Note: most of Christos'
commercially released recordings
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Christos Hatzis
CONSTANTINOPLE
Compact disc of Christos Hatzis' multimedia music theatre work. Patricia O' Callaghan, soprano, Maryem Tollar, alto, The Gryphon Trio. ANALEKTA AN 2 9925. Available in record stores January 2007. For more info click HERE.
CLASSICAL COMPOSITION OF THE YEAR
Congratulations to Christos Hatzis' colleagues:
Brian Current, Jeffrey Ryan, R. Murray Schafer, and the late Oscar Morawetz
for their nominations in the Classical Composition of the Year category
and to
Gerald Finely, Les Voix Baroques BUXTEHUDE, Measha Brueggergorsman,
and the Alderburgh Connection for their nominations
in the Classical Album of the Year: Vocal or Choral Performance.
and finally a great Thank You and Congratulations to
The Gryphon Trio for their two Juno nominations this year.
Christos Hatzis / Symphony Nova Scotia
DANCING IN THE LIGHT
nominated for a 2007
East Coast Music
Award
in the
Classical Recording of the Year
category
Compact disc consisting of two concerti by Christos Hatzis. Rivka Golani, viola; Beverley Johnston, percussion; Suzanne Lemieux, oboe; Symphony Nova Scotia under the direction of Berhard Gueller. CBC Records SMCD 5237 (Universal). Available in record stores October 2006. For more info click HERE.
Christos Hatzis / St. Lawrence String Quartet
AWAKENING
String Quartet No. 1 (The Awakening)
String Quartet No. 2 (The Gathering)
Compact disc consisting of Christos' two string quartets. The St. Lawrence String Quartet (Geoff Nuttall, violin; Barry Shiffman, violin; Lesley Robertson, viola; Christopher Costanza, cello). Barry Shiffman, executive producer; Theresa Leonard, producer; Mark Willsher, recording engineer. EMI Classics 72435 58038 25. Released in Canada and internationally: March 29 2005; in USA: May 10 2005. For more info click HERE
NO. 3—EDITOR'S PICK: SOLO AND CHAMBER MUSIC
NO. 15—TOP 25 EDITOR'S PICKS IN CLASSICAL MUSIC
WINNING RECORDS [No. 2 in Best of 2005]
THE TAMPA TRIBUNE (USA) December 18, 2005.
Also
nominated for a
Juno Award
in the
Classical Album of the Year: Solo or Chamber Ensemble
category
Christos Hatzis:
DOUBLE CD
EVERLASTING LIGHT
FOOTPRINTS IN NEW SNOW
A double CD set
To download the promotional poster for
the CD set click HERE.
To purchase the CD, please check first with your local classical record
retailer.
To order the CDs online, please click below:
Also available on:
Amazon.com
Amazon Canada
Amazon France
Amazon Germany
Amazon Japan
EVERLASTING LIGHT:
Compact disc featuring two of Christos' large-scale choral works. Laura Pudwell is the featured soloist in De Angelis on texts (and chants) by Hildegard of Bingen, along with the combined Elmer Iseler Singers and the Amadeus Chamber Choir under the direction of Lydia Adams. Based on Greek-Orthodox funeral texts, Everlasting Light features countertenor Daniel Taylor, tenor Benjamin Butterfield, baritone Russell Braun, percussionist Beverley Johnston, along with the combined Elmer Iseler Singers and the Amadeus Chamber Choir under the direction of Lydia Adams.
FOOTPRINTS IN NEW SNOW:
String
Quartet No. 1 (The Awakening)
Compact disc featuring four of Christos' Inuit inspired works, including the Prix Italia radio documentary by the same title. Beverley Johnston is the featured soloist in Fertility Rites, for marimba and tape, and violinsts Annalee Patipatanakoon and Carol Fujino, violist Douglas Perry and cellist David Hetherington, along with prerecorded throat singers Angela Atagootak, Pauline Kyak, Elisha Kilabuk and Koomoo Noveyak, Eligah Maggitak, Napachie Pootoogook, Timagiak Petautassie, and Haunak Mikigak, are the featured performers in String Quartet No 1. (The Awakening). The two CDs packages together are available on the CBC Records label (MVCD 1156-2). They are distributed in Canada through Universal Records and in the United States through Naxos.
Christos Hatzis: EROTIKOS LOGOS
Three
Songs on Poems by Sappho
Erotikos
Logos (winner of the 1996 Jules Leger Prize
for New Chamber Music)
Compact Disc of three song cycles on texts by Sappho, George Seferis and Gwendolyn MacEwen.
Monica Whicher, soprano. Ronald Greydanus, countertenor. Joaquin Valdepeñas, clarinet; Steven Dann, viola; David Hetherington, cello; Mark Widner, piano. Trevor Tureski, percussion, under the direction of Robert Aitken. Keith Horner, producer. Marquis Classics ERAD 197. Produced by Iolkos Productions with financial support from the Ontario Arts Council and F.A.C.T.O.R. To purchase the CD, please check first with your local classical record retailer. To order this CD online, please click below:
Christos Hatzis: BYZANTIUM
Compact Disc. Steven Dann, viola; Libby van Cleve, oboe; Chari Polatos, cantor; The Exultate Singers. David Jaeger, producer. Centrediscs, 1993. CMC-CD 4693. For more information and to order the CD online, please click below:
Reviews:
Gryphon Trio:
CANADIAN PREMIERES
Christos
Hatzis: Old Photographs from
CONSTANTINOPLE
Compact Disc of works for piano trio commissioned and performed by the Gryphon Trio. Analekta. To purchase the CD, please check first with your local classical record retailer. To order the CD online, please click below:
Beverley Johnston: GARDEN OF DELIGHTS
Christos
Hatzis: Fertility Rites
One of Christos' most performed works for marimba and tape is having its second recording incarnation in Garden of Delights, acclaimed percussionist Beverley Johnston's new solo CD. On Beverley Johnston's own label. Guest artists: Susan Hoeppner, flute; Michael Arnowitt, piano. Keith Horner, producer; David Burnham, recording engineer. To order the CD click HERE.
Shauna Rolston: THIS IS THE COLOUR OF MY DREAMS
Christos
Hatzis: Confessional
Compact Disc of four cello concerti written especially for Shauna Rolston. Shauna Rolston, cello; The CBC Radio Orchestra; Mario Bernardi, conductor. CBC Records. Karen Wilson, producer. To purchase the CD, please check first with your local classical record retailer. To order the CD online, please click below:
Joseph Petric: ORBITING GARDEN
Christos
Hatzis:
Orbiting Garden.
Compact disc of works for accordion written for and performed by Canadian
accordionist Joseph Petric. Centrediscs. For more information and to order the
CD online, please click below:
Jean-Guy Boisvert: AMOURS
Christos
Hatzis: Melisma for clarinet and drone is part of this
recording by clarinetist Jean-Guy Boisvert, the commissioner of the work. The CD
also includes works by Karlheinz Stockhausen, Denis Gougeon, Jacques Hétu,
Alcides Lanza and Keith A. Hamel. Available on the SNE label. To order the CD
click HERE.
PUER NATUS IN BETHLEHEM, ALLELUIA!
Elmer Iseler Singers
Lydia Adams, conductor
"Taking the ancient Piae Cantiones plainsong melodies of medieval origin as the inspiration for this CD, the Elmer Iseler Singers have fashioned new and fresh arrangements by many of Canada’s finest composers. These pious songs were originally sung by young scholars and have been passed down through the ages to us today as some of the most familiar and popular of Christmas songs: Ave Maris Stella, Resonet in laudibus, Corde Natus, Puer natus In Bethlehem and In dulci jubilo…to name but a few. Now, in their refashioned guise, these magnificent and timeless melodies find new life in the voices of the renowned Elmer Iseler Singers." CBC Records. To purchase the CD, please check first with your local classical record retailer. To order the CD online, please click below:
English Chamber Choir: THE BYZANTINE LEGACY
Christos
Hatzis: Heirmos
Compact Disc of choral works inspired by the Byzantine Tradition. The English Chamber Choir, and the Spectrum Ensemble under the direction of Guy Protheroe. SONY Classical (Greece).
Christos
Hatzis: Hunter's
Dream
Compact Disc. Morgan Fisher, producer. Released on Consipio Multiplex, Japan and Cherry Red Records, UK. For more information on this CD click HERE.
INTRODUCTION TO CANADIAN MUSIC
Compact Disc. Peter Hannan, recorder, Douglas Perry, viola.
A collection of music by Canadian composers. Released by Naxos Canada. To order on-line (at the CMC Distribution Service), click below:
Compact Disc. Peter Hannan, recorder, Douglas Perry, viola.
A four CD boxed set of 65 Canadian artists from various genres (First Peoples, Folk, Clasical, Musique actuelle, Jazz and World music) released by the Canada Council and the CBC/SRC for the occasion of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the United Nations. Available through Sam the Record Man and other commercial outlets. Sony Music Special Products CDSP 4509.
Compact Disc. Peter Hannan, recorder Douglas Perry, viola.
Also works by Peter Hatch, Peter Hannan, David Mott and Gordon Monahan. Musica Viva (CBC Records), 1993. MVCD 1055. For more information and to order the CD online, please click below:
Compact Disc. Joseph Petric, accordion. Also works by Peter Hatch, Toshio Hosokawa, Richard Romiti, Daniel Foley and Bengt Hambreaus.ConAccord, 1989. 490491-3. For more information and to order the CD online, please click below:
THE IDEA OF CANADA
Cassette. An audio composition inspired by Glenn Gould.
A collaboration with Steve Wadhams, Laurence Stevenson and Rod Crocker. CBC. 1992.
Reviews:
Of Greek parentage, Canadian composer Christos Hatzis dispels quaint notions that there's nothing going on with our neighbors to the north other than hockey and Anne Murray. The first CD contains choral music of the most refined and ethereal sort. The second contains several works, including a radio documentary, inspired by the native Inuit people and their peculiar art of throat singing. De Angelis is based on an antiphon by Hildegard of Bingen, a composer Hatzis admires greatly not just for her music but also for her theology. Hatzis's work quotes from and expands upon her "O gloriosissimi lux vivens angeli," and it also mirrors her belief in a central role played by womankind in Christian theology, and her vision of the eventual reconciliation of the fallen angel Lucifer with Christ. Hatzis uses musical and spatial symbolism to illustrate these concepts, and more. The casual listener will not appreciate Hatzis's cleverness, but he or she will appreciate his sincerity and devotion; De Angelis is a strikingly attractive addition to the contemporary choral repertoire. After Canadian choral director Elmer Iseler passed away, Hatzis wrote Everlasting Light for Iseler's eponymous ensemble. According to the composer, it is "more a ritual than a piece of concert music," and it concerns itself not just with death but with the idea of an afterlife. Here, the choir is joined by tuned water glasses and marimba; three soloists (countertenor, tenor, and baritone) play a prominent role. Everlasting Light, while never sweet or maudlin, is almost unbearably beautiful, suggesting that death brings out the best in many of us. Given the composer's background, it is not difficult to discern an affinity between Everlasting Light and music for the Greek Orthodox service, albeit with a gently experimental twist. Few would guess that the man who composed these two rarefied choral works also composed the works on the second CD. Hatzis has been interested in the Inuit people for more than a decade, and was especially intrigued by their throat singing, with they call "katajjaq." Probably derived from old fertility rites, katajjaq is practiced primarily by Inuit women, although men can do it too. Guttural, rhythmic, repetitious, and exhausting for the practitioners, it is a game of sorts in which natural phenomena of the Inuit world are turned into sonic building blocks. It's a primal "rap," if you will. Hatzis's experience as an electroacoustic composer is manifested here. Having recording the katajjaq, he alters them electronically and combines them with other sounds, making a strange and fascinating experience even stranger and more fascinating. In Fertility Rites, sampled throat songs play counterpoint games with a marimba; in Hunter's Dream, they are combined with flute samples. Footprints in New Snow is a 38-minute radio documentary incorporating Inuit throat songs with interviews and other sounds associated with Inuit life and culture – the blowing wind, the cry of wolves, the sound of snow crunching underfoot, and so on. Not a dry academic lecture at all, Footprints in New Snow is as haunting and atmospheric as it is informative. (It won the 1996 Prix Italia Special Prize in the category of Radio Music.) The First String Quartet was another prize winner. In this work, perhaps taking a page from Steve Reich, Hatzis incorporates not just samples of throat singing but the sound of a locomotive, which brings back powerful memories of the composer's childhood. Together, all these sounds create what the composer calls a metaphor for "primal breathing, Yin and Yang, the endless cycle of creation and destruction which determines the fate of individuals, nations, and humanity as a whole." Despite the unusual aspects of his work, Hatzis seems uninterested in easy effects or sensationalism. His music makes performers and listeners alike work hard; the open-eared will certainly want to meet him at least halfway, once they get a whiff of the sounds on these CDs. Performances and production values are at a very high level on this release. This is music that is worthy of exposure and study outside of the country in which it was composed.
"...this lovely pair of disks reveals a major talent in the making."
Tony Gualtieri Classical Music Review
I am grateful to have been chosen to participate in this interactive experiment. Both CDs Everlasting Light and Footprints in New Snow are inspirational, to say the least. Everlasting Light seems like a journey to a distant time and place. There is a purity and power to the music that immediately captures the ear. Christos Hatzis weaves angelic patterns. Footprints in New Snow brings the Inuit culture into the world of new music. Having heard throat singers in Yellowknife in the 80's, I have long been touched by this unique and haunting sound. The musical accompaniment Christos brings to this ancient foundation creates a perfect compliment. Thank you again for this opportunity. Most sincerely, Fred Penner, C.M. (From the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra website).
The name of the CD comes from a radio documentary of the same name in which Hatzis combines throat singing and electronic samples from Western Civilization. For example, the sounds of jet airplanes and electronic keyboards creating an aura of space that symbolizes the invasion of Western Culture on the North. The blend is truly profound.
Troy Milleker. THE WHOLE NOTE (Canada)
There are no superlatives adequate to apply to Shauna Rolston nowadays. The Canadian cellist has gone from strength to strength since she eclipsed rival Ofra Harnoy in the early 1990's and this recent CBC Records release continues the procession of excellent work...Confessional by Christos Hatzis, based on a Byzantine chant, is another superb work from this composer. Fluid lines caress the listener so that the ending seems to come all too soon...
John S. Gray, WHOLENOTE Magazine (Canada).
The title track Orbiting Garden is a sizzling Christos Hatzis cross-cultural romp, with flashing colours, genuine soul-filled electronics and triadic hooks to keep harmonies anchored. Tabla-like sounds suggest ragas and sitars, but with lots of lyrical wide-eyed wonder in their messages. Its 16-minutes fly, and one wonders how (well) the piece would work if scored for orchestra. [Joseph] Petric, as always, is amazing. James Manishen, WINNIPEG FREE PRESS, March 29 2003 (Canada)
The first track on this album, Orbiting Garden, makes this CD well worth having. A cascading piece of continuous invention and momentum, this is one wild and playful ride. Written by Christos Hatzis in 1991...this remains a highly inventive post modern work hopping and skipping across great cultural divides. Themes are built from additive notes and micro-rhythmic motives and re-circulate throughout, along with brief snatches of Arabic strings, wordless chanting and a quote from Albinoni. The synchronization challenge for the live performer is immense. In spite of the variety of electronic sounds and influences the piece holds together and stands unique in the accordion repertoire (the original work was written for piano). I've not heard anything remotely like it. Steve Mobia, THE FREE-REED REVIEW.
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