\nThe German-Greek pianist Danae D\u00f6rken has known the 24 books of Homer\u2019s Odyssey since childhood. \u201cThe Odyssey has fascinated me ever since I was small. Even when I was a little girl, my grandparents would read it to me before I went to sleep,\u201d she recalls in her booklet talk with Jesper Klein. The wanderer\u2019s tale from classical antiquity is a story of travelling, making mistakes, going astray, a tale of dreams and landings, and for Danae D\u00f6rken it is more contemporary than ever: \u201cI see this as a highly topical story. I believe we are embarked upon a modern Odyssey.\u201d Today\u2019s many challenges, like climate change or worldwide migration as a result of extreme hardship and often violence, keep bringing modern society to unavoidable forks in the road. And the road taken can be very quickly revealed as a dead end, causing a further change of direction. Corona precautions have repeatedly reminded us of that during the past two years.
\nRather than losing heart, Danae D\u00f6rken finds it \u201cexciting to be living at such a point in time \u2026 on such a journey, there are hopeful moments and moments of despair\u201d. And so she has ventured out on her debut album \u201cOdyssee\u201d from Berlin Classics on a quite deliberate musical journey. The album\u2019s release date is April 22, 2022.
\nThis journey begins with Faz\u0131l Say\u2019s piece about loneliness, Black Earth. Then we hear the enchanting voices of the Sir\u00e8nes from Claude Debussy\u2019s Trois Nocturnes, seductively conveyed by the piano, followed by Charles Gounod\u2019s Souvenance, music of remembrance, which praises life as worth remembering despite all its challenges. Franz Liszt\u2019s Das Wandern focuses on the simple process of moving on. \u201cFelix Mendelssohn\u2019s expansive Fantasie op. 28, rich in lively figuration in the outer movements and the most Classical piece on the album, is actually a piece about travel in the truest sense of the word,\u201d writes Jesper Klein in the booklet. During her research for \u201cOdyssee\u201d, Danae D\u00f6rken came across a different kind of piece, Waiting for Friday by Syrian composer Kinan Azmeh \u2013 a piece that begins very modestly and casually, only to ascend into immensely dramatic heights and so \u2013 says D\u00f6rken \u2013 to signal that things turn out badly. Not all journeys have a happy ending. In the case of Manos Hatzidakis\u02bc Waltz of lost dreams, which she heard as a child on a wide variety of instruments, Danae D\u00f6rken is reminded at once of Greek dance music: \u201cGreek songs are more often about hard times than good times. It is characteristic of Greek music to celebrate life even when things are difficult,\u201d she reflects. Waltz of lost dreams gives the feel of this Greek mentality. The album\u2019s conclusion comes in the last piece but one, Charles Gounod\u2019s Marche fun\u00e8bre d\u02bcune marionnette, a funeral march for a puppet, only to release the travelling listener on a reassuring note with Vangelis\u02bc Moonlight Reflections, dreamily drifting music.
\n\u201cThe proper ending of the journey is the funeral march, as I see it,\u201d maintains D\u00f6rken in the booklet. For all her musical engagement, the artist with roots on the Greek island of Lesbos is constantly taking a political stance. With her album \u201cOdyssee\u201d, the pianist also means to draw attention to the never-ending odysseys of fellow human beings driven to flight, many thousands of whom have been forced to stay on the island of Lesbos. \u201cAs a Greek woman from Lesbos I am constantly confronted with the refugee crisis, of course. We should like to send the message that humanity is paramount. All the same, it is not enough for the people there to show compassion. It is not a problem that the islanders can solve on their own.\u201d The album \u201cOdyssee\u201d is also an appeal to all of us to understand, to be aware not only of our own journey through life, but to have fellow-feeling for the odyssey of society, of humanity, in our own dealings with others.
\nThe poet Argyris Eftaliotis (1849-1923) is buried on the beach of Eftalou. He translated Homer\u2019s Odyssey into modern Greek. He wrote: \u201cTo love the light, you must feel the darkness.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The German-Greek pianist Danae D\u00f6rken has known the 24 books of Homer\u2019s Odyssey since childhood. \u201cThe Odyssey has fascinated me ever since I was small. Even when I was a little girl, my grandparents would read it to me before I went to sleep,\u201d she recalls in her booklet talk with Jesper Klein. The wanderer\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1283907,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"dmbid":"1003778","upc":"885470026541","linkfire":"https:\/\/BC.lnk.to\/Odyssee","ean":"","genre":"Klassik","genre2":"Klavier","genre3":"","copyright":"","producer":"","playtime":"3967","date":"2022-04-22","dateend":"2099-12-31","trackamount":"11","discamount":"1","artistsname":"","composer":"Faz\u0131l Say|Claude Debussy|Charles Gounod|Franz Liszt|Kinan Azmeh|Manos Hatzidakis|Vangelis|Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy","teammember":["1009;Danae D\u00f6rken;2359233|1002;Danae D\u00f6rken;2359233|1010;Faz\u0131l Say;1841415|1010;Claude Debussy;41900|1010;Charles Gounod;583|1010;Franz Liszt;41815|1010;Kinan Azmeh;2404665|1010;Manos Hatzidakis;2404666|1010;Vangelis;2404667|1010;Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy;42156"],"teammemberlist":["2359233|2359233|1841415|41900|583|41815|2404665|2404666|2404667|42156"],"english":"
\nThe German-Greek pianist Danae D\u00f6rken has known the 24 books of Homer\u2019s Odyssey since childhood. \u201cThe Odyssey has fascinated me ever since I was small. Even when I was a little girl, my grandparents would read it to me before I went to sleep,\u201d she recalls in her booklet talk with Jesper Klein. The wanderer\u2019s tale from classical antiquity is a story of travelling, making mistakes, going astray, a tale of dreams and landings, and for Danae D\u00f6rken it is more contemporary than ever: \u201cI see this as a highly topical story. I believe we are embarked upon a modern Odyssey.\u201d Today\u2019s many challenges, like climate change or worldwide migration as a result of extreme hardship and often violence, keep bringing modern society to unavoidable forks in the road. And the road taken can be very quickly revealed as a dead end, causing a further change of direction. Corona precautions have repeatedly reminded us of that during the past two years.
\nRather than losing heart, Danae D\u00f6rken finds it \u201cexciting to be living at such a point in time \u2026 on such a journey, there are hopeful moments and moments of despair\u201d. And so she has ventured out on her debut album \u201cOdyssee\u201d from Berlin Classics on a quite deliberate musical journey. The album\u2019s release date is April 22, 2022.
\nThis journey begins with Faz\u0131l Say\u2019s piece about loneliness, Black Earth. Then we hear the enchanting voices of the Sir\u00e8nes from Claude Debussy\u2019s Trois Nocturnes, seductively conveyed by the piano, followed by Charles Gounod\u2019s Souvenance, music of remembrance, which praises life as worth remembering despite all its challenges. Franz Liszt\u2019s Das Wandern focuses on the simple process of moving on. \u201cFelix Mendelssohn\u2019s expansive Fantasie op. 28, rich in lively figuration in the outer movements and the most Classical piece on the album, is actually a piece about travel in the truest sense of the word,\u201d writes Jesper Klein in the booklet. During her research for \u201cOdyssee\u201d, Danae D\u00f6rken came across a different kind of piece, Waiting for Friday by Syrian composer Kinan Azmeh \u2013 a piece that begins very modestly and casually, only to ascend into immensely dramatic heights and so \u2013 says D\u00f6rken \u2013 to signal that things turn out badly. Not all journeys have a happy ending. In the case of Manos Hatzidakis\u02bc Waltz of lost dreams, which she heard as a child on a wide variety of instruments, Danae D\u00f6rken is reminded at once of Greek dance music: \u201cGreek songs are more often about hard times than good times. It is characteristic of Greek music to celebrate life even when things are difficult,\u201d she reflects. Waltz of lost dreams gives the feel of this Greek mentality. The album\u2019s conclusion comes in the last piece but one, Charles Gounod\u2019s Marche fun\u00e8bre d\u02bcune marionnette, a funeral march for a puppet, only to release the travelling listener on a reassuring note with Vangelis\u02bc Moonlight Reflections, dreamily drifting music.
\n\u201cThe proper ending of the journey is the funeral march, as I see it,\u201d maintains D\u00f6rken in the booklet. For all her musical engagement, the artist with roots on the Greek island of Lesbos is constantly taking a political stance. With her album \u201cOdyssee\u201d, the pianist also means to draw attention to the never-ending odysseys of fellow human beings driven to flight, many thousands of whom have been forced to stay on the island of Lesbos. \u201cAs a Greek woman from Lesbos I am constantly confronted with the refugee crisis, of course. We should like to send the message that humanity is paramount. All the same, it is not enough for the people there to show compassion. It is not a problem that the islanders can solve on their own.\u201d The album \u201cOdyssee\u201d is also an appeal to all of us to understand, to be aware not only of our own journey through life, but to have fellow-feeling for the odyssey of society, of humanity, in our own dealings with others.
\nThe poet Argyris Eftaliotis (1849-1923) is buried on the beach of Eftalou. He translated Homer\u2019s Odyssey into modern Greek. He wrote: \u201cTo love the light, you must feel the darkness.\u201d","imageage":[],"spotify_checked":["4uCUXSr2NGR2MR7y1j6lRG"],"age":[""],"playlist":[""],"alt_text":"Release-Cover \u201eOdyssee\u201c von Pianistin Danae D\u00f6rken. Danae D\u00f6rken in wei\u00dfem Kleid mit goldener Folie am Meer, vor weitem Himmel und Wasserfl\u00e4che; helle Blau-, Grau- und Goldt\u00f6ne, frontale Au\u00dfenaufnahme und poetische, weite Stimmung.","topics":[null],"footnotes":""},"categories":[181,20,25],"dmb-topic-category":[],"class_list":["post-1283397","album","type-album","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-album","category-klassik","category-klavier","post-wrapper","thrv_wrapper"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.berlin-classics-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/album\/1283397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.berlin-classics-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/album"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.berlin-classics-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/album"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.berlin-classics-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.berlin-classics-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1283397"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.berlin-classics-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/album\/1283397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1284159,"href":"https:\/\/www.berlin-classics-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/album\/1283397\/revisions\/1284159"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.berlin-classics-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1283907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.berlin-classics-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1283397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.berlin-classics-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1283397"},{"taxonomy":"dmb-topic-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.berlin-classics-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/dmb-topic-category?post=1283397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}