Komitas: Seven Songs

Lusine Grigoryan

Komitas: Seven Songs
Release date: 22.09.2017 ECM 2514
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Complete in itself, this solo piano album by Lusine Grigorian, can also be considered a companion volume to the Gurdjieff Ensemble’s critically-acclaimed album of Komitas’s music. It was recorded at the same 2015 session in Lugano, directed by Manfred Eicher, and has some overlapping of repertoire. Where Levon Eskenian’s versions with the Gurdjieff Ensemble explored some of the composer’s sonic inspirations with folk instruments, Lusine Grigorian conveys some of the same colours with her wide palette of piano articulation and her exploration of timbral possibilities: in her playing one can catch the flavour of the duduk, the tar, the zurna et cetera, as Komitas intended. As Levon Eskenian has noted, Grigorian “conveys the mysterious presence typical of rustic and ritual music.” Pieces heard on this recording, the ECM debut of Lusine Grigorian, include Komitas’s Seven Songs, Seven Dances, Pieces for Children, and Msho Shoror.
In sich geschlossen kann dieses Soloklavieralbum von Lusine Gregorian auch als Begleitwerk angesehen werden – zu der von Kritikern hochgelobten Einspielung des Gurdjieff Ensembles mit Musik von Komitas. Beide Platten wurden 2015 gleichzeitig in Lugano unter Leitung von Manfred Eicher produziert, beide bedienen sich zu Teilen desselben Repertoires. Wo Levon Eskenian mit dem Gurdjieff Ensemble den Klanginspirationen des Komponisten auf folkloristischen Instrumenten nachgeht, vermittelt Lusine Grigorian dieselben Nuancen mit ihrer reichhaltigen Artikulation auf dem Klavier – und schöpft das Spektrum an Klangfarben voll aus: bei ihrem Spiel hat man Duduk, Tar, Zurna und andere Instrumente vor dem inneren Auge, so vielleicht, wie Komitas sie sich vorgestellt hat. Wie Levon Eskenian bemerkte, „vermittelt Grigorian eine mysteriöse Präsenz, die typisch ist für ländliche und rituelle Musik.“ Die Aufnahme – Lusine Gregorians ECM-Debüt – enthält Komitas „Seven Songs“, „Seven Dances“, „Pieces for Children“ und „Msho Shoror“.
Featured Artists
  • Lusine GrigoryanPiano
Recorded

February 2015, Auditorio Stelio Molo RSI, Lugano

Original Release Date

22.09.2017

  • Seven Songs
    (Komitas Vardapet)
  • 1I Semplice01:26
  • 2II Dolente01:25
  • 3III Allegro non troppo01:22
  • 4IV Allegretto semplice, non troppo00:58
  • 5V Comodo01:34
  • 6VI Nobile01:21
  • 7VII Allegrezza, energico00:35
  • 8Msho Shoror
    (Komitas Vardapet)    10:08
  • Seven Dances
    (Komitas Vardapet)
  • 9I Manushaki02:54
  • 10II Yerangui03:29
  • 11III Unabi01:52
  • 12IV Marali01:31
  • 13V Shushiki01:41
  • 14VI Het u araj03:00
  • 15VII Shoror04:45
  • Pieces for Children
    (Komitas Vardapet)
  • 16I Allegretto amabile00:25
  • 17II Allegretto amabile00:30
  • 18III Vivo00:26
  • 19IV Allegro moderato00:54
  • 20V Andantino01:08
  • 21VI Lento01:08
  • 22VII Vivace00:43
  • 23VIII Moderato con giubilo01:19
  • 24IX Con alterezza00:37
  • 25X Calmo00:39
  • 26XI Moderato01:02
  • 27XII Andantino con tenerezza01:34
  • 28Toghik
    (Komitas Vardapet)    00:49
Komitas. Schon der Name klingt geheimnisvoll, fast mystisch. Die Musik ist nicht weniger faszinierend, denn diese ganz eigentümliche Mischung aus archaischen Historismen, volkstümlichen Melodien, komplexen Rhythmen und eher simplen, zuweilen jedoch sehr überraschenden Harmonien ist einzigartig. […] Lusine Grigoryan widmet sich Komitas‘ unerschöpflichem Klangkosmos mit bewundernswerter Gleichmütigkeit: fein ziseliert in den vielen rhythmischen und melodischen Verästelungen, gut austariert im Hinblick auf die Gestaltung aller musikalischen Parameter und überzeugend nachempfunden hinsichtlich des weiten Atems, den diese Musik verlangt.
Guido Krawinkel, Crescendo
 
Wahrhaft einzigartig […] Die armenische Pianistin Lusine Grigoryan hat eine ganze CD mit Klaviermusik des armenischen Musikers veröffentlicht hat. Was man darauf hört, ist wahrhaft einzigartig (und wer schon einmal in Armenien war, der sieht sicher Bilder der kargen, großartigen Landschaft rum um den Ararat vor seinem inneren Auge): Volksmusik mit höchstem Kunstanspruch, emotionale Tiefe bei größter Reduktion der musikalischen Mittel, Meditation bei äußerster Wachheit des Geistes.
Christine Lemke-Matwey, Südwestrundfunk
 
A highly appealing programme, then, which arguably benefits from its succinctness. Lusine Grigoryan renders it with an ideal poise and incisiveness, and she has been accorded spacious though never unfocused sound. Anyone who enjoyed the Komitas arrangements featured on an earlier ECM release should certainly find the present disc comparably rewarding.
Richard Whitehouse, Gramophone
 
Die Armenierin Lusine Grigoryan etwa widmet sich auf ihrer CD ‚Seven Songs‘ ausschließlich Werken des Priesters, Komponisten und Musikpädagogen Komitas Vardapei (1869 bis 1935), des Begründers einer modernen klassischen Musik ihres Heimatlandes. Seine Klavierstücke sind so simpel wie emotional. Die Pianistin lädt sie auf mit einem folkloristischen Hintergrund voller flexibler Rhythmen, in denen authentische Instrumente wie Duduk oder Tar aufscheinen. Die immens beseelte Musik Armeniens hat in den letzten Jahrzehnten enorm an Popularität gewonnen […] Lusine Grigoryan reduziert diese sangliche musik auf ihre mysteriösen kerne und lässt sie verhalten strahlen.
Ulrich Steinmetzger, Leipziger Volkszeitung
 
Grigoryan gets to the emotive and intellectual core of these pieces with vibrant elegance and exquisite subtlety. She showcases simultaneously the playful whimsy and the tender fragility common to the 12, brief, ‘Pieces for Children.’ She does it with agility, without being abrupt and exposes their full flavor and their effervescence all within their fleeting, under-a-minute time span. […] This intriguing and poignant record is a well-rounded representation of Komitas' work. Thanks to Grigoryan's virtuosity and ECM's impeccable sound Seven Songs is a compelling disc that transcends genres and national heritages and delivers an intensely satisfying listening experience.
Hrayr Attarian, All About Jazz
 
The soundworld of a grand piano could not be further removed from village music making, but with judicious use of staccato and pedalling Lusine Grigoryan manages to suggest the original folk instruments: the duduk oboe, the zurna trumpet, the tar lute, and the daf drum. The tripping, swaying or sinuously curving syncopated dance rhythms are charmingly evoked; the pervasive modal scale works its own demure magic.
Michael Church, BBC Music Magazine
Complete in itself, the ECM debut of Armenian pianist Lusine Grigoryan can also be considered a companion volume to the Gurdjieff Ensemble’s critically-acclaimed album of Komitas’s music (ECM 2451), and was recorded at the same 2015 session in Lugano, directed by Manfred Eicher. The two albums cast light on Komitas’s music from different directions. Where Levon Eskenian’s versions with the Gurdjieff Ensemble explored the composer’s sonic inspirations with folk instruments, Lusine Grigoryan conveys some of the same colours with her wide palette of piano articulation and her exploration of timbral possibilities: in her playing one can catch some of the textures of the folk instruments that captured Komitas’s imagination. As Paul Griffiths observes in the liner text, “In Lusine Grigoryan, Komitas’s piano music has an interpreter deeply versed not just in what is on the page but in the whole folk music background. Her legato phrasing might suggest the duduk, her staccatos the tar; drums and zurna are here, too, together with a folk-like flexibility of rhythm. She also achieves a mysterious presence in her playing such as is typical of rural or ritual music.”
 
Komitas Vardapet (1869-1935) is revered as the instigator of contemporary music in Armenia. Poet, priest and ethnomusicologist, as well as singer and composer, he explored the full range of his country’s musical history and wrote music that found points of contact between sacred and secular tradition. His piano pieces are mostly based upon Armenian folk songs and dances.
 
The “Seven Songs” of the album title form the sequence Yot Yerg, composed in 1911. They consist both of appeals to Nature and descriptions of it. Msho Shoror, “a vast dance scene” inspired by the mountain region of Sasun, is also comprised of seven movements, while Yot Par takes the form seven dances, each evoking the sonority of Armenian folk instruments.
 
Lusine Grigoryan was born in Gyumri, Armenia, and studied at the music school of Akhuryan, and the Kara-Murza Music College. She continued her musical education at the Yerevan State Komitas Conservatory, and completed her graduate studies under Professor Robert Shugarov. Parallel to classical music, Lusine also studied folk music interpretation, thoroughly researching the works of Komitas and Bela Bartók also from this perspective. Her interpretation of Komitas' works has been praised both for its originality and its faithfulness to the composer’s vision.
 
Music composed – or collected and transformed – by Komitas has been heard on a number of ECM recordings over the years, beginning with Kim Kashkashian’s album Hayren: Music of Komitas and Tigran Mansurian, in 2000. Since then, Komitas has been an inspiration for a very wide cast of musicians, from jazz improvisers to classical interpreters. Although the Gurdjieff Ensemble’s album Komitas was the first ECM disc entirely devoted to the Armenian composer, his work can be heard on albums by Jan Garbarek and the Hilliard Ensemble (Officium Novum), Anja Lechner and François Couturier (Moderato Cantabile), Norma Winstone (Stories Yet To Tell), and Glauco Venier (Miniatures). Tigran Hamasyan’s Luys I Luso embraced Komitas in its broad sweep of Armenian sacred music, and Komitas compositions served as a basis for improvisation on Atmosphères by the quartet of Hamasyan, Arve Henriksen, Eivind Aarset and Jan Bang. Savina Yannatou’s Songs of Thessaloniki, meanwhile, includes one of Komitas’s folk song adaptations.