KOMITAS (KOMITAS VARDAPET)
(1869–1935)

PIANO AND CHAMBER MUSIC
SEVEN FOLK DANCES • SEVEN SONGS
TWELVE CHILDREN’S PIECES BASED ON FOLK-THEMES
MSHO-SHOROR • SEVEN PIECES FOR VIOLIN AND PIANO

MIKAEL AYRAPETYAN, piano
VLADIMIR SERGEEV, violin

“Armenia - my native country. For me, the popularization of Armenian classical music is a vital priority. A huge volume of Armenian classical music remains unknown to the world, which must be discovered. Art should not remain in oblivion!”

– Mikael Ayrapetyan

Listen to an excerpt from
Seven Folk Dances: No. 5 Shushiki of Vagharshapat
GP720

KOMITAS (KOMITAS VARDAPET)
(1869–1935)

About this Recording

Komitas was one of the first Armenian musicians to undergo classical Western musical training, in Berlin, in addition to music education in his own country. He published both folksong collections and writings on Armenian church melodies, and his work laid the foundations for the development of a clearly defined national musical style. The Seven Folk Dances evoke the specific timbres of Armenian instruments, the Seven Songs for Piano are fleeting and lyrical while the Twelve Children’s Pieces based on folk-themes are beautifully crisp. Msho-Shoror is one of the most ancient of all Armenian dances.

SEVEN FOLK DANCES (1916)
1
No. 1 Manushaki of Vagharshapat (03:14)
2
No. 2 Yerangi of Yerevan (03:57)
3
No. 3 Unabi of Shushi. No. 4. Marali of Shushi (04:25)
4
No. 5 Shushiki of Vagharshapat (03:37)
5
No. 6 Het u Aradj of Karin (02:52)
6
No. 7 Shoror of Karin (05:08)
SEVEN SONGS FOR PIANO (1911) *
7
No. 1 Es Ahchikem (I’m a Girl) (01:00)
8
No. 2 Ervum em (I’m Burning) (00:45)
9
No. 3 Tun ari (Come Home Again) (01:06)
10
No. 4 Gutan’e hats em berum (Bread I Carry for the Ploughman) (01:00)
11
No. 5 Lusnak’e sari takin (The Moon under the Mountain) (01:23)
12
No. 6 Es Gisher, lusnak Gisher (This Night, the Moonlit Night) (01:24)
13
No. 7
Gzhur kuga verin Sarin
(Water Flowing from the High Mountain) (00:31)
TWELVE CHILDREN’S PIECES BASED ON FOLK-THEMES (1910)
14
No. 1 Andzev ekav (Rain Has Come) (00:37)
15
No. 2 Andzev ekav (Rain Has Come) – Variation (00:34)
16
No. 3 Phapuri (Pchapuri) (00:29)
17
No. 4
Gzhur kuga verin Sarin
(Water Flowing from the High Mountain) (00:41)
18
No. 5 Yar jan u Marjan (My Darling and Marjan) (00:56)
19
No. 6 Yar jan u Marjan (My Darling and Marjan) –Variation (01:19)
20
No. 7 Es Ahchikem (I’m a Girl) (00:39)
21
No. 8 Haralo (Kharalo) (01:37)
22
No. 9 Sar, Sar (The Mountain, The Mountain) (00:42)
23
No. 10 Sar, Sar (The Mountain, The Mountain) – Variation (00:43)
24
No. 11 Arev, Arev (The Sun, the Sun) (00:41)
25
No. 12 Pies Zhohovrdakan Hokov (Piece in the National Spirit) (02:00)
26
MSHO-SHOROR (1906) (07:57)
SEVEN PIECES FOR VIOLIN AND PIANO (1899-1911)
27
No. 1 Chinar es (You Are a Tree) (1911), arr. Avet Gabrielian* (02:31)
28
No. 2 Al Aylughs (The Scarlet Shawl) (1911), arr. Avet Gabrielian* (01:53)
29
No. 3 Cirani Car (The Apricot Tee) (1905), arr. Avet Gabrielian (03:44)
30
No. 4
Akh, Maral jan (Ah, Sweet Maral) (1899),
arr. Aram Shamschian* (03:17)
31
No. 5 Qeler-Tsoler (I Went, I Glowed) (1911), arr. Karp Dombaev* (03:45)
32
No. 6 Krunk (The Crane) (1911), arr. Sergey Aslamazian (04:34)
33
No. 4
Kaqavik (The Song of the Partridge) (1908),
arr. Avet Gabrielian* (01:46)
* WORLD PREMIÈRE RECORDING

TOTAL TIME: 70:47

MIKAEL AYRAPETYAN

Mikael Ayrapetyan was born in 1984 in Yerevan, Armenia, where he had his early schooling. His repertoire ranges from the baroque to the contemporary and includes rarely performed works of Armenian composers, whose music had not until then been performed. He is actively engaged in the popularisation of Armenian classical music, organising concerts in major concert-halls of the world, and acting as producer, art director and pianist for these performances. Mikael Ayrapetyan’s previous recordings for Grand Piano of piano works by Abramian and Bagdasarian were met with critical acclaim.

VLADIMIR SERGEEV

Vladimir Sergeev was born in 1985 in Yaroslavl and started to learn the violin at the age of six. In 1996 he won his first prize in a regional competition for young violinists and in 2000 entered the Academic Music College of the Moscow Tchaikovsky State Conservatory as a student of People’s Artist of Georgia M.L. Yashvili. He was also trained by Yashvili at the Moscow Conservatory from 2004 to 2009, and in postgraduate studies until 2012. During his training, he became a laureate of the All-Russian competitions of Belgorod (1999) and Ryazan (2000) and in 2009 won the international St Petersburg competition.

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