Aznavoorian Duo: Gems from Armenia
Cedille Records

For their debut album as a duo, cellist Ani and pianist Marta Aznavoorian honour the music of their ancestral homeland with an expansive collection. Though the two were raised in Chicago, the abiding affection the sisters have for Armenia resounds in their survey; adding considerably to the recording's impact, a strong folk character informs much of the material in a way that bolsters the music's universal appeal. Gems from Armenia is the first time the two have released an album together, but they've performed extensively as individual soloists and chamber musicians before. Steinway pianist Marta is a founding member of the Lincoln Trio and boasts an extensive discography, and Ani, playing a cello custom-built by her father Peter, made her Cedille Records debut with composer-pianist Lera Auerbach on Celloquy and is the principal cellist of Camerata Pacifica.

Recorded in August 2021 at the University of Chicago, Gems from Armeni is something of a history lesson (in the best sense) for presenting material from three eras of Armenian music-making. The release engages immediately with the alluring melodies of five ancient folk songs arranged by Orthodox priest, composer, and musicologist Komitas Vardapet (1869-1935). Pieces by Soviet-era composers Aram Khachaturian, Arno Babajanian, Avet Terterian, and Alexander Arutiunian testify to the Armenian musical renaissance of its time, while works by living composers Serouj Kradjian, Vache Sharafyan, and American Peter Boyer, the oldest born in 1966, offer a contemporary snapshot of Armenian composition.

The aching melody voiced by Ani in Vartabed's “Chinar Es” makes for a transfixing start, especially when the delivery of both musicians is so sincere and unadorned; affecting too is “Tsirani Tsar” for the humble beauty of its melodic expression. As evidenced by the treatments of Vartabed's songs and Babajanian's “Aria,” one of the recording's key strengths is the natural, pure tone Ani achieves in her playing and the singing quality of her vocal-like phrasing. Music so lovely and delicate hardly requires superfluous ornamentation to connect, and it's a sensibility the two admirably maintain throughout the recording.

A touching rendition of Khachaturian's “Ivan Sings” is coupled with “Yerevan,” an entrancing ode to his hometown that conveys the deep affection he felt for the locale. Also memorable are Kradjian's arrangement of the tender Armenian ballad “Sari Siroun Yar,” which has to do with a mountaineer pining for his village love, and Sharafyan's crepuscular “Petrified Dance.” The most overtly classical of the works is Terterian's Sonata for cello and piano, whose creation preceded the symphonies and stage works for which he became known and which counted Shostakovich as an admirer. Consistent with the sonata form, the twenty-one-minute work advances from the passionate “Andante” on through the pensive “Adagio” and suitably rambunctious “Presto.”

As a composer, Boyer's the outlier here, yet his dramatic epic Mount Ararat (a world premiere recording) fascinates for showing how Armenia's biblical heritage might be viewed from a different vantage point; closing the circle, the duo asked that the composer work a reference from Vartabed's “Krunk” into its sinuous writing, and certainly the grandeur of the site is captured by Boyer. Interspersed amongst the duo performances are two for solo piano, a move that adds variety to the presentation. At the centre of Vartabed's songs is a sparkling rendering by Marta of “Garoun A,” while she later waxes poetic for “Elegy,” a fond tribute by Babajanian to his mentor Khachaturian.

May 2022