Description
Artists
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Greek-Cypriot pianist/composer Cilia Petridou was born in Cyprus in 1945. She was taught by her mother from the age of four until the age of nine, when she entered the Greek Lyceum in her native town. She performed her first piano concerto, Mozart’s K.488, at the age of eleven in Nicosia, at the Theatre Royal. By the age of fifteen Cilia had been awarded the Mozart Medal, the highest award in the whole of Cyprus. Unfortunately, her playing came to an abrupt end in 2002 after major surgery. This two CD contains some beautiful and highly accessible music. CD1 is a collection of settings of Greek poetry. “Poetry written in Greek constitutes the longest uninterrupted tradition in the Western World. From Homer to the present day not a single generation of Greeks has lived without expressing its joys and sorrows in verse, and frequently in verse of outstanding originality and beauty. It is Greek poetry which has given the world the various poetic genres in which Western man has expressed his emotions and so many of his thoughts to the present day; and in many of these genres – the epic, the lyric and the dramatic – the achievements of the Greeks have yet to be superseded.” Professor C. A. Trypanis in The Penguin Book of Greek Verse. CD2 features a collection of pieces for a variety of combinations of chamber musicians, all inspired by the history and natural beauty of Cyprus – among them Mount Olympus – or Chionistra as it is known locally. |
