Various Composers - Armenian Cello Concertos (Alexander Chaushian)

Information

• Aram Khachaturian - Concerto in E Minor for Cello and Orchestra
• Arno Babajanian - Concerto for Cello and Orchestra
• Michel Petrossian - 8.4, concerto for cello and orchestra

Alexander Chaushian, cello

Armenian National Philharmonic Orchestra

Eduard Topchjan, conductor

Date: 2023

Label: BIS

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Review

Alexander Chaushian and Eduard Topchjan share a fervent mission to secure the widest possible dissemination of Armenian music as part of their national heritage. This enterprising and beautifully recorded disc serves their purpose admirably by bringing together three cello concertos that span almost 80 years, all inspired by various aspects of Armenian music, from liturgical chants in Petrossian’s 2021 work 8.4, to folk melodies in Khachaturian’s concerto (1946).

Petrossian’s language is perhaps the most inventive, with careful depiction of varying sound worlds to characterise the underlying themes. For example, the first movement ‘Massis’ (referring to Mount Ararat) uses brass, oboes and cellos, whereas the second ‘Sis’ opts for more percussive tones to underline its more stringent rhythmic character. Chaushian also finds a wide range of colours and timbres in the cello writing to reflect this aspect in a perceptive performance.

Khachaturian is the best-known figure here, famed for his passionate style, not least in his ballet Spartacus. The Cello Concerto only offers glimpses of this strong vein of melodiousness and, despite a committed performance from Chaushian, the piece seems discursive and structurally ill-defined.

The performers’ zeal really ignites in Babajanian’s concerto (1962), particularly in the exquisite sound world of the Andante, and the rhythmic bustle of the concluding Allegro. Here the finely honed ensemble under Topchjan is in perfect accord with an impressively virtuosic interpretation from Chaushian.

— Joanne Talbot

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Alexander Chaushian (born 1977 in Yerevan) is an Armenian cellist. Educated in Armenia, the UK and Germany, he studied at the Yehudi Menuhin School, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler. A prizewinner at the International Tchaikovsky and ARD Competitions, he has toured extensively, notably as a Young Concert Artists alumnus in the United States. Chaushian has appeared with leading orchestras worldwide, performs regularly with prominent collaborators, records for BIS, and serves as Artistic Director of major music festivals in Yerevan and Cyprus.

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