Ravinia 2024 Issue 6

BENNETT GORDON HALL 7:30 PM THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2024 AZNAVOORIAN DUO ANI AZNAVOORIAN, cello # MARTA AZNAVOORIAN, piano Legacies: From Armenia to America KOMITAS Four Armenian Folksong Miniatures Chinar Es (You Are Like a Plane Tree) * Tsirani Tsar (Apricot Tree) * Al Ailux (My Scarlet Handkerchief) * Krunk (The Crane) * BOYER Mount Ararat * SOWERBY Sonata for Cello and Piano in G major * Gently swinging, yet not slowly Slowly and rhapsodically Fast and breezily, very rhythmically –Short Pause– AUERBACH Suite from 24 Preludes for Cello and Piano, op. 47 * No. 1 in C major. Andante No. 7 in A major. Vivo ma non troppo No. 8 in F-sharp minor. Grave No. 9 in E major. Vivace No. 10 in C-sharp minor. Adagio sognando No. 12 in G-sharp minor. Adagio No. 21 in B-flat major. Dialogo No. 22 in G minor. Andante nostalgico No. 17 in A-flat major. Allegro ritmico No. 23 in F major. Adagio sognando PIATIGORSKY Variations on a Paganini Theme Thema: Andante Var. 1. (Pablo Casals) Var. 2. (Paul Hindemith) Var. 3. (Raya Garbousova) Var. 4. (Erika Morini) Var. 5. (Felix Salmond) Var. 6. (Joseph Szigeti) Var. 7. (Yehudi Menuhin) Var. 8. (Nathan Milstein) Var. 9. (Fritz Kreisler) Var. 10. (Self portrait) Var. 11. (Gaspar Cassadó) Var. 12. (Mischa Elman) Var. 13. (Ennio Bolognini) Var. 14. (Jascha Heifetz) Tempo di Marcia. (Vladimir Horowitz) # Ravinia Steans Music Institute alum * First performance at Ravinia KOMITAS VARTABED (1869–1935) Armenian Folksongs Soghomon Soghomonyan was born in Küta- hya, Ottomon Empire, into a traditional Arme- nian family. His father Gevorg was a cobbler, and his mother Tagui a carpet weaver. The young boy was orphaned at age 11: his mother died when he was one, and his father followed a decade later. In 1881, the local priest left for Etchmiadzin—the Mother Cathedral of the Ar- menian Apostolic Church—to be ordained a bishop. He took Soghomon to study at the re- cently established Gevorkian Theological Sem- inary at Etchmiadzin. Though the boy spoke no Armenian, only Turkish, the “little vagrant singer” impressed catholicos (patriarch) Gevorg IV with his beautiful soprano voice and received admission to the seminary. Soghomon was ordained a deacon in 1890 and, upon his ordination as archimandrite (monk) three years later, assumed the name Komitas in hon- or of the seventh-century Armenian catholicos and hymn writer. On becoming a priest in 1895, he obtained the title vartabed (priest-scholar). During these years at the seminary, he founded and directed the monastery choir, formed an orchestra of folk instruments, and arranged Armenian folk and church music. Komitas Vartabed traveled to Berlin in 1896 to study musicology, under the protection of the catholicos and under the patronage of Al- exander Mantashyan, a wealthy Armenian oil magnate. A deep thirst for knowledge led to his enrollment in two institutions: the private conservatory of Richard Schmidt and the Royal Friedrich Wilhelm University of Berlin, where he earned a doctorate in musicology. In addi- tion, Komitas became a co-founder of the Inter- national Music Society. He returned to Etchmi- adzin in 1899 with a clear mission to improve music at the seminary and to conduct serious ethnomusicological research on Armenian folk- songs and liturgical music. Komitas left Etchmiadzin for Constantinople in 1910, hoping to establish a national conservatory. Komitas (1902) RAVINIAMAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 2 – SEPTEMBER 15, 2024 74