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CRITIC'S PICK: DILIJAN CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES' 'CELEBRATING MANSURIAN'
Los Angeles Times
Jan 9 2014
By Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times Music Critic
January 9, 2014, 9:00 a.m.
Tigran Mansurian, Armenia's most celebrated composer, will turn
75 this month and the Dilijan Chamber Music series will celebrate
Sunday afternoon at the Zipper Concert Hall of the Colburn School
with a survey of the Mansurian's chamber music over the past half
century. It will be, no doubt, a joyous occasion, what with the
composer present and Dilijan, which is devoted to Armenian music,
being among Mansurian's most important of champions in America.
That is joyous, not joyful, and of the deep-down variety. Joy can
certainly be found in Mansurian's intensely spiritual music, but
the surface is not where to look. There, in a haunting eloquence,
is where the suffering, never overstated or exaggerated but always
throbbing like a chronic pain, lies. It is a beautiful pain, the
exquisite anguish of a grave wound not healed but rather transcended.
CRITICS' PICKS: What to watch, where to go, what to eat
That transcendence is the nature of Mansurian's most mature music. And
through stunning recordings on ECM it has made him a cult figure
like such other spiritually inclined Eastern European composers as
the Estonian Arvo Part. Also in common with composers who came out
of the former Soviet bloc, Mansurian's hard-won spirituality is all
the more illuminating for having grown out of an aggressive musical
rebellion against Soviet musical populism.
Through it all, Mansurian's inspiration has been the plight of the
Armenian people in the 20th century and their sustaining culture. He
is a formal composer who never wastes a note. His sound world is
mystical. He knows wherein lies an instrument's most hauntingly
beautiful sounds, particularly when it comes to strings, the voice
and percussion. Once heard, a Mansurian piece is not forgotten.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-cm-critics-pick-celebrating-mansurian-20140108,0,7810814.story#axzz2pvtiUuwS
Los Angeles Times
Jan 9 2014
By Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times Music Critic
January 9, 2014, 9:00 a.m.
Tigran Mansurian, Armenia's most celebrated composer, will turn
75 this month and the Dilijan Chamber Music series will celebrate
Sunday afternoon at the Zipper Concert Hall of the Colburn School
with a survey of the Mansurian's chamber music over the past half
century. It will be, no doubt, a joyous occasion, what with the
composer present and Dilijan, which is devoted to Armenian music,
being among Mansurian's most important of champions in America.
That is joyous, not joyful, and of the deep-down variety. Joy can
certainly be found in Mansurian's intensely spiritual music, but
the surface is not where to look. There, in a haunting eloquence,
is where the suffering, never overstated or exaggerated but always
throbbing like a chronic pain, lies. It is a beautiful pain, the
exquisite anguish of a grave wound not healed but rather transcended.
CRITICS' PICKS: What to watch, where to go, what to eat
That transcendence is the nature of Mansurian's most mature music. And
through stunning recordings on ECM it has made him a cult figure
like such other spiritually inclined Eastern European composers as
the Estonian Arvo Part. Also in common with composers who came out
of the former Soviet bloc, Mansurian's hard-won spirituality is all
the more illuminating for having grown out of an aggressive musical
rebellion against Soviet musical populism.
Through it all, Mansurian's inspiration has been the plight of the
Armenian people in the 20th century and their sustaining culture. He
is a formal composer who never wastes a note. His sound world is
mystical. He knows wherein lies an instrument's most hauntingly
beautiful sounds, particularly when it comes to strings, the voice
and percussion. Once heard, a Mansurian piece is not forgotten.
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/culture/la-et-cm-critics-pick-celebrating-mansurian-20140108,0,7810814.story#axzz2pvtiUuwS