CYPRIEN KATSARIS
20th century Greek piano music Melism MLS-CD-035
What a treasure. There is no harm in sounding like Messiaen-lite when the colours are so vivid and the feeling for the piano so instinctively right as they are in the 24 Préludes (very French indeed) by Yannis Papaïoannou (1910- 89). Titles such as and actually live up to their promise, and here much credit must surely go to Cyprien Katsaris, who gets a sumptuously engineered Bechstein to speak and glitter and (in thunder as required. The collection of eight dances from the Greek islands by Yannis Constantinidis (1903-84)in 9/8. Cast in a Lisztian single movement, the ‘First Greek Sonata’ by Dmitry Levidis (1886- 1951) makes one curious about a second, especially in the hands of Katsaris, who draws out all its potential for Scriabinesque transcendence.
