Elegy of the Uprooting

Material is effectively a summary of her greatest music for stage and, especially, screen.

Seeing/hearing Karaindrou in concert is a unique experience - as audiences everywhere are discovering.

Watching the way the traditional instruments ensemble, playing their 'folk' instruments are embraced by the banks of orchestral strings is particularly fascinating.

Soloists include the great singer Maria Farantouri, the voice of Greek freedom, plus Eleni herself at the piano.

For newcomers, this DVD is a perfect introduction to her haunting music.

Released simultaneously with her new film score, Dust of Time.

Eleni Karaindrou is far more than a 'soundtrack composer'. Her music, for key films by Theo Angelopoulos and others, stands very ably by itself. And her concerts, with their sweeping, elegiac music are both celebrations and rituals that explore the Greek soul and Greece's often tragic history. They are major events: Karaindrou is a star of the first magnitude in Greece, her concerts are eagerly anticipated, and press reactions ecstatic.

A 130-strong cast was assembled at the Athens Concert Hall for the three days of sold-out performances from which this concert DVD is drawn. Orchestra, choir, traditional instruments ensemble, soloists, legendary singer Maria Fantouri, the composer herself as pianist, and ECM producer Manfred Eicher as artistic and musical director. This is an epic journey in colours sounds and rhythms, shedding light on the themes of uprooting, exodus, exile and homecoming - themes that recur in Karaindrou's work.

While material from The Weeping Meadow and Trojan Women is emphasized, the concert recording embraces music from all of Karaindou's ECM recordings, including Ulysses' Gaze, Eternity and A Day, The Suspended Step of the Stork and Music for Films. There's also material new to ECM, including theatre music for Chekhov's The Seagull, and the film score for Tonia Marketaki's The Price of Love.

Born in the mountain village of Teichio in central Greece, Eleni Karaindrou studied piano and theory in Athens. In Paris from 1967-75 she studied ethnomusicology and wrote and recorded songs, many successfully covered by Greek singers. A prolific composer, she has written for numerous feature films, theatrical and radio plays, TV films and series, and received countless prizes including the Fellini Award 1992 from Europa Cinema (Italy). Her closest artistic association - over 20 years - has been with the great filmmaker Theo Angelopoulos. Since 1991she has recorded exclusively for ECM which is simultaneously releasing her score to the new Angelopoulos film, Dust of Time (4766766).