Cut to lacquer by Maarten de Boer at Emil Berliner Studios

Imported double 180-gram Analogphonic LP pressed at Pallas in Germany

Originally issued on Deutsche Grammophon in 1986, Songs My Country Taught Me finds mezzo-soprano Agnes Baltsa performing alongside the Athens Experimental Orchestra conducted by Stavros Xarhakos for a recording of songs from her Greek heritage. Composers include Manos Hadjidakis, Mikis Theodorakis, Stavros Xarhakos and Vasilis Tsitsanis.

"Singing in her native tongue Baltsa phrases and projects the words with the subtlety and boldness only possible with total familarity and understanding. No operatic popmosities here, but the sureness and strengh of a trained voice doing full justice to a collection of infectiously melodic songs, ranging from the dreamily sensual to the playfully rugged, which seem to have an element of the operatic in them. The convincing arrangements by Xarhakos mostly use plucked instruments for the essential Greek sound." — Sue Hudson, Hi-Fi News (London)

"Baltsa's singing - clean, clear, cultivated, and free, with a bewitching sound — is worldclass." — Opus (New York)

Track Listing
Side 1
1. Garífallo st'aftí (A carnation behind your ear)
2. Oniro pedión tis gitoniás (Dream of urban children)
3. O tahidrómos (The postman)
4. Méra Magioú (A day in May)
5. To tréno févgi stis októ (The train leaves at eight)
6. Se pótisa rodóstamo (I gave you rose-water to drink)

Side 2
7. Stou Othona ta hrónia (When Otto was king)
8. Áspri méra ke ya mas (There will be better days, even for us)
9. Varkarólla (Barcarolle)
10. Ta tréna pou fígan
11. Arhóntissa (Princess of my heart)