Konstantia Gourzi: Music For Piano And String Quartet Lorenda Ramou & Ensemble Coriolis

• 1 Eine kleine Geschichte, Op. 25 03:04
• 2 P-Ilion, 9 Fragmente einer Ewigkeit, Op. 33/2 10:28
• 3 Aiolos Wind, Op. 41 06:53
• 4 Israel, Op. 19 11:56
• 5 Noch fürcht' ich, Op. 8 06:50
• 6 Vibrato 1, Op. 38/1 03:34
• 7 Klavierstücke I-V, Op. 24 04:26
• 8 Vibrato 2, Op. 38/2 04:27
• Total Runtime 51:38

Info for Konstantia Gourzi: Music For Piano And String Quartet

Athens-born and Munich-based composer Konstantia Gourzi makes her ECM New Series label debut. “What historical voices commingle in the current idiom of a composer whose cultural roots lie in the birthplace of rhetoric, but who emigrated to take a musical apprenticeship in European constructivism?” asks Ingrid Allwardt in the liner notes. “What wordless airs, echoes of past ages, thread their way into the present day of her instrumental songs?” Music for piano and string quartet, supplies the answers. With the exception of the early „noch fürcht’ ich”, composed in 1993, all the music is of recent vintage. It includes a number of piano miniatures, pieces dedicated to Lachenmann, Kurtág, Raue, Abbado, Barenboim and Rexroth, two string quartets, and works for string quartet and piano. Pianist Lorenda Ramou and the Ensemble Coriolis deliver committed performances. The album was recorded in Munich’s Himmelfahrtskirche in 2012, and produced by Manfred Eicher.

Lorenda Ramou, piano

Ensemble Coriolis:
Heather Cottrell, violin
Susanna Pietsch, violin
Klaus-Peter Werani, violin
Hanno Simons, violoncello

Recorded July 2012 at Himmelfahrtskirche, Munich
Engineered by Stephan Schellmann
Produced by Manfred Eicher

Lorenda Ramou
graduated from the Athens National Conservatory under Tonis Georgiou (piano) and Yiannis Avgerinos (harmony), the Conservatoire National de Région de Boulogne-Billancourt (first prize in piano) and the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris (Diploma in Piano Pedagogy and Certificat d’Aptitude in 1993). She pursued her studies at City University, London (Master in Music with distinction in 1994). She was granted scholarships from the French Government, the Academy of Athens and the British Council. She has especially studied contemporary piano repertoire under Claude Helffer, Marie-Françoise Bucquet and Pierre-Laurent Aimard. She was selected to participate in the first Academy of the XXth Century in 1995 (Cité de la Musique, Paris) under the direction of David Robertson and Pierre Boulez. She has been, for several years, a member of the Hellenic Contemporary Music Ensemble conducted by Theodore Antoniou and has collaborated with the composers Maurice Ohana, George Crumb and Mauricio Kagel. She has given solo recitals and chamber music concerts in France, England, Greece, Portugal, Germany, Holland, Sweden and the United States.

Lorenda Ramou has recently recorded the first complete performance of Nikos Skalkottas’s ballet music for piano for BIS, highly praised by the international press. She has also recorded two CDs with chamber music works by Yiannis Ioannidis and works for piano and electronics by Dimitris Andrikopoulos and Manolis Manousakis. She is the editor of the Critical Edition of Dimitris Dragatakis’s complete solo piano music, to be published by Philippos Nakas Music House.

In her solo recitals Lorenda Ramou often combines classical with contemporary repertoire and music theatre works. She has given many first performances of pieces written especially for her. Together with the bassoonist Stefanie Liedtke she founded the contemporary music ensemble Palmós in 1997. Supported by Greek and Dutch cultural institutions, Palmós has performed in the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, Tonhalle, Düsseldorf, the Athens Megaron and the Dutch Embassy Auditorium in Washington, among other places. Lorenda Ramou teaches music and piano at St Catherine’s British Embassy School of Athens and also directs the school’s instrumental department.

Booklet for Konstantia Gourzi: Music For Piano And String Quartet