Mansurian: Songs and Instrumental Music Musica Viva Moscow Chamber Orchestra & Alexander Rudin

• Tigran Mansurian (1939):
• 1 Song of Lost love 07:19
• 2 For the Sake of Love 04:12
• 3 On the Blue Lake 04:14
• 4 And One Evening 03:58
• 5 My Soul 04:43
• 6 It Snowed on the Mountains 04:52
• 7 Autumn Song 02:51
• 8 It Is My Calm Evening Now 04:46
• 9 Postludia, in Memoriam Oleg Kagan 16:32
• 10 Agnus dei 06:58
• 11 Qui tollis paccata mundi 03:58
• 12 Miserere nobis 04:07
• Total Runtime 01:08:30

Info for Mansurian: Songs and Instrumental Music

Tigran Mansurian has gained an enthusiastic following in the West thanks to recordings which have placed him in the context of other mystical composers working in the former republics of the Soviet Union such as Giya Kancheli from Georgia, and Franghiz Ali-Zadeh from Azerbaijan. Mansurian himself is Armenian, and as such has featured in a Brilliant Classics ‘Armenian Composers’ collection of songs and piano music by, among others, Ramanos Melikian and Artur Avanesov.

Mansurian’s music, however, deserves to be considered on its own terms. The most fruitful period of his work was between the mid-1960s and early 1980s when he was considered a representative of the same nonconformist movement in Soviet music as his friends Andrei Volkonsky, Edison Denisov, Alfred Schnittke, Arvo Pärt and Valentin Sylvestrov. Using elements of Impressionism dodecaphony, even pointillism, Mansurian has been a master-creator of distinctive textures, inclined to soft harmonies and slowly paced, flexible development, often with melodies that delicately refer back to his Armenian heritage.

Canti paralleli (2012) is the main work on the album: a half-hour cycle of settings of Armenian poets for mezzo-soprano, piano and chamber orchestra. Postludium dates from 1992 and has been especially revived for this recording. It is dedicated to the memory of the violinist Oleg Kagan, as is the Agnus Dei of 2006. This is a three-movement instrumental reflection on the liturgical text, featuring the same ensemble of violin, cello, clarinet and piano used by Olivier Messiaen in the Quartet for the End of Time. All three works have their grave and stark moments, but the mood is not unrelieved, as one finds in some of his contemporaries: there is music of great tenderness and ready melodic appeal here. These are all premiere recordings, making the album a valuable addition to the Mansurian discography.

Tigran Mansurian (born 1939) is without doubt the foremost composer of today’s Armenia. His style is embedded in impressionism infused with folkloristic Armenian elements, and follows the minimalistic and spiritual line of fellow composers Arvo Pärt, Schnittke, Silvestrov. His music has many strong advocates in musicians like Leonidas Kavakos, Natialia Gutman, Jan Garbarek, Alexei Lubimov and Patricia Kopachinskaya. The cult label ECM regularly issues his new works on CD.

This new recording by Armenian mezzo-soprano Mariam Sarkissian features song cycles in chamber music and orchestral settings, hauntingly beautiful songs on texts by Armenian poets. The moving “Agnus Dei” for clarinet, piano, violin and cello (the same instrumentation of Messiaen’s Quatuor pour le fin du temps) is written in memoriam of Oleg Kagan.

Mariam Sarkissian already received wonderful reviews of her previous album for Brilliant Classics (BC95244) of songs by Armenian composers Melikian, Avenesov and Mansurian.

Mariam Sarkissian, mezzo-soprano
Julian Milkis, clarinet
Anton Martynov, violin
Daria Ulantseva, piano
Musica Viva Moscow Chamber Orchestra
Alexander Rudin, conductor

Musica Viva Chamber Orchestra
The Musica Viva Chamber Orchestra was founded in 1978 by violinist and conductor Victor Kornatchev (a former soloist in Rudolf Barshai’s famous Moscow Chamber Orchestra). Since 1988 the orchestra has been headed by the cellist, pianist and conductor Alexander Rudin. The orchestra’s wide repertoire includes Western-European and Russian music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as well as late twentieth-century works, and its performances are characterized by their awareness of historical manners of performance. The orchestra flourishes as an ensemble of soloists, and this enables its string band to perform pieces in association with guest musicians. The Musica Viva Chamber Orchestra is renowned for its presentation of unknown and neglected composers and works, including contemporary music.

The orchestra was the first in Russia to perform Johann Christian Bach’s Sinfonia Concertante, Salieri’s Concerto for violin, oboe, cello and orchestra, Schumann’s Requiem Op 148, as well as works by C P E Bach, J-M Kraus, Ignaz Pleyel, Dussek and Dittersdorf, and numerous compositions of Russian composers such as Kozlovsky, Fomin, Gretchaninov, Tcherepnin and others.

Since 1998 ‘Masterpieces and Premieres’, the orchestra’s concert season at the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, has not only pleased audiences with unusual and interesting programmes, but also introduced many world-famous artists who had not previously performed in Russia. One of most significant events in Moscow’s concert life during the late twentieth century was the orchestra’s performance with the conductor Christopher Hogwood, while in November 2002 Sir Roger Norrington gave his only Russian concert with the orchestra.

The Musica Viva Chamber Orchestra has performed with many outstanding soloists, including Natalie Gutman, Igor Oistrakh, Victor Pikaizen, Victor Tretyakov, Yuri Bashmet, Alexei Lubimov, Vladimir Krainev, Nikolai Petrov, Elisso Virsaladze, Sergei Stadler, Dmitri Sitkovetsky and Andras Adorjan. Musica Viva is a participant in many international musical festivals, such as Kammermusikpodium (Germany), Oleg Kagan-Musikfest (Germany), La Folle Journée (France), La Roque D’Antheron International Piano Festival (France), Pablo Casals Festival (France), Cannes Chamber Music Festival (France), and Il Delfino (Italy).

Mariam Sarkissian
Born in Moscow, Parisian since 1996, follower of her first teacher, the great mezzo-soprano Zara Dolukhanova, famous for her performance with belcanto repertoire and chamber music, baptized “the Russian Viardot” by the European critics, Mariam Sarkissian graduated in classical singing from Schola Cantorum (Anna-Maria Bondi’s class) and Ecole Normale de Musique of Paris (Concertiste Master in Daniel Ottevaere’s class). Mariam’s specializations are belcanto, art songs and chamber music.

Prize-winner of many international competitions and foundations, Mariam appeared in opera (Rosina from Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Angelina from La Cenerentola, Cherubino from Le Nozze di Figaro, Oreste from Offenbach’s La Belle Hélène, the title-role in Mascagni’s Zanetto…) and concerts at Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse, Opéra de Nice, Opéra de Toulon, Opéra de Massy, Salle Cortot, Salle Gaveau, Renaissance Festival (Israel), Belle-Ile Opera Festival, Antibes Opera Festival. Mariam performed under the direction of conductors such as Dominique Rouits, Jean-Marie Zeitouni, Benjamin Pionnier, Philip Walsh, Jean-Louis Petit, Balázs Máté, Iñaki Encina Oyon, Florin Totan…

Since 2014, she has been particularly passionate about teaching and research and discovery of contemporary, little known or unfairly forgotten vocal chamber music repertoire. She has made many world premiere ​​recordings with the Hungaroton, Suoni e Colori, Brilliant Classics, Megadisc Classics labels, appeared in recitals and chamber music concerts in Europe, the US and Israel. In 2015, she received a Golden Orpheus of the French Académie du Disque Lyrique (the highest French reward for vocal music recordings) for her CD « Tristesse des choses » (Sadness of it all), composed of French art songs by César Cui and Piotr Tchaikovsky.

Booklet for Mansurian: Songs and Instrumental Music