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Cover
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During the Second World War the poet Iacovos Kambanellis was a prisoner in Camp Mauthausen.
In 1965 he wrote four poems about this period and asked the Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis to put them to music. The poems are now world-famous as the Mauthausen trilogy. Thanks to Maria Farantouri the trilogy has become very popular.
The recordings on this cd date from 1995 and 1999. The four poems are sung in three different languages (Greek, Hebrew and English) by Farantouri, Elinoar Moav Veniadis and Nadia Weinberg respectively. You might think that it's boring to listen to the same songs over and over again, with only the languages varying, but that is not the case.
The Hebrew version has a very classical approach and has a completely different atmosphere than the English one, which is influenced by jazz, or the Greek one, which is very close to the original Farantouri recordings. The Hebrew part of the cd surprised me most. Veniadis makes me want to cry. She gives such a power to the songs that I can feel the poems in every part of my body. The same applies to Farantouri when she is singing in her low voice, which is the opposite of Veniadis' voice.
The English version is nice because, as you understand the lyrics, you get a notion of what the songs are about - but that's all. Weinberg turns them into popular tunes, sung well technically but with little emotion.
If you don't own the Mauthausen trilogy, this cd is a must. It is one of the most important 20th century compositions and should be in every cd collection.
Eelco Schilder
in: FolkWorld CD Reviews
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