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Straight.com
Feb 13 2013
Armenian cello star Narek Hakhnazaryan seduces Vancouver Recital
Society audience
by Alexander Varty on Feb 13, 2013 at 12:25 pm
Narek Hakhnazaryan
With Noreen Polera. A Vancouver Recital Society production. At the
Vancouver Playhouse on Sunday, February 10. No remaining performances
`Did you like that razzle-dazzle?' asked one presumably
less-than-impressed patron during intermission, but his cynical query
fell on unsympathetic ears. `I loved it!' countered his companion, and
there's no doubt she was voicing the majority opinion. Narek
Hakhnazaryan's Vancouver debut brought a capacity crowd out on a sunny
Sunday afternoon, and that audience was effusive in its approval.
It's undeniable that there was an element of show-biz razzle in the
young Armenian cellist's program, which was calculated to seduce.
Opening with César Franck's Sonata in A Major is a surefire way to
make a good first impression. It takes a really good cellist to nail
the opening `Allegretto ben moderato' 's blend of swooning intensity
and careful pacing, and Hakhnazaryan did just that, aided by the
impeccable Noreen Polera on piano.
Speaking of sonic glitter, Frédéric Chopin apparently described his
own Introduction and Polonaise Brillante as having `nothing to it but
dazzle', at least in its original incarnation as a violin showcase.
Any thoughts that the darker cello would unearth a layer of deeper
meaning were denied by Hakhnazaryan's flamboyant performance - but both
his 1698 David Tecchler instrument and Chopin's 182-year-old work
sounded as fresh as tomorrow.
Which was a nice segue into a second half that began with two works by
living composers, and that touched on some more sombre themes. Anyone
disappointed by Hakhnazaryan's decision not to perform György Ligeti's
Sonata for Solo Cello, as advertised, was more than mollified by its
replacement, Armenian composer Adam Khudoyan's Sonata No. 1 for Solo
Cello. Dedicated to the 1.5 million Armenians killed by Turkish forces
during the last days of the Ottoman Empire, it opens with an
impersonation of tolling bells and continues in a similarly mournful
manner. This is one tough elegy, though, marked by passages of
jazz-inflected pizzicato, eerie artificial harmonics, and the
effective use of traditional Armenian melodies.
One caveat: the Khudoyan piece rendered Mikhail Bronner's The Jew:
Life and Death, which followed, mildly redundant.
Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky's moody Nocturne made an effective transition
into the same composer's far more upbeat Pezzo Capriccioso, Op. 62,
and the fireworks towards the end of the cellist's encore: Niccolo
Paganini's Variations on a Theme From Moses in Egypt, also known as
Introduction and Variations on One String. As the alternate title
suggests, this is played entirely on the cello's A string - but
Hakhnazaryan made it music.
http://www.straight.com/arts/351816/armenian-cello-star-narek-hakhnazaryan-seduces-vancouver-recital-society-audience
From: Baghdasarian
Feb 13 2013
Armenian cello star Narek Hakhnazaryan seduces Vancouver Recital
Society audience
by Alexander Varty on Feb 13, 2013 at 12:25 pm
Narek Hakhnazaryan
With Noreen Polera. A Vancouver Recital Society production. At the
Vancouver Playhouse on Sunday, February 10. No remaining performances
`Did you like that razzle-dazzle?' asked one presumably
less-than-impressed patron during intermission, but his cynical query
fell on unsympathetic ears. `I loved it!' countered his companion, and
there's no doubt she was voicing the majority opinion. Narek
Hakhnazaryan's Vancouver debut brought a capacity crowd out on a sunny
Sunday afternoon, and that audience was effusive in its approval.
It's undeniable that there was an element of show-biz razzle in the
young Armenian cellist's program, which was calculated to seduce.
Opening with César Franck's Sonata in A Major is a surefire way to
make a good first impression. It takes a really good cellist to nail
the opening `Allegretto ben moderato' 's blend of swooning intensity
and careful pacing, and Hakhnazaryan did just that, aided by the
impeccable Noreen Polera on piano.
Speaking of sonic glitter, Frédéric Chopin apparently described his
own Introduction and Polonaise Brillante as having `nothing to it but
dazzle', at least in its original incarnation as a violin showcase.
Any thoughts that the darker cello would unearth a layer of deeper
meaning were denied by Hakhnazaryan's flamboyant performance - but both
his 1698 David Tecchler instrument and Chopin's 182-year-old work
sounded as fresh as tomorrow.
Which was a nice segue into a second half that began with two works by
living composers, and that touched on some more sombre themes. Anyone
disappointed by Hakhnazaryan's decision not to perform György Ligeti's
Sonata for Solo Cello, as advertised, was more than mollified by its
replacement, Armenian composer Adam Khudoyan's Sonata No. 1 for Solo
Cello. Dedicated to the 1.5 million Armenians killed by Turkish forces
during the last days of the Ottoman Empire, it opens with an
impersonation of tolling bells and continues in a similarly mournful
manner. This is one tough elegy, though, marked by passages of
jazz-inflected pizzicato, eerie artificial harmonics, and the
effective use of traditional Armenian melodies.
One caveat: the Khudoyan piece rendered Mikhail Bronner's The Jew:
Life and Death, which followed, mildly redundant.
Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky's moody Nocturne made an effective transition
into the same composer's far more upbeat Pezzo Capriccioso, Op. 62,
and the fireworks towards the end of the cellist's encore: Niccolo
Paganini's Variations on a Theme From Moses in Egypt, also known as
Introduction and Variations on One String. As the alternate title
suggests, this is played entirely on the cello's A string - but
Hakhnazaryan made it music.
http://www.straight.com/arts/351816/armenian-cello-star-narek-hakhnazaryan-seduces-vancouver-recital-society-audience
From: Baghdasarian