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2024-05-06 the website is under construction.

I connect into the INTERNET, every 24 - 48 hours, from an INTERNET CAFE, If there are available PC Computer(s) there.

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Soul-stirring album of Mikis Theodorakis dedicated to all those who experienced the cruelty of fascism and resisted. The 4 songs have lyrics of the poet Iakovos Kambanellis who passed two years of his life (1943-45) in the terrible Mauthausen camp in Austria and survived.

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Absolutely the best way the life in Concentration Camp lyrically described. 

Even if you don't understand modern Greek....you can feel the anger ,the pain , the hope and the 'désespoir'. 

Such a kind  of powerful dramatic ballads with a distinctly feel for 'pathos' is seldom heard in modern music. 

Maria Farandouri has the perfect 'timbre' to sing this kind of song. 

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( please click on the using the right click of your mouse,  and Open Link in Next Private Window,  )

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12. ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ - GREEK

GREEK - 14 videos

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XabGangwb6E&list=PLH99V1T9pDs4VoGjJ9_WM6_eBqdbnd4cU

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04. DEUTSCH

DEUTSCH ( GERMAN ) - 4 videos

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPEeBgMcLHo&list=PLH99V1T9pDs4t_XhILb9fNLRKQG9LxDrP

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18. DUTCH - the NEDERLANDS

DUTCH ( the NEDERLANDS ) - 5 videos

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NKLZnpc0Sg&list=PLH99V1T9pDs5aP7PIhmG-s2LGZre0wkUt

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01. ENGLISH

ENGLISH - 6 videos

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNgVdj4M4KM&list=PLH99V1T9pDs4Qs4SvGb6BzQ0yNgMwxo9J

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02. ESPANOL - SPANISH

ESPANOL ( SPANISH ) - 1 videos

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dj89-5572P4&list=PLH99V1T9pDs6-spYgsB2pwmH5iEG7yF1r

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03. FRANCAIS - FRENCH

FRANCAIS ( FRENCH ) - 1 videos

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egtNQg9Ls28&list=PLH99V1T9pDs6BaF1logvfdgT6S-evu2VT&ab_channel=PhotisIoannatos

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05. ITALIANO - ITALIAN

ITALIANO ( ITALIAN ) - 4 videos

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSHd46cT2A8&list=PLH99V1T9pDs5CA-UnCSeN8ZAYZGQnyheF

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OR ... CONTINUE WITH ME ! ...

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The "Mauthausen Trilogy" also known as "The Ballad of Mauthausen",[3] and the "Mauthausen Cantata",[4] is a cycle of four arias with lyrics based on poems written by Greek poet Iakovos Kambanellis, a Mauthausen concentration camp survivor, and music written by Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis. It has been described as the "most beautiful musical work ever written about the Holocaust",[5] and as "an exquisite, haunting and passionate melody that moves Kambanellis' affecting words to an even higher level".

In May 1988, the world premiere of the "Trilogy" at the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria was attended by then Austrian chancellor Franz Vranitzky and tens of thousands of Europeans. The ballad was conducted by Theodorakis and sung by Maria Farandouri and Demis Roussos in Greek, Elinor Moav in Hebrew and Gisela May in German. In May 1995, Theodorakis conducted a repeat concert of the ballad at the camp to mark the 50th anniversary of its liberation from the Nazis. It is one of the best known compositions inspired by events at the Mauthausen concentration camp, it is popular in Israel, and has been used to promote peace and cooperation worldwide.[6] In 1991, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Israel conducted by Zubin Mehta performed the work as part of the Athens Festival.[7]

The ballad reflects Kambanellis's own experience at Mauthausen, including his love for a Lithuanian-Jewish woman, as it recounts the love affair between a young Greek prisoner and his Jewish love amidst the atrocities they witnessed at the camp. Approximately a year after the release of his ballad, during the premiere of the Mauthausen song cycle in Londonin 1967, Mikis Theodorakis was imprisoned in Greece by the recently installed Greek military junta and his music was banned in the country.

In World War II, Iakovos Kambanellis, a Greek author and poet, was imprisoned by the Nazis at the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria where he witnessed the Nazi atrocities. Over 100,000 victims died at the camp. Kambanellis survived the incarceration at the Nazi concentration camp and, after the liberation by the allies, started writing a book based on the events and atrocities he witnessed there.[5]

With the passing years, Kambanellis's work remained in manuscript form at his home. Subsequent world events, such as the assassination of US President Kennedy, caused Kambanellis to re-examine and update his manuscript. He then wrote two new chapters which were eventually published in the Sunday editions of the Greek newspaper Eleftheria and caused a sensation. In December 1965, Kambanellis published his book Mauthausen with the Themelio publishers in Athens.[5]

While the book was being prepared for publication by Themelio, Kambanellis wrote four poems based on four chapters in his book. The poems recounted the love affair between two young prisoners at the camp. The owner of Themelio publications, Mimis Despotides, suggested to Kambanellis that the four poems should also be released as songs, to coincide with the publication of the book, and suggested Mikis Theodorakis as the composer.[8]

Kambanellis agreed and gave the poems to his friend Mikis Theodorakis who was very receptive to the idea of composing the music for them, since he was also imprisoned by the Nazis and Italian fascists in Greece during the war, and created the "Mauthausen Trilogy" which was quite unlike any of his previous works.[2][5]The premiere of the works in Greece was at a theatre in Hippocrates street in Athens in December 1965 and the reception by the audience was enthusiastic.[8][9]

The ballad is considered as possibly the greatest work of Theodorakis,[17] while the "Song of Songs" has been described as "one of the finest songs Theodorakis has ever written".[18] The music critic of the Baltimore Sun writes: "Theodorakis had the genius to set this poem with melodic elements from the hymn for Palm Sundayof the Orthodox Church, creating an exquisite, haunting and passionate melody that moves Kambanellis' affecting words to an even higher level."[17]

Jerry Silverman in his book The Undying Flame: Ballads and Songs of the Holocaust writes that "we can be [similarly] enthralled by the passionate lyrics and haunting melody of "Asma Asmaton"" and "[Kambanellis] also wote a cycle of four poems based on episodes in his book, which were lovingly set to music by Mikis Theodorakis".[19] Silverman also calls "Asma Asmaton" "extraordinarily moving".[20]

Sophia Richman in her book Mended by the Muse: Creative Transformations of Trauma writes: "The song cycle is a requiem for Holocaust victims and raised the consciousness of all Greeks. Its sublime melodic lines, extended harmonies and rhythms, forced listeners to ask, "What happened to our Jews?"".[1] Richman also mentions that the composer "created songs that have entered the pantheon of acclaimed song cycles".[1]

Yaʾir Oron in the book The Pain Of Knowledge: Holocaust And Genocide Issues In Education writes that Kambanellis's poem "Song of Songs" "touches on certain aspects of the attitude of the world to the victims of the Holocaust in a unique way". Oron further comments that "Through its delicate poetical phrasing and its allusions to the biblical "Song of Songs" (Song of Solomon), the reader's attention is drawn to seemingly trivial details rather than to abstract generalizations. In this way, the poem evokes a personal identification with a specific figure (a young Jewish girl in this case)." Oron concludes that these attributes of the poem will make the pupil interested in the poem itself as well as the greater historical context surrounding the events depicted in the lyrics.[14]

Kambanellis's poem "Song of Songs" has been included in a 7th Grade reader which is approved for the new middle schools' literature curriculum in Israel.[14]

The work has been described as a "classical piece",[21] and as "one that contrasts the Nazi horror with the only possible joy, the joy of resistance".[22]

During the premiere of his ballad in London in 1967, Mikis Theodorakis was in Greece imprisoned by the recently installed Greek military junta and his music was banned in the country.[17]

On 6 May 1994 at a concert in Carnegie Hall, filled to capacity, the audience joined Farandouri in singing the ballad.[13] There are editions of these songs in Hebrewand several other languages.[11] Already in 1967, on Theodorakis' request, Liesbeth List sung the Mauthausen cycle in Dutch in Liesbeth List zingt Theodorakis (nl), which became a platinum disc.[23]

In May 1988, the world premiere of the "Mauthausen Trilogy", described as a "landmark concert",[24] took place with Mikis Theodorakis conducting at the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria. The concert was attended by Austrian chancellor Franz Vranitzky along with tens of thousands of people from across Europe.[24]Iakovos Kambanellis was also present. The ballad was sung by Maria Farandouri in Greek, Elinoar Moav Veniadi in Hebrew, Nadia Weinberg in English, and by East-German singer Gisela May in German.[25][24]

In May 1995, a repeat concert at Mauthausen camp took place to mark the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the camp conducted again by Theodorakis, which was also attended by chancellor Vranitzky and Simon Wiesenthal, who held a speech during the event. Maria Farandouri was the performer of the songs at that concert as well.[21][26]

On 10 May 2015, the ballad of Theodorakis was played in a ceremony at the Greek memorial of Mauthausen honouring the memory of the 3,700 Greek victims of the Holocaust with Zoe Konstantopoulou attending as speaker of the Hellenic Parliament on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the camp. Delegations from other European states and thousands of Europeans also attended ceremonies at the memorials of their individual countries.[27]

In October 2015 the municipality of Larissa in Greece included the performance of Theodorakis's ballad as part of a five-day celebration commemorating the liberation of the city from the Nazi occupation.[28]

The song "Andonis" from the ballad has been used by the Kurds as musical background in a video showing Kurdish women fighting at Kobanî during the Syrian Civil War.[29][30] The song was also sung by the residents of Kabul in 2001 as they greeted troops of the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan entering the city and expelling the Taliban.[29] The aria of "Andonis" was the music theme of Costa-Gavras's 1969 film Z, whose soundtrack won a BAFTA Award for Best Film Music in 1970.[5][29]

"Andonis" was also chosen as the background music for a pre-election advertising spot of Syriza, a fact criticised by the newspapers because the name "Andonis" was that of the New Democracy leader at the time, Antonis Samaras, and the lyrics depict Andonis as a heroic figure who challenges anyone to fight with him on the marble threshing-floor. The title of one newspaper article translates as: "[Elena] Akrita: Did anyone at Syriza pay attention to the lyrics of the piece they chose for their [advertising] spot?" and the other: "Unfortunate selection of music in Syriza's [advertising] spot".[31][32]

A theatrical play based on the Trilogy, premiered in Athens on 6 December 2012 featuring the music of Mikis Theodorakis and Gustav Mahler. The work appeared at the Badminton Theater in Athens under the title Mauthausen. Theodorakis had granted permission for the use of his work during the play.[33]

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https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/culture/1.4897215

'I Left for Freedom, She Left to Exist'

Greek writer Iakovos Kambanellis has been waiting for decades to bring his book 'Mauthausen' to an Israeli audience.

Avirama Golan Mar 21, 2006 12:00 AM

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ATHENS - The interpreter did not come and Iakovos Kambanellis, a thin and smiley 83-year-old man, promised to speak Greek slowly with as much French and English as he could. In his soft voice, he managed somehow to express his precise intention and his great excitement in three languages, and he also overpowered the noise in the dining room of the Athens hotel coming from a group of young people from Cyprus.

Kambanellis was captivated by the heavy inflection rolling off their tongues. Their intent concentration with their eyes wide open in wonder did not cease to move him. "It's a constant effort to analyze the world," he says. This is a simple key for understanding his poetic, concise and wondrous writing.

"How is the Hebrew translation?" he asks. "Is it good?" Even though he had already heard several times that it is, he insists on explaining: "I write in simple language. Sometimes it seems too simple. But within the words layers are built of - how should I put it - poetry. Not lofty, gentle, like steps. Slowly."

There is no better description than that of Kambanellis' unique style. "Mauthausen" is the only novel written by the man who is today considered the greatest modern Greek playwright. He is recognized by every Greek thanks to his poetry, which has been set to music and transformed into folk music classics. The novel is composed entirely of dramatic pictures, concisely worded, stern-faced and rhythmic.

"It was April." That is how the book opens. And then goes on to relate that "It was 1945. We were starting to realize that the war was on the verge of ending." It is easy to imagine an actor reading the text.

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As one frantically reads further, in the background one can hear strains from the work that stemmed from this book - "Mauthausen Cantata," a series of songs composed by Mikis Theodorakis. The most well-known song of all, performed by Maria Farantouri (in Hebrew there are two versions, by Lior Yeini and Elinoar Moav Veniadis, who also translated the songs and sang them at a special concert with Theodorakis and Farantouri), is "Asma Asamton" (Song of Songs), which opens with the words "My love, how beautiful she is in her everyday dress."

"Of course I knew the original text," Kambanellis responds in wonder. And indeed, the song maintains the poetic structure of the Song of Songs, until the chilling line, coming as if in response to "have you seen him whom my soul loves," echoes with the question - "Young girls of Mauthausen, Young girls of Belsen, Have you seen my love?" and the answer "We saw her in the frozen square, A number in her white hand And a yellow star on her heart."

Legend of sorts

How did the Greek boy, a native of the isle of Naxos in the Aegean Sea, end up in Mauthausen? How did his personal story, a story of survival and growing up between the fences of death and the love for a Jewish girl, become a legend of sorts borne by all his countrymen that sprouted wings in many other countries, but in the one place where he sought to become known more than anywhere else - he is hardly known?

"I wasn't a Communist at all," he says in response to the first question, which was based on a prevailing, misguided assumption that every non-Jewish Greek who arrived in the camps was an underground fighter. Kambanellis, a friend of Jorgos Papandreu, the leader of the Socialist Pasok party and of other leading figures of the Greek Left, was not imprisoned for his political views or activities.

"No, no. I always was - how shall I say - a man of freedom, left of Pasok but in those days I was mostly a hooligan."

The 20-year-old hooligan, from a poor family with many children that moved to a poor Athens suburb, was attending night classes at a technical school in the spring of 1943. He wasn't interested in the studies, life in a poor neighborhood under the German occupation was choking him, and he set off on hopeless adventure far from home, to Austria. From there he hoped to reach Switzerland with a friend and obtain a passport that would transform him into a free man.

"We were kids," he says, "with no responsibilities."

The two smuggled cigarettes in order to buy passports that someone had promised them, and were caught at an S.S. roadblock.

"I had a pad of millimeter-thick paper that I used to calculate how many bread coupons we had and how much money remained. They were sure I was a spy making confidential notes." And maybe it was just easy for them to capture two young and healthy Greeks for work in a camp.

"I was a prisoner in the S.S. concentration camp in Mauthausen from the summer of 1943 until the end of the war," Kambanellis wrote in 1963, in the preface to his book. "Since then, 20 years have passed and only now do I feel able to touch this part of my life and the lives of so many others, and put it down in writing. Today, when I see the 'meeting' between the 'past' and the 'present,' things that I didn't understand become clear to me. Perhaps I understand them now."

He wrote the notes himself, just as many other camp survivors did, some time after his return home. "When I came home, this sort of phenomenon started - only a few returned, those who stayed in Greece wanted to hear about what happened, and I started telling, and telling and telling. For months, I wanted to tell the story; to tell the story to others, but also to myself. I wanted to hear my voice telling the story. I don't know what was more powerful - the desire of others to hear or my need to tell."

God forgot about man

The young Kambanellis would sit, surrounded by family, friends or strangers and tell the story. From time to time, he would enrich his story with more details. Occasionally, he would remember more things. His memory opened up and flowed, and with it came his ability to tell a story. Without realizing it, Kambanellis underwent the process that formed the first written stories in ancient Greek literature: "the storyteller, the wandering minstrel," refined his story over time until it became a pure song, well anchored in the vast storytelling tradition.

But Kambanellis, from the new Greece, still did not know that he had been reborn as a storyteller.

"They told me: you have to write, and I after all didn't even know how to write. I did not have any kind of formal education," he says.

In the end, just as in the first book of stories he had told by heart, he sat down in 1945 and wrote down everything he remembered.

"Just in order not to forget. Not to forget. I filled up so many pages, I had two kilograms of paper and I had no ambition to publish a book. Just that everything should be written down. That the memories would not be lost."

His restless ability to express himself came out in other areas. Kambanellis wrote "Stella," a play that became a classic and was even the basis for an international hit film. Another play, "The Seventh Day of Creation," which was performed on the new stage of the National Theater, merited praise. Kambanellis, who stresses that he is not a religious man, uses many Jewish and Christian shapes and symbols to pour deep meanings into his philosophical and social statements in the theater. The seventh day in the play is the day when God, according to Kambanellis, forgot about man, and he was left alone in the world.

In love with freedom

Kambanellis was already a successful and respected playwright at age 42 when he remembered the notes.

"Kennedy was assassinated and Khrushchev fell," he says, "and the Cold War was renewed. Suddenly people remembered the war again." In a newspaper column he wrote every Sunday, he decided to tell about what happened in Mauthausen. Thousands of new subscribers signed up for the paper and in 1964, the book "Mauthausen" was published. It has continued to sell to this day, expect for the years when the colonels' regime restricted the famous playwright's movements and distribution of the book was banned (during this period, he wrote light-hearted plays that fooled the censors, but not the audience's understanding).

And during this entire period, the only thing the author wanted was for "Mauthausen" to be published in Hebrew.

"I had some very deep reasons for this. As a person, not as a writer," he tries to explain his deep ties to Jews since the camp. There was his love for Yanina, the young woman whose lost Italian husband came for her at the end of the war. Kambanellis had to part with her, with much pain, on Italian territory.

But she is not the only explanation he sees for this connection. He never saw Yanina again, and today he sees their love differently.

"We were in love with freedom, liberation, and the women were part of this love. I left for my own freedom. She left for her existential need, for security, for home. There was a huge gap between us," he says.

What then tied him to the Jews? He remained with the Jewish group even after all his Greek friends left. He responds with some confusion when he hears that the book, despite its laconic style, creates the impression of a moral and responsible young man who refuses to neglect the group of Jews, even at the expense of his comfort.

"I don't want to make myself into a hero. What could I do? I saw the eyes of the sick, of the weak, of the abandoned; could I have said okay, fine, I'm leaving now? I was their friend," he recalls. Yes, he admits he was deeply envious of them "because we all went back to an old world and we were scared of it. We couldn't, after those three years, go back to the world of the past, of before the war. And they went to a new, virgin, country and started a new world in Palestine."

He has been close to Jews ever since his childhood in a poor neighborhood, where he was friends with the Jewish children. Even when he was angry at Israel, at the beginning of the intifada, and spoke out vehemently against it, he did not stop feeling this closeness. Now he is wondering again about those statements.

"It's complex, what's going on in your country. In this scenario of David and Goliath, David is not always the one who seems to be David. And he's not always right," he says.

After a long delay, he says, the book has finally been published in Hebrew, and he so much hopes that in Israel they will like it. How does he explain that even though "Mauthausen" is a tragic story filled with nightmares, blood and death and abysses of despair, between the lines and the soft and beautiful rhythm in which it is told, there rises from it an optimism filled with love for his fellow man and with hope?

"I have no explanation," he smiles. "I only know that it is full of life. That's it; just as I am. Perhaps" - Kambanellis hesitates. "There was once someone who explained it. A Frenchman, the director of the French institute in Greece. He said that only someone from the islands could see through the gloom and glimpse the sun's rays. Perhaps. Because there really is something like that in the Aegean Sea."

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