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Tchaikovsky Competition Laureate Wows Vancouver Rectial Society Audience
The Vancouver Sun
February 11, 2013
by David Gordon Duke
Vancouver Playhouse
February 10
Cellist Narek Hakhnazaryan didn't so much break the rules of the
conventional debut recital as rewrite them entirely in his Sunday
afternoon appearance for the Vancouver Recital Society.
Winner of the 2011 Tchaikovsky Competition, Haknazaryan made his
Canadian recital debut as part of the VRS `Next Generation' series, an
enterprise that's been bringing the best and the brightest of young
performers to the Playhouse over the course of many seasons.
Haknazaryan's program of romantic and modern works started out with
that redoubtable and oh-so-reliable concert-ender, César Franck's
Violin Sonata (obviously in its cello/piano guise) and concluded with
two Tchaikovsky charmers.
Along the way the Armenian cello phenomenon seemed unafraid of
challenging his SRO audience. Ligeti's solo Cello Sonata was replaced
by a fine work by the late Armenian composer Adam Khudoyan, which
Haknazaryan explained was in part a commemoration of the infamous
Armenian massacres of the early twentieth century. Then came the first
Vancouver performance I can recall of a work by Mikhail Bronner
(b. 1952), his The Jew: Life and Death. In two shortish movements,
Bronner starts out in a off-kilter folk mode-a bit like a 21st century
Shostakovich trio-before turning extra dark. Cellist and pianist both
push the limits of extended techniques, but these au courant devices
are used in the service of ideas, not just as trendy effects without
causes.
These two works demanded attention and made no compromises; each alone
was worth the price of admission.
In the lighter Tchaikovsky and Chopin (not to mention some
ultra-flashy Paganini as an encore), Haknazaryan showed himself an
aristocrat of the cello: all the superlative technical skills you'd
expect, but with a sensitive, beguiling feeling for both style and
content.
Perhaps most telling was his work with co-recitalist Noreen Polera in
Franck's Sonata. Thickly conceived and ultra-lush in the post-Wagner
mode, it is all too often rendered as flat-out melodrama. Here the duo
maintained a touching measure of elegant French restraint; rigorously
logical pacing made this old warhorse sound fresh and compelling. It
was a performance to treasure.
Will Haknazaryan be the 21st century heir of the great Mstislav
Rostropovich? Given playing this impressive, I wouldn't be surprised.
The Vancouver Sun
February 11, 2013
by David Gordon Duke
Vancouver Playhouse
February 10
Cellist Narek Hakhnazaryan didn't so much break the rules of the
conventional debut recital as rewrite them entirely in his Sunday
afternoon appearance for the Vancouver Recital Society.
Winner of the 2011 Tchaikovsky Competition, Haknazaryan made his
Canadian recital debut as part of the VRS `Next Generation' series, an
enterprise that's been bringing the best and the brightest of young
performers to the Playhouse over the course of many seasons.
Haknazaryan's program of romantic and modern works started out with
that redoubtable and oh-so-reliable concert-ender, César Franck's
Violin Sonata (obviously in its cello/piano guise) and concluded with
two Tchaikovsky charmers.
Along the way the Armenian cello phenomenon seemed unafraid of
challenging his SRO audience. Ligeti's solo Cello Sonata was replaced
by a fine work by the late Armenian composer Adam Khudoyan, which
Haknazaryan explained was in part a commemoration of the infamous
Armenian massacres of the early twentieth century. Then came the first
Vancouver performance I can recall of a work by Mikhail Bronner
(b. 1952), his The Jew: Life and Death. In two shortish movements,
Bronner starts out in a off-kilter folk mode-a bit like a 21st century
Shostakovich trio-before turning extra dark. Cellist and pianist both
push the limits of extended techniques, but these au courant devices
are used in the service of ideas, not just as trendy effects without
causes.
These two works demanded attention and made no compromises; each alone
was worth the price of admission.
In the lighter Tchaikovsky and Chopin (not to mention some
ultra-flashy Paganini as an encore), Haknazaryan showed himself an
aristocrat of the cello: all the superlative technical skills you'd
expect, but with a sensitive, beguiling feeling for both style and
content.
Perhaps most telling was his work with co-recitalist Noreen Polera in
Franck's Sonata. Thickly conceived and ultra-lush in the post-Wagner
mode, it is all too often rendered as flat-out melodrama. Here the duo
maintained a touching measure of elegant French restraint; rigorously
logical pacing made this old warhorse sound fresh and compelling. It
was a performance to treasure.
Will Haknazaryan be the 21st century heir of the great Mstislav
Rostropovich? Given playing this impressive, I wouldn't be surprised.