Performer: Mikayel Hakhnazaryan, Lia Hakhnazaryan, Artyom Minasyan
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Rubicon
Catalogue: RCD1083
Release: 2023
Size: 1.35 GB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
01. Khachaturian: Dream for Cello and Piano
Debussy: Cello Sonata
02. I. Lent, sostenuto e molto risoluto
03. II. Sérénade: Modérément animé
04. III. Finale: Animé, léger et nerveux
05. Rachmaninov: Vocalise, Op. 34 No. 14
06. Komitas: Krunk (la grue)
07. Khudoyan: Cello Sonata No. 1
Schumann: Fantasiestücke, Op. 73
08. I. Zart und mit Ausdruck
09. II. Lebhaft, leicht
10. III. Rasch und mit Feuer
Bloch: From Jewish Life
11. I. Jewish Song
12. II. Supplication
13. III. Prayer
14. Komitas: Garoun a (printemps)
15. Tchaikovsky: Valse sentimentale, Op. 51 No. 6
16. Loboda: Elegy for Cello and Piano
17. Vine: Inner World, for cello & sampled cello
This release by cellist Mikayel Hakhnazaryan and pianist Lia Hakhnazaryan comes with a note about leaving one’s homeland and thus discovering new music and new inner paths. It seems fairly innocuous, yet the players make something powerful and distinctive out of it. The nostalgia part is unusually strong, and some of it is unique to this album; the players include two pieces by the single-named Armenian composer-ethnomusicologist Komitas (Soghomon Soghomonian) that are arranged for the utterly haunting combination of cello and the Armenian double-reed duduk. Try to come up with the most evocative possible image of remembering sounds and places of home, and these two lovely pieces will match it. There are also several other Armenian pieces, including the rarely heard Dream for cello and piano of Aram Khachaturian, whose neglect in the face of the general shortage of solo cello material is inexplicable. As Hakhnazaryan’s note suggests, there are also several Western pieces, including Ernest Bloch’s From Jewish Life, which fits the general mood and works by Schumann (the Fantasiestücke, Op. 73, transcribed for cello) and Debussy, which breaks it somewhat but receive lively interpretations. The thorny Debussy Cello Sonata is the most distant from the album’s core, but the performance is strong enough to stand on its own. There is even a piece for cello and electronics by Carl Vine at the end, emphasizing the poles of nostalgia and new discovery. This is wholly unlike other cello recitals, and it will introduce general listeners to some wonderful music.
Cellist Mikayel Hakhnazaryan writes in the introduction of his album ‘Inner Voices’: “When you leave your homeland, you leave behind something very important that is hard to describe in words. It is that light and air which you unconsciously love, it is the smell of spring, the kindness of people under whose warm gaze you flourish and of course, the sounds of music. How lucky we musicians are to be able to collect all these precious things into one whole – into music, into melodies that are always with us in our head and heart; melodies that belong to us all, that we can reproduce and relive at any time. By leaving one country you give yourself the chance to discover another world, where new motifs and colours accompany you like a guide, in the search for your own voice and your own inner world.
“This recording is an illustration of my musical journey, during which I meet friends old and new with equal joy.”