The day before the Akhtamar String Quartet would record her very first album, the four young ladies took the stage at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium. This is how the audience of the Festival Musicorum discovered what would be heard on that debut. And there is more than one beautiful gem among them, as a memorable concert learned two summers ago...
Fanny with the red scarf, that was supposed to be the somewhat enigmatic title. But the piece unfortunately remained unwritten. Yet the Akhtamar String Quartet had done more than their best on the last day of Midis-Minimes' string quartet week. That Friday afternoon August 11, 2017 began with a brisk requiem, the quartet that Mendelssohn composed in memory of his unexpectedly deceased sister Fanny (opus 80), followed by an equally intimate and seductive triptych by an Armenian musical hero: Komitas. That was, in a way, his artistic name, the result of his ordination as a priest. The life story of Soghomon Soghomonyan (1869-1935) ended no less tragically than that of the Armenian people itself, but before that fateful year of 1915, Komitas was not only concerned with the spiritual welfare of his fellow man. As an ethnomusicologist avant la lettre, he proved himself to be an avid collector of folk music from the Caucasus. Thus, his so-called Miniatures contained, besides Armenian melodies, equally Kurdish, Persian and, indeed, Ottoman motifs. Countryman and cellist Sergey Aslamazyan (1897-1978), founder of the still active Komitas Quartet, arranged these popular pieces for his own ensemble. From the beginning, the young ladies of Akhtamar made them their musical signature dishes, as they did during their concert at the Festival Musicorum earlier this week.
Festival Musicorum?
Indeed, that is the name under which the former Miniemen Festival des Minimes makes an ambitious fresh start, and every working day at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium a free afternoon concert is offered. To avoid any confusion with the nearby, almost identically named summer festival at the Brussels conservatory, the renewed artistic committee decided to continue under a different banner. Bassoonist and former diplomat Pierre Dubuisson stands together with the pianists Eliane Reyes, Jean-Claude Vanden Eynden and Yannick Van de Velde, whom you know, each responsible for part of the varied programming. This explicitly also aims at young and talented musicians, a picture in which the Akhtamar String Quartet naturally fits perfectly. Moreover, their passage at the festival was well-timed, the day before the quartet went to Concertgebouw Brugge to record its first album (Cypres Records). And so during this concert, in addition to Komitas, whose 150th birthday we celebrate this year, another work that you will find on that cd also sounded. Un quatuor arménien (2016) was specially composed for Akhtamar by Eugénie Alécian, the aunt of first violin Coline Alecian. The recording is thus clearly a personal ode to Armenia. The audience got an extensive preview of it.
Since 2012, the princely de Merode family has been the most important sponsoring force behind the Miniemen Festival, and now also behind Musicorum – although free donations are of course always welcome. Thus this 'free' concert was kindly offered by Princess Hélène de Merode. It is midsummer and yet the spacious auditorium Philippe Roberts-Jones, named after the former chief curator of the museum, fills up nicely with people looking for coolness and music. According to purists like British journalist Tully Potter, it is not done, but the Akhtamar String Quartet prefers to play standing upright. In this the foursome is not unique – the Polish Apollon Musagète Quartett does it the same way for example – but it is rare. And why not, if as a group you stand firmly on your feet. Only cellist Astrid Wauters sits on her own platform. Since no bass drum was to be seen, this decorative piece amusingly bore the name of the quartet. It was also Wauters who, first with the bare voice and then with the welcome help of a microphone, briefly introduced the four parts of Un quatuor arménien. With this work, the French-raised Alécian gave voice to the impressions that accompanied her return to her homeland after the fall of the Berlin Wall. "L'écriture dramatique de ce quatuor va à la rencontre de l'histoire de son pays. […] Son écriture mêle l'incertitude et le chaos avec la joie de se redécouvrir", as our curiosity was already tickled in the program notes.
Red scarf revisited
Chaotic it certainly was not, fortunately, in the opening movement (Allegro). And there was no sign of any uncertainty either, at least not in the performance. The strings and plucked instruments were played with conviction and consultation, initially only by the middle voices and later in all parts, something one may well expect from a piece that was written on the ensemble's behalf and has accompanied them for several years now. The tension could be cut with a knife at moments, though it mostly simmered beneath the surface. In the following Andante, the devastating earthquake resonates that struck northern Armenia hard at the end of 1988. It is by far the most striking movement, assigning a prominent role to the viola. Without any cynicism, it was noted that, despite its sometimes repetitive character, the ensemble playing in this somewhat uncomfortable section displayed particularly strong relief. Then in the Tarentella things became noticeably more playful. The sprightly articulated outer sections gave the music a scherzo-like temperament. At the same time, there is a wink towards the work of Komitas in a more lyrical intermezzo. In the finale, a cheerful folk festival was supposed to break loose, or so it was announced. Yet the festivities took on a rather bitter edge. For even after the serious opening, this Allegro maestoso is never truly exuberant, as the biting unisons at the end underscore. Can it be otherwise when you survey Armenian history? Un quatuor arménien is far from being a showpiece aiming for easy effect, but an arresting composition that makes not only Caucasian hearts beat faster.
The Miniatures by Komitas undoubtedly possess the same quality. Just listen below to the sensitive, swinging, and at these temperatures positively sultry Al Ayloughs. It was the first of a total of six treasures to be cherished that afternoon that the Akhtamar String Quartet had in store, and it concerns … a red scarf that dancing girls wear to flirt with the boys. Successfully, for this veiled seduction was hardly to be resisted, just as it was two years ago. And so each of the pieces that followed had its own story, inspired by nature or life. Now cheerful and then lamenting, as in the romance Shogher Jan, or otherwise passionate when Krounk, the crane, mused in its high register about the exodus from Armenia. In contrast to the first part of this concert, the first violin is often prominently to the fore during these miniatures. She intonated and phrased with much feeling, supported in both subtle and dynamic ways by her companions. The result? Shoushiki, or "La danse des jeunes filles", a finely drawn self-portrait that left one wanting more.
This foretaste promised all good things for what is to come later this year on record as well. Or how the legend of Akhtamar not only lives on, but will soon even receive a modern musical chapter …
- WHO: Akhtamar String Quartet [Coline Alecian & Jennifer Pio (violin), Ondine Simon (viola), Astrid Wauters (cello)]
- WHAT: Eugénie Alécian (°1952) – Un quatuor arménien | Komitas (1869-1935) – Selection from the Miniatures [arrangement for string quartet by Sergey Aslamazyan (1897-1978)]
- WHERE: auditorium Philippe Roberts-Jones, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels (entrance via Museumstraat and along the Museumplein)
- WHEN: Tuesday 23 July 2019
- PHOTOS: © Nicolas Draps | Festival Musicorum | Concertgebouw Brugge
- ORGANISATION: Festival Musicorum