Argerich-Bakopoulou-Hatzidakis

Martha Argerich

Martha Argerich was born in Buenos Aires and started playing the piano at age three (the provenance of the name Argerich is uncertain: some say it is Catalan, while others maintain it originates from Croatia).[1] At the age of five, she moved to teacher Vincenzo Scaramuzza who stressed to her the importance of lyricism and feeling. Argerich gave her debut concert in 1949 at the age of eight. The family moved to Europe in 1955 where Argerich studied with Friedrich Gulda in Austria. Juan Perón, then the president of Argentina, made their decision possible by appointing her parents to diplomatic posts in the Argentine Embassy in Vienna. She later studied with Stefan Askenase and Maria Curcio. Argerich also seized opportunities for brief periods of coaching with Madeleine Lipatti (widow of Dinu Lipatti), Abbey Simon, and Nikita Magaloff.  In 1957, at sixteen, she won both the Geneva International Music Competition and the Ferruccio Busoni International Competition, within three weeks of each other. It was at the latter that she met Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli whom she would later seek out for lessons during a personal artistic crisis at the age of twenty, though she only had four lessons with him in a year and a half.[4] Her greatest influence was Gulda, with whom she studied for 18 months.

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Dora Bakopoulou

Dora Bakopoulou was born in Athens, Greece. The conductor Dimitris Mitropoulos played a decisive role in her life by vividly encouraging her to continue her piano studies, having met her as a child in New York. She studied at the Athens Conservatory graduating with honors. She then enrolled at the Geneva Conservatory and studied with Louis Hiltbrand, obtaining the Premier Prix de Virtuosité avec distinction. She also studied (summer classes) in Salzburg with Friedrich Gulda and Vienna with Paul Badura Skoda. She has also been a prizewinner at international competitions in Munich and Vercelli (Italy). She has given recitals worldwide, including London, Paris, Moscow, St. Petersburg, New York (United Nations) and she has toured in central Europe. She has represented Greece in an official capacity in various cultural events abroad. She has given solo performances at the ancient theatre of Herodio Atticus Theatre within the framework Athens: Cultural Capital of Europe. She has made a number of recordings of Greek composers (notably Manos Hadjidakis and Mikis Theodorakis) and from the foreign repertoire.The Athens Academy conferred on her the Motsenigos Award for her service to music. Dora Bakopoulou currently lives and works in Greece, where she has given a large number of concerts and has frequently appeared with the Greek State Orchestras. She is a piano professor at the Athens Conservatory.

Official website of Dora Bakopoulou HERE

Manos Hatzidakis

Manos Hatzidakis (Greek: Μάνος Χατζιδάκις) (October 23, 1925 – June 15, 1994) was a Greek composer and theorist of the Greek music. He was also one of the main prime movers of the "Éntekhno" song (along with Mikis Theodorakis). In 1960 he received an Academy Award for Best Original Song for his Song Never on Sunday from the film of the same name.
His very first work was the tune for the song "Paper Moon" ("Χάρτινο το Φεγγαράκι"), from Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire staged by Karolos Koun's Art Theatre of Athens, a collaboration which continued for 15 years. His first piano piece, "For a Small White Seashell" ("Για μια Μικρή Λευκή Αχιβάδα"), came out in 1947 and in 1948 he shook the musical establishment by delivering his legendary lecture on rembetika, the urban folk songs that flourished in Greek cities, mainly Piraeus, after the Asia Minor refugee influx in 1922 and until then had heavy underworld and cannabis use connections and were consequently looked down upon.[citation needed] Hatzidakis focused on the economy of expression, the deep traditional roots and the genuineness of emotion displayed in rembetika, and exalted the likes of composers like Markos Vamvakaris and Vassilis Tsitsanis. Putting theory to practice, he adapted classic rembetika in his 1951 piano work, Six Folk Paintings (Έξι Λαϊκές Ζωγραφιές), which was later also presented as a folk ballet. In 1949 he co-founded the Greek Dance Theatre Company with the choreographer Rallou Manou.
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Official website of Manos Hatzidakis HERE

Argerich-Bacopoulou-Hatzidakis

Alessando il Grande Suite dal Balletto -  Lugano 2005

Argerich-Bacopoulou-Hatzidakis

Alessando il Grande Suite dal Balletto - Athens Concert Hall (14 November 2004)

Argerich-Bacopoulou-Francis Poulenc
Concerto for two pianos-Athens Concert Hall (14 November 2004)