2011 marks the 7th year of specs 'n' arts presenting the Around the piano series in Athens. This season sees a number of artists appearing in Greece for the first time, including the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, the Ligeti trio with pianist Nikolaus Resa, as well as pianist and conductor Pablo Zinger with Argentinean mezzo-soprano Désirée Halac.

Concert dates

Saturday 5 November 2011

"In minor key"

Part A

Johannes Brahms: Piano Quartet No.3 in C minor, Op.60

Trio Ligeti [Anton Martynov, violin/ Daniel Vagner, viola/ Diana Ligeti, cello]

Nikolaus Resa, piano

Part B

César Franck: Piano Quintet in F minor

Gustav Mahler: Piano Quartet in A minor

Anton Martynov & Panayotis Tziotis, violin / Daniel Vagner, viola / Diana Ligeti, cello

Alexandra Nomidou, piano

Monday 7 November 2011

"Young & Famous"

Part A

Dmitri Shostakovich: Prelude & Scherzo, Op. 11

Joseph Haydn: Piano Concerto in G Major

Part B

Nino Rota: Concerto for Strings

Dmitri Shostakovich: Chamber Symphony in Ab, Op.118a

Amsterdam Sinfonietta

Candida Thompson, violin

Theodosia Ntokou, piano

Tuesday 8 November 2011

"Liszt and about Liszt"

Part A

Stathis Gyftakis: new work inspired by Tomas Tranströmer's "The Sad Gondola" poetry collection

[The title is derived from a piano piece by Franz Liszt entitled "La lugubre gondola"]

Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer won the 2011 Nobel prize for literature

Lorenda Ramou, piano

Constantinos Grigoriou: Four Nocturnes for solo piano

Dimitris Koukos, piano

Improvisation on Franz Liszt

Yiorgos Psyhoyios, piano

Part B

Franz Liszt: Les Préludes (arr. for 4 hands)

Sergei Rachmaninov: Six pieces op.11

Daniel Rivera & Gabriele Baldocci, piano duo

Saturday 12 November 2011

"A Tango Cabaret" from Gardel to Piazzolla

Part A

Pablo Zinger, piano & Désirée Halac, mezzo

Part B

Quinteto TANGartO