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ARMENIAN CELLIST NAREK HAKHNAZARYAN CAPTIVATES AT STRATHMORE MANSION
armradio.am
25.02.2012 14:29
The Strathmore Mansion on Thursday was chock full of patrons (including
cellists and other string players) to hear the 23-year-old Armenian
cellist Narek Hakhnazaryan give a phenomenal account of some musical
thrillers by Cesar Franck, Frederic Chopin, Dmitri Shostakovich and
Mstislav Rostropovich. Franck's late Sonata in A, the evening's opener,
and Shostakovich's Sonata in D minor, Op. 40, call on every dimension
of a performer's technique and expressive means.
Hakhnazaryan impresses you with a degree of freedom that comes
hard-won from discipline of the highest order. And he had a brilliant
pianist, Noreen Cassidy-Polera, to support that level of artistry,
The Washington Post writes.
The cellist won first prize at last year's International Tchaikovsky
Competition in Moscow. He is already a seasoned performer in first-rate
concert halls with major orchestras around the world.
"Hakhnazaryan's talent was obvious from the opening phrase of
Franck's late Sonata (originally for violin). Whether pianissimo or
triple forte, his bow was ever emphatic, and his emotive power and
subjective intensity captured the listener immediately, never letting
go. The whole thrust of the piece - especially the third movement -
is a monumental fantasia, requiring the cellist to hurl through its
wavering thematic transformations while seeming to improvise.
Shostakovich's Op. 40 demands control and fortitude from both players.
On Thursday it was all there with both players evenly matched. Op. 40
is a marvel of alternating passages of sublime, liquid lyricism with
depths of astringent harmony and textures. Throughout the sonata, the
musicians underscored the music's overwhelming sense of inevitability.
This was most obviously felt in the driving pulse of the outer Allegros
and most subtly in the Largo, charging forward with the epic breadth
of the Russian steppes. The finale's jaunty contrapuntal interplay
erupted into a blazing firestorm, as if endlessly toying with a
listener's expectations.
Chopin's Introduction and Polonaise Brillante, Op. 3, and
Rostropovich's Humoresque, Op. 5, aren't simply display pieces,
though they both leave the performers to tackle every technical trick
of the trade at a whirlwind pace," the paper writes.
Hakhnazaryan's two blazing encores weren't enough for the audience,
who clamored for more.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
armradio.am
25.02.2012 14:29
The Strathmore Mansion on Thursday was chock full of patrons (including
cellists and other string players) to hear the 23-year-old Armenian
cellist Narek Hakhnazaryan give a phenomenal account of some musical
thrillers by Cesar Franck, Frederic Chopin, Dmitri Shostakovich and
Mstislav Rostropovich. Franck's late Sonata in A, the evening's opener,
and Shostakovich's Sonata in D minor, Op. 40, call on every dimension
of a performer's technique and expressive means.
Hakhnazaryan impresses you with a degree of freedom that comes
hard-won from discipline of the highest order. And he had a brilliant
pianist, Noreen Cassidy-Polera, to support that level of artistry,
The Washington Post writes.
The cellist won first prize at last year's International Tchaikovsky
Competition in Moscow. He is already a seasoned performer in first-rate
concert halls with major orchestras around the world.
"Hakhnazaryan's talent was obvious from the opening phrase of
Franck's late Sonata (originally for violin). Whether pianissimo or
triple forte, his bow was ever emphatic, and his emotive power and
subjective intensity captured the listener immediately, never letting
go. The whole thrust of the piece - especially the third movement -
is a monumental fantasia, requiring the cellist to hurl through its
wavering thematic transformations while seeming to improvise.
Shostakovich's Op. 40 demands control and fortitude from both players.
On Thursday it was all there with both players evenly matched. Op. 40
is a marvel of alternating passages of sublime, liquid lyricism with
depths of astringent harmony and textures. Throughout the sonata, the
musicians underscored the music's overwhelming sense of inevitability.
This was most obviously felt in the driving pulse of the outer Allegros
and most subtly in the Largo, charging forward with the epic breadth
of the Russian steppes. The finale's jaunty contrapuntal interplay
erupted into a blazing firestorm, as if endlessly toying with a
listener's expectations.
Chopin's Introduction and Polonaise Brillante, Op. 3, and
Rostropovich's Humoresque, Op. 5, aren't simply display pieces,
though they both leave the performers to tackle every technical trick
of the trade at a whirlwind pace," the paper writes.
Hakhnazaryan's two blazing encores weren't enough for the audience,
who clamored for more.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress