights the creativity and ingenuity of the Greek spirit and its influence on humanity for over 2,500 years.

The recording was made in the Dimitris Mitropoulos Hall, Megaron, Athens, on June 24 and 25, 2021.

The album was produced by Zoe Samsarelou, engineered by Nikos Espialidis, and mastered by Konstantin Kontos.

Ekstasis: Dionysus, Nymphs and Satyrs

Label: Divine Art

Catalogue no.: DDA 21237

Availability: CD, download in HD and SD formats, and streaming

Artist: Zoe Samsarelou (piano)

Works:

• La Sirène  (Jean-Francois Dandrieu,  1682-1738)
• Les Naïades et le Faune indiscret (Déodat de Severac, 1872-1921)
• Prelude of Naïades (Lina Tonia, b. 1985)
• Satyr und Naïdaen (Dimitri Terzakis, b.1938)
• La Ronde Bachique (Louis-Claude Daquin, 1694-1772)
• La plainte, au loin, du faune (Paul Dukas, 1865-1935)
• From Tethys to the Mediterranean (Giorgos Koumendakis)  **
• Les Satires (François Couperin, 1668-1733)
• 3 Morceaux, Op. 24 – No. 2  Valse grotesque (Satyr) (Sergei Bortkiewicz, 1877-1952)
• Ein Satyrspiel  (Dimitri Terzakis, b.1938)
• Les bacchanales (François Couperin, 1668-1733)
• The enchanted nymph (Mischa Levitzki, 1898-1941)
• Echoe (Nikos Skalkottas, 1904-1049)
• Et Pan, au fond des blés lunaires, s’accouda (Florent Schmitt, 1870-1958)
• Procession to Acheron (Nikos Skalkottas, 1904-1049)
• 6 Epigraphes antiques :  No. 1 Pour invoquer Pan, dieu du vent d’été 
•       And No. 4 Pour la danseuse aux crotales (Claude Debussy, 1862-1918)
• Huis Clos – Erinyes (Nestor Taylor, b.1963)
• Les Cyclopes (Jean-Philippe Rameau, 1683-1764)
• Pictures from Greece, Op. 13 (Harry Farjeon, 1878-1948)
• Dionysus and the Pirates: the Voyage from Ikaria to Naxos (Dimitris Marangopoulos, b.1949)
• La Bacante (Jean-Francois Dandrieu, 1682-1738)
• 9 Miniaturen für klavier “Satyre und Nymphen“ (Paul Juón, 1872-1940)
• Krokeatis Lithos-Lakonia (Apasia Nasopoulou, b. 1972)

**  From the collection ‘Mediterranean Desert’.  Koumendakis rose to fame as the musical director and creator of the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2004 Athens Olympics.