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Vangelis: El Greco

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: EMI Classics
Released: 1998
Time:
 73:01
Category: Electronica
Producer(s): Vangelis
Rating: ********.. (8/10)
Media type: CD
Web address: www.vangelisworld.com
Appears with: Aphrodites Child, Jon & Vangelis
Purchase date: 1998.11.07
Price in €: 13,99



 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Movement I
[2] Movement II
[3] Movement III
[4] Movement IV
[5] Movement V
[6] Movement VI
[7] Movement VII
[8] Movement VIII
[9] Movement IX
[10] Movement X (Epilogue)

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


EVANGHELOS "Vangelis" ODYSSEY PAPATHANASSIOU - Compositor, Arrangement, Performer

Montserrat Caballe - Soprano
Konstantinos Pallatsaras - Tenor

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


New commercial version of the limited classic from 1995. The album became legendarey instantly, being hailed as superb by the fans who got hold of it. Three years after its original release Vangelis decided to offer it to the rest of the world in a slightly different version: a new track order some altered transitions between the tracks and no less than three new compositions, resulting in a total playing time of more than 73 minutes.



Within the same period of the first releases of Voices Vangelis surprised the fans with this remarkable album. Only 3000 copies were made. Vangelis personally signed all of them. A book (A4 sized with many pictures) - dedicated to Vangelis - about Greek/Spanish painter El Greco accompanied the CD. All is kept in a nice blue box imprinted with Greek letters.
The package was sold at only one place in Greece. A museum in Athens. The money it made has been put into restoration and maintenance of paintings in Greek museums, and followed a fundraising project initiated by Vangelis to purchase El Greco's paintings and bring them to Greece.
The music itself is a slow but gentle and serious ode to El Greco. The synthesizer sounds are all reminiscent of classical instruments but only suggest their origin. The music sounds very Byzantine, but in a contemporary way. A paradox indeed.
Vangelis is joined by two opera voices, each on one of the seven movements: soprano Montserrat Caballé and tenor Konstantinos Paliatsaras.
All of this would have cost you about $150 US dollars if you would have bought it directly in Athens, where it was often told to have been sold out, reappearing there later on. The Albedo fanclub offers to help get it at the museum for 100 Pound Sterling.

A bootleg surfaced very early on, when the original was still for sale at the museum. Its price varied. Note that it does NOT include the book and original autograph by Vangelis.
In 1998 a new version of the album was compiled, with 3 addition tracks, being released commercially and unlimited, with new artwork but no book, box or autograph.

The three new tracks are blent in with the tracks of the previous version of the album. In general the old tracks have not been tampered with, the appear in pretty much their full length. They have however received a little bit of overdubbing near their start and end to fit the new blending of the tracks.

Whether the new material fits in is material for discussion. They seem a bit more playfull but sloppy and even blunt in certain passages. Anyone who paid the full amount (or more) for the original version however will certainly be willing to pay for the new material again.

Those who get this album for the first time miss of course the wonderfull book about El Greco's paintings that was shipped with the limited version from 1995. The would do well to try and find some paintings of El Greco, for instance in any nearby library, as it definately adds to the music, like the music adds to the paintings.



A TRIBUTE TO EL GRECO

A musical composition by Vangelis Papathanassiou and the National Fund for the Purchase of Works of Art.

Vangelis Papathanassiou paved the way for the collection of the very substantial sum of money required for the purchase of Domenicos Theotocopoulos' Saint Peter by the Greek National Gallery. El Greco created his work far from his fatherland, in a voluntary, though not less painful exile, always with the desire and homesickness for Crete, as attested by numerous pieces of evidence, and most significantly, by the signatures in Greek that persistedly accompany his paintings. The analogies with the life of the contemporary Greek composer Vangelis are evident. Vangelis Papathanassiou belives that Domenicos Theotocopoulos was able to create his sublime opus due to his Greek origin, education and conscience. To be a Greek is for Papathanassiou a privilege and a responsibility. The musical work A Tribute to El Greco emerged from this sense of responsibility.

This same feeling led him to his decision to offer to the Nation Gallery the CD of his musical composition in three thousand signed copies, in order to establish a National Fund for the Purchase of Works of Art. Vangelis Papathanassiou's musical composition is inspired by Domenicos Theotocopoulos' pictorial symphonies. Vangelis' music and El Greco's religious visions may lead us to a similiar type of ecstasy. The great Spanish soprano Montserat Caballe culminates the celestial symphony, thus giving a live voice voice to El Greco's angelic choirs. So El Greco's two fatherlands, Greece and Spain, may be joined in a contemporary creation. The participation of the tenor Konstantinos Paliatsaras is exceptional. Warner Music United Kingdom produced 3000 CDs, which were donated to the National Gallary towards the creation of the National Fund for the Purchase of Works of Art.
 

 L y r i c s


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