National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia, Cyprus Tour
Aram Gharabekian
Arlistic Director & Principal Conductor

Nuneh Badalian
Soprano

First Violin
Tamara Petrosian Concertmaster
Nelli Arzumanova
Tigran Salazarian
Lusine Astvatsatrian
Sona Azarian
Angela Nikoghosian
Gayane Bareghamian

Second Violin
Hakob Adamian Principal
Levon Mekertchian
Lilit Davtian
Ashkhen Uzumian
Anna Baghdasarian
Suzanna Balasanian
Arakel Petrosian

Viola
Hambardzum Simonian Principal
Astghik Gajoian
Rouben Adamian
Armen Hovhannisian

Cello
Vahan Grigorian Principal
Stepan Hovsepian
Levon Arakelian
Marine Mherian

Bass
Vilen Karapetian Principal
Simon Hairapetian

Piano
Ella Melik-Husian

Administration
Armen Arabian Executive Director
Hovhannes Ohanian Productions Manager
Sergi Kadilov Stage Manager

Aram Gharabekian

According to Boston Globe critic Richard Dyer, Aram Gharabekian "knows how to inspire an orchestra to give him what he wants." Currently the Music Director of the National Chamber Orchestra of Armenia, Mr. Gharabekian led his ensemble on its American debut tour to critical acclaim in October 1999. They issued their first compact disc of Armenian works in 1998, which includes a world premiere recording of a commissioned work recorded at the historic 4th century Geghard Monastery in Armenia. During 2001 the orchestra will tour the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Greece, Cyprus and Lebanon, and will make a return visit to the United States in November. During the eight years as Music Director and conductor of the Boston SinfoNova Orchestra, Aram Gharabekian won national recognition and praise for his innovative and enterprising programming, as well as his critically acclaimed performances in major American venues, including Carnegie Hall, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and Boston's Symphony Hall and Jordan Hall. Mr. Gharabekian has been the principal Guest Conductor of the Zagreb Philharmonic and appeared with the Sinfonietta Munchen in Germany and Italy. He has also led the Ukrainian National Symphony, Ukrainian Radio & Television Symphony in Kiev, the West Ukrainian Philharmonic in Lvov, the Armenian Philharmonic in Yerevan, and the Shreverport Symphony Orchestra in Louisiana. On the eve of the Year 2000, Mr. Gharabekian led an orchestra and chorus of 300 musicians from six countries, performing Beethoven's 9th symphony in a televised millennium celebration concert in Hangzhou, China.

The recipient of the 1989 Lucien Wulsin Performance Award for the best concert performance aired on America's National Public Radio, Mr. Gharabekian was also awarded the 1988 American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) Award for Adventuresome Programming. He was twice honored by the Harvard Musical Association's 'Best Performance Award' and his performances have been singled out as "Best of 1985,1989,1990 and 1991" by the Boston Globe. Born to Armenian parents in 1955, Aram Gharabekian moved to the United States at a very young age where he continued his studies in composition and piano. He graduated from the New England Conservatory in Boston with a Master's degree in composition and continued his postgraduate studies in Musical Phenomenology at Mainz University in Germany. He studied conducting with Franco Ferrara in Italy, and in 1979 became one of a few conducting pupils of the legendary Sergiu Celibidache in Germany. He was also granted a fellowship to study composition and conducting under Jacob Druckman and Leonard Bernstein at the Tanglewood Music Centre in Massacusetts. His recording of Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet with the Ukrainian Radio and Television Symphony was released in 1996 on the Russian Disc's' Audiophile Series.' His concert recordings have been broadcast regularly on American National Public Radio as well as on the Ukrainian, Croatian, and Armenian Radio and Television, Boston's WBZ- Television, WBUR, WGBH FM stations, WNYC FM in New York, the Voice of America in Washington, and Bayerischer Rundfunk in Munich.

Nuneh Badalian (soprano)

Nuneh Badalian was born in Yerevan, Armenia. She graduated in 1992 from the Vocal Department of the Komitas Conservatory in Yerevan and continued two years of postgraduate studies under Professor Tatevik Sazandarian. While at the Conservatory, she entered the Yerevan National Opera Theatre as soloist. She received a diploma of distinction from the 1996 Rimsky-Korsakov International Competition in St. Petersburg and made her solo recital debut at Rachmaninoff Hall in Moscow. In the same year she sang Pamina in a concert performance of Mozart's The Magic Flute. She has been a guest soloist with the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra in the Brahms Requiem, Handel's Messiah and Strauss's Last Four Songs. In 1997 she sang the Armenian premiere of Les Illuminations by Benjamin Britten with Aram Gharabekian and the National Chamber orchestra of Armenia (NCOA) and was invited back to sing the Mozart Requiem with the NCOA the following season. This has led to a close artistic collaboration with the Orchestra. Ms. Badalian has given recitals in Germany and many American cities including New York, Boston, Washington, Los Angeles and San Diego. Ms. Badalian also champions works by contemporary composers written especially for her including Edward Hairapetian's Artun (In the Morning) that she premiered in April 2000 with the NCOA under Aram Gharabekian. On the occasion of the composer Alexander Haroutunian's 80th birthday anniversary in October 2000, she sang the first performance of Harotunian's song cycle "In my Mother's Memory" at the composer's request. Ms. Badalian made her London solo recital debut at St.John's Smith Square in February 2001. Presently, she is a soloist of the National Opera Theatre in Yerevan. I

Programme Notes

Edvard Grieg (1842-1907)
"Holberg" Suite, Op. 40
On December 3 1884 the citizens of Bergen, Norway, turned out into their wintry streets to celebrate the bicentenary of the birth of an illustrious son. He was Ludvig Holberg, often known as the Northern Moliere from his brilliant Dano-Norwegian comedies. A commemorative statue had been set up in the market- place and was to be unveiled with processions, speeches, bell-ringing, salvoes of cannon, and music by Edvard Grieg, Norway's greatest composer and himself a Bergenser. Grieg's official contribution took the form of a male-voice cantata. Though commissions of this kind held little interest for him, he was able to pay a more personal tribute to Holberg the following Sunday, when the cantata was repeated indoors and the composer played a suite of piano pieces "in the olden style", written in imitation of eighteenth-century dance movements. In 1885 he transcribed the whole of this "perruque work" for string orchestra. The opening Praeludium is a clever adaptation of what in the original is essentially keyboard figuration. Other distinctive features include scoring for divided second violins, violas, and cellos in the Sarabande, a piquant Musette section in the Gavotte, rich viola and cello sonorities in the Air, and witty repartee for solo violin and solo viola, with pizzicato backing, in the Rigaudon.

John Holton
Edvard Hairapetian (b. 1949)
Edvard Hairapetian was born in Yerevan in 1949. He studied with Professor Grigor Yeghiazarian at the Komitas Conservatory in Yerevan. Among his major works are the ballet Wish Tram (1991), based on Tennessee Williams' play A Streetcar named Desire, two symphonies (1985 and 1987), the Oratorio "1915" for orchestra, soloists, choir and narrator (1977), and concertos for piano, viola, cello, flute, clarinet and bassoon. His chamber works include four string quartets, song cycles based on poems by Byron, Rilke, Metsarentz and sonatas for various instruments. Hairapetian's works have been widely performed in Yugoslavia, Hungary, Sweden, Canada, the Czech Republic, the Baltic States, and Russia. His first Symphony was premiered in Poland.

Xavier Montsalvage (b. 1912)
Xavier Montsalvage was born in Gerona (Spain) in 1912. The work of this major Catalan composer is one of the most outstanding creations of Spanish music in this century, with a full catalogue in which masterpieces can be highlighted such as his Cinco Canciones Negras, the Cuarteto Indiano, among others originating in his so- called "Antillean" period, which then gave way, in a brilliant process of evolution, to a stage of neoclassicism and, later, an eclectic style adopting a vigorous personal idiom leading to the creation of works of great perfection. Some worthy examples include Cinco Invocaciones al Crucificado, Laberinto and the Sinfonia de Requiem. At the end of 1989, a commission from the Isaac Albeniz Foundation enabled Montsalvatge to fulfil a long-standing idea, of composing a work for two pianos, which was to come to fruition in Calidoscopio, premiered on November 7,1990 at the National Music Auditorium by the duo Frechilla-Zuloaga.

Edvard Mirzoyan (b. 1921)
In the forties, a group of bright and gifted composers emerged with confidence on to the Armenian music scene, quickly becoming known and loved both in the former soviet Union and abroad. Amidst this wealth of talent were Haroutunyan, Babadjanyan, Saryan and Mirzoyan. Edvard Mikaelovich Mirzoyan was born 12 May 1921, in the town of Gori. In 1941 he graduated from the Yerevan Conservatoire from the composition class of Talyan and completed his studies at the end of the war with Litinsky and Peyko in Moscow. By this time he had already written the two symphonic poems Loretsi Sako and To the heroes of the Patriotic War, the Symphonic Dances and a number of Romances and other vocal works. There followed wotks in a variety of forms from the Cantata (1948) through the Symphonic Poem and Overture to music for cinema and solo works for French horn and trombone. Perhaps his most popular and most frequently performed compositions are Introduction and Moto Perpetuo for violin and orchestra (1957), Sonata for cello and piano (1967) and the Poem for piano (1970). Having inherited a strong national style from composers such as Aram Khachaturian, Mirzoyan nevertheless imbues his music with a winning freshness and individuality. One rarely encounters extremes in the emotional content or in the means of expression - he never exhibits innovation or striking effect for its own sake. Instead, dissonance and even polytonality, interesting key changes and peculiar rhythmic characters assume a modest and organic role, always with a sense of taste and style, in what is usually an economic and transparent texture. Mirzoyan's leaning towards a directness of vocal line and strict harmonic proportions indicates a strong influence of Armenian urban folk tradition.

Roland Melia
Benjamin Britten (1913 - 1976)
Les Illuminations for Soprano and Strings, Op. 18 Born in the Suffolk port of Lowestoft in 1913, Benjamin Britten was destined to become the preeminent British composer of his generation and the most consummate setter of the English language in song since Henry Purcell. Britten began to compose at the age of five, displaying prodigious natural gifts which hastened, in his thirteenth year, a defining period of study with Frank Bridge. In 1930 he entered the Royal College of Music in London to study piano and composition. Four years later, after hearing Alban Berg's Wozzeck, he resolved to further his studies under Berg in Vienna, but in the event had to content himself with the rather less appealing prospect of writing film music for the General Post Office's Documentary Department. It was here that Britten met W.H. Auden, a future collaborator on such works as the symphonic song-cycle Our Hunting Fathers. Radical and disjunctive compositions of the late 1930s stamped Britten as an enfant terrible in the eyes of a conservative British musical establishment, and in 1939 he left for the United States of America, accompanied by the tenor Peter Pears. Comparative artistic freedom resulted in several ground- breaking works, notably the Sinfonia da Requiem and First String Quartet, but Britten's growing unease precipitated a return to England in 1942, and the start of almost three decades in which the 'angry young man' of British music consolidated growing universal fame, largely through a succession of major operatic triumphs. During the 1960s Britten became friendly with a number of Russian musicians. Some of them, particularly Rostropovich and Richter, appeared occasionally at the Aldenburgh Festival; and for Rostropovich he wrote a Symphony for "Cello and Orchestra" (1963) and three suites for "cello unaccompanied (1965, 1967 and 1971). In 1963 Britten and Pears paid the first of several highly successful visits to the USSR, and two years later they attended a Britten Festival at Yerevan in Armenia. Centering his life around the Suffolk village of Aldeburgh, his home for the remainder of his life, Benjamin Britten always retained a Kiplingesque 'common touch', affirming his personal artistic credo in the words "I want my music to be of use to people, to please them, to enhance their lives ...". As the 1 musicologist Donald Mitchell noted in 1977, a year after 1 Britten's death, "there is an intensely solitary and private spirit, a troubled, sometimes even despairing visionary, an artist much haunted by nocturnal imagery, by sleep, by presentiments of mortality ...". Such indeed are the universally compelling issues, at once disquieting and consolatory, which informs many of his works. Les Illuminations reflects one of the principal forces at work in Britten's mature creativity. No other British composer of his epoch resorted so often nor with such conspicuous success to the orchestral song cycle. Of Britten's song-scapes with orchestral accompaniment there are six. The series began in 1928 with Quatre Chansons française; Our Hunting Fathers followed in 1936, and then came Les Illuminations in 1939, the Serenade for tenor, horn and strings in 1943, and in 1949 the mighty Spring Symphony, with its settings of poems from Spenser to Blake and W.H. Auden, before ending in 1958 with the Nocturne, Op. 60. When considered by the side of his song-cycles for voice and single accompanying instrument, Britten's output in this area is seen as one of the most significant of any English composer, representing the response of the twentieth century to the achievements of the great Tudor polyphonists and the vocal works of Henry Purcell. Britten's remarkable facility as a composer for the human voice transcended any language barrier. Indeed, his settings of ten texts by Arthur Rimbaud (1854-1891), issued under the collective title Les Illuminations, seemed to herald a new-found clarity of utterance, a world removed from the public, and predominantly left-wing, statements of the 1930s. Yet paradoxically, this work somehow belies its interior musings and the soul- searching anguish of much of its content, deftly concealing, not always deeply, but never confusing aphorism with the loneliness of the remote observer. Les Illuminations was written for the soprano Sophie Wyss, who gave the first performance in 1940, though at publication Britten stressed its suitability for the tenor voice. After the sinister opening declamations of Fanfare, J'ai seulla clef de cette parade sauvage (I alone hold the key to this savage parade), Rimbaud's lines revealed those incisive powers of private and public observation at which Britten, too, excelled. Les Bacchantes des banlieues (suburban Bacchantes), the pompous, risible absurdities of Royaute (Royalty), the ebb-tide of Marine (Seascape) and the shimmering, vaporous reclothings of Being Beauteous bind a Parade of droles tres solides. From 0 le plus violent Paradis de la grimace enragée! (Oh the most violent Paradise of furious grimace!), with its accompanying demons, to the spent submission of the final setting, Depart (Leaving). Yet the deliberately enigmatic tone of this cycle is underpinned, and to a degree even explained by the recurrence of the lines J'ai seulla clef de cette parade sauvage (I alone have the key to this savage parade) in the final stanza of Parade. Opposing chords of B flat and E finally resolving into C major, with the lingering B flat still felt, give especial piquancy and mystery to Fanfare, and how telling is Britten's cross- referencing in Parade, when the soloist again reminds us that she alone holds the secret to this illusory world, and the comedie magnetique (magnetic comedy) played out by its inhabitants.

Michael Jameson
Sargis Aslamazian (1897 - 1978)
Sargis Aslamazian is one of the distinguished figures of Armenian Chamber Music and was a cellist. He graduated from the Moscow Conservatory as a cellist in 1927, and pursued post-graduate studies under professor Semyon Kazalupov (1929). From 1937-1978 he led the Conservatory Quartet and gave Cello classes at the Moscow Conservatory, (since 1947 with the title of Professor). Sargis Aslamazian was the cellist of the internationally known Komitas String Quartet from its foundation in 1925 to 1968. The quartet was the first performer and promoter of Aslamazian's original works, as well as of a number of successful arrangements, which have been performed in Armenia and abroad. His variations on a theme by Handel Passacaglia, variations on a theme by Paganini, and a great number of arrangements of Komitas songs for Quartet are among his most popular works. His compositions are characterized by an irreproachable taste, perfection of form and musical expression as well as skillful use of the medium of string quartet. The composer Nikolai Miaskovsky considered Aslamazian's arrangements as a reference point for any composer.

Sargis Aslamazian's services have been highly praised. He has received many honours, including the title of the People's Artist of Armenia (1945), the State Prize of the former Soviet Union, the State Prize of Armenia (1965), as well as title of the Emeritus Professor of Yerevan Conservatory.

The arrangements of two songs by Komitas were written in 1934 in Yerevan and first performed by the KomitasQuartet.

Ruben Altunian (b. 1939)
Ruben Altunian was born in 1939 in Yerevan. He studied viola with Professor Aram Shamshian and composition with Ghasaros Saryan at the Komitas Conservatory in Yerevan. In 1983 he formed the Minstrel and Folk Song Ensemble and led it as its artistic director until 1990. A multi- talented artist, Ruben Altunian has proven himself to be a composer with a deep knowledge of Armenian folk music as well as an accomplished performer and educator. He has composed a large number of symphonic, choral, chamber and solo works. Ruben Altunian is the son of the great master and authority on Armenian folk music, Tatul Altounian and is also engrossed in the task of studying, researching and adapting folk and troubadour songs. Ruben Altunian is the laureate of the State Prize. Presently he is Professor of Viola and Chairman of the String Quartet Department at the Komitas Conservatory in Yerevan.

Leroy Anderson (1908 -1975)
A composer of short, light-hearted miniature tones, many of which were given their first performances by the Boston Pops Orchestra under the direction of Arthur Fiedler. His best known works include: Sleigh Ride, Blue Tango, The Syncopated Clock, The Typewriter and Bugler's Holiday. His works also include a 17-minute Piano Concerto that was released posthumously and a Broadway Musical "Goldilocks". Leroy Anderson was educated at Harvard, receiving his undergraduate and graduate degrees in Music. Among his teachers were Piston and Enescu. He first came to the attention of Arthur Fiedler of the Boston Pops Orchestra when he arranged some Harvard college songs for the Boston Pops to play. He was asked to show anything original to Fiedler and eventually he wrote "Jazz Pizzicato" which Fiedler performed and recorded.

Stepan Shakarian (b. 1935)
Stepan Shakarian was born in Baku, in 1935. He studied composition with Aram Khachaturian in Moscow and completed his education at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. A prolific composer, his works included music in different genres including jazz and film music. Among his major works are three symphonies and various instrumental music. Shakarian has received wide recognition in Armenia.

Les Illuminations (text)
Fanfare
I alone hold the key to this savage parade. Towns These are towns! This is a people for whom these dream Alleghanies and Lebanons have been raised. Chalets of crystal and wood move on invisible rails and pulleys. Old craters, surrounded by colossal statues and palms of copper, roar melodiously in the fires Corteges of Mabs in russet and opaline robes, climb from the ravines up there, hoofs in cascades and briars, the stags suckle Diana. Bacchantes of the suburbs sob, and the moon bums and howls. Venus enters the caves of the blacksmiths and hermits. Groups of belfries sing the ideas of the people. From castle of bone unknown music sounds... The paradise of the storms collapses. Savages dance unceasingly the Festival of the Night. What kind arms, what good hour will restore to me that region from which come my slumbers and my slightest movements? Phrase I have hung ropes from bell-tower to bell-tower; garlands from window to window; golden chains from star to star - and I dance. Antique Graceful son of Pan! Your brow is crowned with little flowers and berries, your eyes, precious globes, move slowly. Specked with brown lees, your cheeks become hollow. Your fangs shine. Your breast resembles a cithara; tinkling sounds circulate in your blond arms. Your heart beats in the belly where the double sex sleeps. Walk at night, gently moving this thigh, this other thigh and this left leg. Royalty One fine morning, among a very gentle people, a superb man and woman stood in the public square and cried aloud: "My friends, I want her to be queen". "I want to be queen". She laughed and trembled. He spoke to his friends of revelation, of trial concluded. They swooned against the other. Indeed they were kings for a whole morning, whilst the crimson hangings were displayed on the houses, and for a whole afternoon, when they advanced towards the palm gardens. Marine Chariots of silver and of copper prows of steel and of silver chum the foam, lifts the roots of the brambles. The streams of the barren land and the immense tracks of the ebb-tide flow circularly towards the east, towards the pillars of the forest, towards the columns of the jetty against whose comers are hurled whirlpools of light. Interlude I alone hold the key to this savage parade. Being Beauteous Before a background of snow a tall beautiful Being. Whisperings of Death and circles of muted music cause this adored body to rise, swell and tremble like a spectre. Scarlet and black wounds break out on the superb flesh. True colours of life deepen, dance, and separate themselves around the vision, upon the path. And Shivers rise and mutter; and the mad flavour of these effects is charged with mortal groans and raucous music, which the world, far behind us, hurls at our Mother of Beauty, - she withdraws, she stands erect. Oh! Our bones are reclothed with a new loving body. Ah! The ashen face, the shield of hair, the arms of crystal. The cannon upon which I must hurl myself through the noise of trees and light winds. Parade Very sturdy rogues. Many have made use of your worlds. Without needs, they are in no hurry to put into action their brilliant faculties and their experience of your consciences. What mature men! Eyes dulled like a summer's night - red and black, tricoloured; Steely spangled with stars of gold; deformed features, leaden, pale, enflamed; wanton hoarseness. The ungainly bearing of tacky finery. There are some young ones- Oh most violent Paradise of mad grimaces...Chinese, Hottentots, gypsies, simpletons, hyenas, Molochs, old insanities, sinister demons, they mix popular and maternal turns with bestial poses and caresses. They can interpret modem plays or "good girls'" songs. Master jugglers, they transform place and people, and use of magnetic comedy. I alone hold the key to this savage parade. Departure Seen enough. - The vision has been met in all guises. Had enough. - Rumours of towns at night, and in the sunlight and at all times. Known enough. - Life's setbacks. Oh Rumours and Visions! Departure in the midst of love and new rumours.

Arthur Rimbaud (1854 - 1891)

Programme
Message from President Clerides