Hayk Melikyan – piano: Armenia in Concert

10 maart 2013 | 16.45 uur | ,

Programma “Armenian Folk and Spiritual Music in Piano Transcriptions”

 

KOMITAS (1869-1935)

Dances (1906)

(“Yerangi”, “Ounabi”, “Marali”, “Shushiki”, “Yet-araj”)

 

KOMITAS / Sergey BALASANYAN (1902-1982)

Seven Folk Songs

(“Hol ara Yezo” (Threshing Song), “Today is Friday”, “Don’t Blossom, Apricot Tree!”, “Mountains! Move Aside!”, “Threshing Song”, “Snowing in Spring”, “Oh, Naughty Maran”)

 

Harutiun DELLALIAN (1937-1990)

Sonata “Dedication to Komitas” (1982)

Largo

Allegro

 

KOMITAS / Arno BABAJANYAN (1921-1983)

“Vagharshapat Dance” (1947)

 

Koharik GAZAROSSIAN (1907-1967)

“O mystere profond” (1948)

from “Armenian Mass”

 

Grigor NAREGATSI (951-1003) / Hayk MELIKYAN (1980)

“Havun”

 

Armenian Folk Song “Rouri” (“Lullaby”)

(transcription for piano solo by Hayk Melikyan)

 

KOMITAS / Georgi SARAJIAN (1919-1986)

Six Folk Melodies

(“The Sky is in Clouds”, “Armenian Dance”, “Lullaby”, “On the Theme of Djivani”, “Folk Melody”, “Impromptu”)

 

SAYAT-NOVA (1712-1795) / Arno BABAJANYAN

“Elegy” (1978)

in Memory of Aram Khachaturian

 

SAYAT-NOVA / Robert ANDREASYAN (1913-1971)

“Yis mi Gharib Blbuli pes” (“I’m Like a Wandering Nightingale”)

 

KOMITAS (1869-1935), Armenian composer

Komitas (Soghomon Soghomonyan), was born on September 26, 1869 in Anatolia, Turkey, in the town of Koutina (Ketaia). Komitas’ childhood was joyless and full of deprivations. He lost his mother when he was less than one year old. At the age of seven, Komitas entered the local elementary school. As soon as he finished it his father sent him to Broosa to continue his education. His father passed away when Komitas was only 11 years old.

For his delightful voice Komitas was also indebted to an event that fundamentally changed the entire course of his life. In 1881 the priest of Koutina had to leave for Echmiadzin (spiritual center of Armenia) to be ordained as a bishop. As requested by the Catholicos he brought the gifted orphan boy with him to study at the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin. Twelve-year old Komitas was selected out of 20 orphans to study at the Seminary. As it was forbidden to speak Armenian in Anatolia at that time the boy spoke Turkish and when being greeted by the Catholicos Gevorg the IV, he replied, “I don’t speak Armenian, if you wish I will sing.” Then with his fine soprano voice he sang an Armenian sharakan (a church liturgy) without understanding the words. Due to his exclusive aptitude Komitas overcame all the obstacles in a very short time and perfectly learned Armenian. As a result, Komitas was ordained as a monk. In 1893 he finished studying at the Seminary, then he was ordained as a “Vardapet” (Priest) and acquired his new name “Komitas” – the name of the outstanding poet of VII century, an author of sharakans. Afterwards Komitas was assigned to teach music at the Seminary. In parallel with teaching, Komitas organized a choir, an orchestra of folk instruments and made the first researches in the field of Armenian spiritual music.

He established and conducted the monastery choir until 1896, when he went to Berlin, enrolled in the Kaiser Friedrich Wilhelm University and studied music at the private conservatory of Prof. Richard Schmidt. In 1899, he acquired the title Doctor of Musicology and returned to Echmiadzin, where he took over conducting a polyphonic male choir. He traveled extensively around the country, listening to and recording details about Armenian folk songs and dances performed in various villages. This way, he collected and published some 3000 songs, many of them adapted to choir singing. Komitas focused on the themes concerning folk music and revealed the content of folk songs. In 1910 Komitas left Echmiadzin and went to Constantinople. Here Komitas organized a mixed choir of 300 men and called it “Gousan”. It gained a big popular. Armenian folk songs constituted most of its concert program.

Komitas would often spend his time touring, giving presentations and lectures; he also acted as a soloist and conductor. He had the baritone, original for its richness and expressiveness. Due to the wide range of his voice Komitas could also sing part of the tenor. In 1906 after one of the concerts the outstanding French composer Claude Debussy exclaimed excitedly: “Brilliant! Father Komitas! I bow before your musical genius!”

Komitas paid special attention to the composition of church music. His masterpiece “Patarag” (“Liturgy”) is written for the male chorus. Musicology was another important field for him. During the Conference of the International Music Society in Paris, he gave two presentations: “Armenian Folk Music” and “On Old and New Notation of Armenian Spiritual Music.” This provoked a great interest among the participants of the Conference.

In the period of World War I the government of Young Turks initiated the monstrous Armenian Genocide and in April of 1915, Komitas was arrested together with number of outstanding Armenian writers, publicists, physicians, and lawyers. After the arrest, accompanied by violence, he was deported far in Anatolia where he became a witness of the brutal extermination of the nation’s bright minds. And in spite of the fact that due to the intervention of influential figures Komitas was returned back to Constantinople, the nightmare he had experienced left a deep ineradicable trace on his soul. Komitas remained in seclusion from the outer world, absorbed in his gloomy and heavy thoughts – sad and broken. In 1916 Komitas’ health deteriorated and he was put in a psychiatric hospital. However, there was no hope that he would recover. The genius of Armenian music found his final shelter in Paris, in the suburban sanatorium Villejuif where he spent almost 20 years of his life. The life of the Great Komitas came to an end in 1935. In the spring of 1936 his remains were transported to Armenia and buried in Yerevan Pantheon of Prominent Art Figures.

“The Armenian people found and recognized its soul, its spiritual nature in Komitas’ songs. Komitas Vardapet is a beginning having no end. He will live through the Armenian people, and they must live through him, now and forever”. (Vazgen I, the Catholicos of all Armenians).

 

Hayk Melikyan – pianist 

Hayk Melikyan is recognized internationally as one of Armenia’s most versatile and imaginative musicians and among today’s most engaging pianists. Born in Yerevan, he took his first piano lessons with Irina Grishinskaya and then studied atthe Yerevan State Conservatory with professor Alexander Gourgenov.

Hayk Melikyan’s international concert début took place at the “Concerto Di Concerti” International Festival of the 20th Century Music in Rome (Italy). He leads an active concert life, playing in Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Cyprus, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, Sweden etc. After having won the second prize in the international piano competition of the 20th century and contemporary music “Premio Valentino Bucchi” in Rome in 2000 he has included contemporary music as a leading part of his concert programs. In 2008, Hayk Melikyan was granted with “Samson Francois” special prize at the Orléans international piano competition (France). He is the first performer of many Armenian and foreign composers in Armenia and abroad. This activity led the Pianist to an idea of initiating concert series “1900+” on the 20th Century and Contemporary World Piano Music.

“You say a festive feeling of existence or а sheer joy of living… I think that the above mentioned feelings and similar luxuries are deeply possessed by Hayk Melikyan at the moments whenever he plays piano. These are the moments when he equally performs both as a pianist and a composer. The remaining time he dedicates to the maturing of these moments.

Nothing could be more wonderful than a talent of creation of mirth for one’s own soul, possession of it and sharing with those people who are able to seize it.”

Tigran Mansouryan

Hayk Melikyan is a participant of international festivals in France: “Musique en Cote de Nacre” and “Festival de Valmagne”. Hayk Melikyan has performed in “Pharos Arts Foundation” in Cyprus, Swiss “Concertus Saisonnus”, Armenian “National Gallery Music Festival”, Swedish “O/Modernt” and many other international festivals and concerts. He has released three CDs of the 20th Century and Contemporary music. The last one is dedicated to Armenian music.

It is worth mentioning about the valuable achievements of Hayk Melikyan in Composition: he is an author of many chamber-instrumental, vocal works as well as symphonic and chorus music. His piano transcriptions, concert paraphrases and arrangements are among the favorite ones in the repertoires of many pianists. The unique talent and creative imagination of Hayk Melikyan in improvisation adds an unusual value to his recitals.