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Chicago Recital November 2011
Violinist Sergey Khachatryan makes remarkable Chicago debut at Mandel Hall  If you’re an area concertgoer, you can be forgiven your probable unfamiliarity with violinist Sergey Khachatryan, even though the young Armenian has amassed an impressive body of credentials that include a victory in the prestigious Sibelius competition at the astonishing age of 15, and a subsequent win at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels. His tours of North America have included concerto appearances with most major orchestras, with the notable exception of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. A Ravinia appearance a few years ago has been the only local one before Friday night’s long overdue Chicago debut at Mandel Hall at the University of Chicago. There he presented illuminating performances of three sonatas of Beethoven and Shostakovich with his equally gifted sister, pianist Lusine Khachatryan. The 26-year-old Armenian seems determined to shed the stereotypical prodigy label, bearing a repertoire almost entirely constructed from the established canonical masterworks. One hopes his seriousness of purpose will one day extend beyond preservation of the canon to its expansion, much like his heroes Oistrakh and Rostropovich. The duo’s program seemed designed to bypass the composers’ most commonly acknowledged attributes, while highlighting contrasts between the three pieces in the starkest possible terms. The two early sonatas of Beethoven avoid the bold and heroic posture of many of his best-loved works in favor of high spirits and youthful vigor. The brash, mocking Shostakovich is nowhere to be found in his Violin Sonata of 1968. This birthday present for David Oistrakh is one of his late, bleak masterworks, a moving portrait of seething anger and exhausted resignation. In recordings and in this concert, Khachatryan’s sound is sweet and beguiling, though the volume is not particularly substantial. Fiddle aficionados might be surprised by his sonic footprint, given his current use of the renowned 1740 “Ysaÿe” Guarneri owned previously by Isaac Stern and Pinchas Zukerman, violinists not known for introversion. His range of sonority in quieter dynamic is remarkable, but over long stretches it can sound thin and vaguely anemic. Yet once the ear adjusts to the subtleties, his appropriation of color illuminates his musical purposes with remarkable nuance and sophistication.  Anyone who has suffered the trauma of Thanksgiving political discussions with relatives knows that gene-sharing is no guarantee of conciliation. Happily, from the opening pages of Beethoven’s A Major Sonata (op. 12, no. 2), the pair made it clear that they were of a single mind, a true dual collaboration of equals. With Lusine’s shapely and transparent passagework and her brother’s feathery touch and diaphanous sound in accompanying phrases, the two tastefully shifted the focus between them as the score dictated. Tempos were brisk but organic to the source, and the score’s structure was clear and unforced. Much the same can be said of the “Spring” Sonata (op. 24), where the violinist’s limpid tone and the pianist’s gossamer scales suited the cheery score perfectly. Both broadened their sound for the finale as the dramatic discourse was ramped up a few notches. Khachatryan has spoken of the parallels between Armenia’s tragic history and the profound despair so central to Shostakovich’s later years. Still, no comparison could have prepared the audience for the duo’s deeply penetrating account of the Soviet composer’s Sonata for Violin. The siblings were ideally suited to the skeletal textures and whispered dynamics of the opening Andante. Suddenly, all earlier restraint was thrown to the wind in a dizzying account of the gut-wrenching middle movement. This knife-edged reading was almost frightening in its ferocity, with severed horsehair, aggressive pizzicatos that nearly pulled the strings off the violin’s bridge, and thick resonant piano chords that seemed to conjure a chilling and deathly primal scream. The pale, evaporating final bars sounded not so much like a creation by Shostakovich as an act of musical surrender. The duo consented to an encore with a brilliant and blistering Moto Perpetuo composed by an unnamed fellow Armenian. As if to not completely surrender the theme of the previous piece, the ancient Dies Irae was embedded midway. By MICHAEL CAMERON, CHICAGO CLASSICAL REVIEW, 5 NOV 2011 |
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Strings Magazine Cover Feature June 2011
Violinist Sergey Khachatryan  This young musician is a globe-trotting violinist, but his heart lays in Armenia Sergey Khachatryan left his native Armenia at age eight, having been raised by parents who are both professional pianists. “I never started on piano, never wanted to,” says Khachatryan, who had begun violin lessons two years earlier. “I started on the violin.” Still, growing up in a house full of pianists had its effects. “My father had a different view, as a pianist, and that’s special,” he says. “All I have is much more coming from pianists than violinists.” Aside from those familial influences, Khachatryan’s homeland continues to have a powerful impact on his music: born in 1985 in Yerevan, the Armenian capital, Khachatryan, who now lives in Frankfurt, Germany, spends several weeks each year in Armenia. During these summer sojourns, he not only visits family and friends, but also gives concerts. “I think that everything I achieve here, I have to share there,” he says. He doesn’t just perform in Yerevan, however. “If you go outside of the capital, there are all these monasteries and churches, some from the third century,” he says. “Outside the city you find the real Armenia. “Armenia is so old." Clearly, despite his globe-trotting ways, Armenia is in Khachatryan’s blood. The mountainous, landlocked nation shares borders with Turkey, Iran, Georgia, and Azerbaijan, and was the first, in 301 AD, to adopt Christianity as its state religion. Throughout Armenia’s long and sometime tragic history, intermittent independence has alternated with the struggle to maintain a national identity while under foreign rule. Armenia was ruled by the Ottoman Empire for some four centuries. The messy unraveling of that reign in the 20th century set the stage for the greatest trauma of modern Armenian history: between 1915 and 1917, an estimated one million Armenians were slain by the Turkish army, an event that has been called the first modern genocide. Today, the three million citizens of the independent Republic of Armenia enjoy relative freedom and members of the far-flung Armenian diaspora have risen to prominence—the list of musicians includes violinist Ivan Galamian, violist Kim Kashkashian, and composer Alan Hovhaness. Last fall, Khachatryan devoted the second half of his concert at London’s Wigmore Hall to haunting regional folk and spiritual music collected by the Armenian musician, composer, and priest Komitas (aka Soghomon Soghomonyan). In the early 20th century, Komitas (or Gomidas, as his name is sometimes spelled) almost single-handedly revived the country’s folk tradition. Sadly, he spent the last years of his life in exile, mentally fragile after witnessing the genocide. “I have always wanted to play Komitas for the European public,” Khachatryan says, during an interview shortly after the Wigmore concert. “I have always wanted to show the roots of Armenian music. I’ve often played Armenian pieces as encores.” He’d originally planned to play the music in arrangements for violin and piano with his pianist sister Lusine Khachatryan (with whom he has recorded two CDs), but decided instead to play the arrangements made by Sergey Aslamazian, the cellist of the Komitas Quartet. Joined by members of the Nairi String Quartet, Khachatryan sat in the first violinist’s chair to play some 15 short songs. The intense longing and national sorrow of the songs came across clearly, especially in the lyrics to the Komitas song “The Crane”: “Oh crane, where do you come from? / I am a slave to your voice / Oh crane, don’t you have news from our homeland?” Khachatryan’s violin studies began when he was six, but he really developed as a player from the age of 11 when he started studying with the Latvian violinist Josef Rissin in Karlsruhe, Germany. “I learned everything I had to learn of technique from professor Rissin,” Khachatryan says. “When I came to him in 1996, we started from scratch. He gave me all the tools.” Was this just a matter of scales, Sevcik, and Kreutzer? Khachatryan seems amused by this suggestion: “What is the most important thing for a teacher to give you is to understand how you can improve, so if you see the start of a problem, if you have problem with your muscles, you will have the knowledge of what to do.” He still consults with Rissin about music he’s going to perform. At the age of 15, Khachatryan won the Jean Sibelius Violin Competition in Helsinki, becoming the youngest winner ever and the recipient of a special prize for interpreting the Sibelius Concerto. He also took first prize five years later at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels with a searing performance of Shostakovich’s First Violin Concerto. “The Queen Elisabeth Competition was his final competition,” Khachatryan’s longtime manager Rupert Chandler says. “Whatever it was he had to prove, he proved.” Shostakovich has remained a touchstone composer for the young Armenian violinist—he has recorded the two concertos as well as the sonata, both for Naïve Classique, and recently toured Europe and Washington DC with the Second Concerto. In 2005, he made a memorable debut at the prestigious BBC Proms. Tom Service of the Guardian wrote of that performance: “Armenian violinist Sergey Khachatryan is only 20, but his performance of Shostakovich’s First Violin Concerto with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Vassily Sinaisky, was one of the most mature and complete interpretations of this piece it is possible to imagine. Not only did he master the fantastic technical challenges of this huge, daunting work, but he turned the music’s four movements into a vivid, psychological drama.” It’s easy to understand why a performer of Khachatryan’s intense temperament would be drawn to the fierce power of Shostakovich’s music, especially the two deeply personal violin concertos. “Some months before the Queen Elisabeth Competition, I started to listen to Shostakovich a lot,” Khachatryan says. “I don’t know how I came to [the First Concerto], but it had not been one of my favorites before—I fell in love with the First Violin Concerto. Some people say that Shostakovich reflects human tragedy, and, of course, we have had lots of tragedy [in Armenia], lots of melancholy in our nation. “Maybe that’s the connection, but you don’t know.”
This past January, Khachatryan played Shostakovich’s Second Violin Concerto for his Barbican Center debut with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Valery Gergiev. “I have a very good relationship with Gergiev,” he says. “We play quite often.” The relationship dates back to the Mikkeli Festival in Finland in the summer of 2007, when Khachatryan played the First Concerto with Gergiev and the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra. “Gergiev had problems landing at the airport there,” he says, they would not give him permission to land. The concert was at 7 pm and he arrived 7:45 pm. He was putting on his concert clothes while he was talking to me. I said, ‘Maestro, I’m not worrying. I play this concerto a lot. I will try to do everything.’ “He asked me for some tempos, to find out how I breathe. Then we went out, and it was one of the best performances ever. We were really breathing together with the orchestra. After the concert Gergiev said he felt the same thing.” London and its orchestras have played an important role in Khachatryan’s career. “My career started in a way in London,” he says. “My first concert with a bigger orchestra was the Royal Philharmonic. I was replacing Nigel Kennedy in the Bruch.” Besides the RPO and the LSO, he’s also played for the London Philharmonic Orchestra, though his most constant London association is with the Philharmonia Orchestra, with whom at press time he was scheduled to play the Shostakovich First Concerto in March. “Sergey likes the consistency with the Philharmonia—it has more meaning,” says his manager, “He makes friends with the orchestra players and there’s a nice feeling between orchestra and soloist.” Though his forthcoming plans include a performance of a new concerto by a fellow Armenian, Khachatryan is still in the process of adding the great masterworks to his repertoire. In March, he also was set to perform, for the first time, the Berg Concerto with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. He wasn’t immediately drawn to Berg after listening to it, but, he says, “I learned never to judge a work from hearing other artists. I have to work by myself.” Onstage, Khachatryan’s presence is commanding. He leans into his Stradivari with an intensely focused expression on his sharply angled face. “He’s always intense, he’s not a showman,” Chandler says. The cover of his new Bach CD highlights his striking looks: against a dark background, illuminated by a strong overhead light, Khachatryan looks upwards, while his hands rest in prayerful attitude on his violin. It looks like nothing so much as a Hollywood star’s publicity photo from the 1920s—a fittingly old-fashioned look for a performer who derives strength from the long traditions of his homeland and whose convincing, profound playing style conjures up an earlier era. By INGE KJEMTRUP, STRINGS MAGAZINE, JUNE 2011 |
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BBC CD Review - Bach Sonatas & Partitas
“Silvery, bright and pure, Khachatryan delivers a deeply expressive interpretation.” 
Maturity is a funny thing. Some people have it practically from the cradle, whilst others are still waiting for it to hit as they collect their old-age pension. The young Armenian violinist Sergey Khachatryan must surely fall into the first category, from a musical perspective at the very least. Khachatryan’s name may not be familiar to many yet, but it's only a matter of time. He started learning the violin aged five, and just five years later was performing with professional orchestras. Aged 15, in the year 2000, he became the youngest-ever winner of the Sibelius Violin Competition in Helsinki. In 2005, with First Prize in the Queen Elisabeth Competition freshly under his belt, a critic described his Proms performance of Shostakovich's First Violin Concerto as "one of the most mature and complete interpretations of this piece it is possible to imagine". You get the picture. So, to this disc of JS Bach's solo sonatas and partitas, repertoire which must be one of the ultimate tests of a violinist's technique, maturity and musical soul. Khachatryan may still only be in his 20s, but his interpretation leaves the listener wanting for nothing. Bach composed this collection of pieces in 1720, whilst Chapel Music Director to Prince Leopold of Cöthen. Despite the religious-sounding job title, this was a particularly important period for his secular composition, as he was obliged to provide weekly chamber music on top of his chapel duties. The six solo cello suites were written around this time, as were the Brandenburg concertos. It was the violin, though, that Bach played himself, and with considerable accomplishment. One of his sons, CPE Bach, later described his father's tone as "clean and penetrating". And this description could just as easily be applied to the sound made by Khachatryan. Silvery, bright and pure, he gives a youthful air to a deeply expressive interpretation that feels knowing beyond his years. Everything about his performance is to be savoured. Phrasing and dynamics play Bach's multi-layering effects to the full. Fast passage-work, ornamentation and multiple stopping are cleanly delivered, and with deft control. The recording acoustic – a Swiss concert hall – is as perfect as one could wish for. All in all, a quite wonderful listen. By CHARLOTTE GARDNER, BBC, 2010 |
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Wigmore Hall Recital 2009 / Review
Sergey Khachatryan at Wigmore Hall It’s the hardest lesson to master, because it can’t be taught. Sure, the musician has found out how to play Bach, Brahms or Beethoven, but has he found his own voice, too — the one that ultimately draws the audience to come back to him? When it comes to Sergey Khachatryan, the answer is a huge, huge yes. There’s a big, glossy heap of talented violinists at the moment, but what separates this young Armenian from the pack isn’t just the rich sound of his Strad (the 1708 “Huggins”, if you’re interested in such things); it’s how forcefully, how individually he deploys it. By the end of this recital, delivered with another Khachatryan (Lusine, his sister) at the piano, I felt so convinced that his way was going to be the right way that what the critical pen was scribbling on the critical notebook seemed pretty irrelevant. Perhaps the biggest surprise about Khachatryan is that his choices aren’t the obvious ones: he’s not one of those firecrackers who confuse pace and volume with energy and intensity. Opening with Bach’s unaccompanied D minor Partita he shirked anything to do with lean, limber Bach and went for old-fashioned, spacious Romanticism. But there was a wealth of expressive detailling here: the Courante was driven and tense; an intimate Sarabande breathed into life like a whisper in the dark. And then that mighty Chaconne, in Khachatryan’s hands a restless search for beauty that felt like an epic but never felt overwrought: it drew you in, rather than reaching beyond Bach’s natural austerity. Brahms’s Violin Sonata No 1 came next, introducing a sibling partnership that clearly thought the same way: reflection over showmanship. Violinist and pianist handled it with rapt affection and the sort of noncholant, natural charm that could only mean hours in the practice room. Then, another demon of the repertoire, Beethoven’s Kreutzer sonata, and another surprise. Its obsessive rhythms and repeated refrains normally scream high-octane drama, but it was the soulful tang of Khachatryan’s Strad that led the way, and what stayed in the mind was actually the soft, middle movement, a tender set of variations served up with sprung, silken elegance. A spell-binding encore, an arrangement of Rachmaninov’s Vocalise, rounded things off. By then, the notebook had long been abandoned: one for the personal archive instead. By Neil Fisher, The Times, 20 March 2009 |
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The Independent on Sunday, Feature
Close-up: Sergey Khachatryan He's dazzled the orchestral world – now the violinist is keeping it in the family "I never counted myself as a child prodigy," says violinist Sergey Khachatryan. Others may beg to differ. Born in Armenia, he first picked up the violin aged five, only because his mother, father, and sister Lusine (pictured here with Sergey) were all pianists and another would have been "too much for one house". Within five years the family had moved to Germany and Sergey was playing concertos with professional orchestras. By 15, he had become the youngest-ever winner of the Sibelius violin competition in Helsinki. A dizzy career ascent, then, but one during which he remained level-headed. "You see other young violinists getting complexes about going on stage because of the pressure put on them by parents and teachers, but that was never the case with me," he says. "I was going to a normal school and having a normal child's life." Now 23, Khachatryan has been repeatedly acclaimed for an expressiveness beyond his years; one critic described his performance of Shostakovich's First Violin Concerto at the 2005 Proms as "one of the most mature and complete interpretations of this piece it is possible to imagine". Aside from his orchestral work, he regularly partners his sister in recitals: they're at the Wigmore Hall this week, offering a programme of Beethoven, Brahms, and Bach. Whatever may lie ahead, his main concern is conserving the passion that has propelled him this far. "You see many of today's artists go out on stage and you can tell they're there because it's their 'job' – I'm afraid of that word. Every time I go out on stage, I want to be in a special state, to create a special atmosphere." Sergey and Lusine Khachatryan play the Wigmore Hall, London W1, on Wednesday (www.wigmore-hall.org.uk, 020 7935 2141) Link: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/closeup-sergey-khachatryan-1642869.html By Hugh Montgomery, The Independent on Sunday, 15 March 2009 |
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Reviews
International Press: Tchaikovsky Concerto / Philharmonia Orchestra / Jukka-Pekka Saraste / Royal Festival Hall ...The jewel in the crown of tonight’s concert was Sergey Khachatryan’s performance of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto. His playing was astonishingly innocent, with his Stradivarius creating a pure sound, rich and extremely clear... ...When listening to Khachatryan play, one cannot help but feel one is in the presence of a master. It is rare to find such a selfless soloist – one gets the sense with him that it is all about the music. Carla Rees, MusicWeb, 20 February 2008 Prokofiev Concerto Nr.2 / Los Angeles Philharmonic / Stéphane Denève Sergey Khachatryan, 22, captivates Hollywood Bowl crowd ...Poetic, introspective, effortlessly virtuosic, Khachatryan mined the classical lyricism of the concerto's first movement, the sweet and sour nostalgia of its glorious slow movement and the fiery gypsy rhythms of the last. His sound was vibrant and rich, and his interpretation was mature..... By Chris Pasles, Los Angeles Times, 23 August 2007 Sergey Khachatryan and the RSO Prague, Tchaikovsky Concerto “Although Sergey Khachatryan is celebrated as one of the world-wide best young violinists, he is in a very positive way, still introverted. His wonderfully through-formed tone distorts itself for beauty. He definitely earned the great applause. Next time, the only half-full Munich Philharmonie should be sold out!”
Harald Eggebrecht, Sueddeutsche Zeitung, 05.10.2004
“Sergey Khachatryan shows his great talent at his concert in“Alte Oper” Can a young violinist play a mature and complex piece, such as Shostakovitch’s violin concerto in a minor? Yes he can! If his name is Sergey Khachatryan, aged 19! His interpretation caught the audience at once.
…Big applaus.” Axel Zibulski, Offenbacher Post, 18.11.2004Ladies Morning Musical Club Concert / Montréal, Canada “Young Armenian fiddler stands out in growing crowd.
Young fiddlers are not exactly in short supply these days: A few more and we will have too many. It is safe to say, however, that there will always be demand for players of the calibre of Sergey Khachatryan, who played yesterday for the Ladies’ Morning Musical Club.
Short, dark and handsome, this 19-year-old Armenian conveyed serious intent with his very presence on the stage of Pollack Hall. It was the playing of course, that settled the matter, Bach`s Solo Sonata in A Minor- especially the Fuga movement- established his excellent ear and total freedom from technical encumbrances. With a strong, ardent tone, Khachatryan could adopt the slow tempo he preferred in the Andante. This was followed by a finale in which the sudden, animating shifts of loud and soft were perfectly calibrated.”
Arthur Kaptainis, The Gazette, 01.11.2004Musikfest Bremen 2004 “Not often does an audience hear such affectionate and dreamy details, crowned with the beautifully played Adagio…”
Simon Neubauer, Weser Kurier, 23.09.2004
Sibelius concerto with the Cleveland Orchestra and Roberto Abbado “Young violinist plays like a poet…….
Khachatryan, born in 1985 in Yerevan, Armenia, is the kind of poet that you hope to find but sometimes despair of locating in the crowded market of fiercely good competition winners. In 2000, he did win the International Jean Sibelius Competition in Helsinki, Finland. The judges knew what they were doing. On Saturday, Khachatryan played with an uncanny maturity and a refreshing lack of artifice. This musician is going places fast. Let's hope he'll be invited back to Northeast Ohio soon.” Elaine Guregian, Akron Beacon Journal, Sunday March 14, 2004 | |
