Loris Tjeknavorian; Jean Sibelius - Violin Concertos (Emmanuel Tjeknavorian)

Information

Composer: Loris Tjeknavorian; Jean Sibelius; Komitas Vardapet

• Tjeknavorian - Violin Concerto, Op. 1
• Sibelius - Violin Concerto, Op. 47
• Komitas - Krunk (Encore)

Emmanuel Tjeknavorian, violin

Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra

Pablo González, conductor

Date: 2020

Label: Berlin Classics

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Review

Emmanuel Tjeknavorian won the prize for the best interpretation of Sibelius’s Concerto at the 2015 Sibelius Competition and the reasons why emerge slowly but surely on the reading captured here. This is a performance with notable tenacity, well-plotted and clean in tone, particularly at the lower end of Tjeknavorian’s (unnamed) instrument, which has a rich, woody quality and no extraneous rattling or buzzing. I would be happy to hear it live, but what this fine young player’s interpretation lacks in a crowded recorded field is sheer power and command (particularly in higher registers), that last degree of cumulative strain and, from the orchestra, more fire to counter all the ice.

Of more interest here is the work rightly positioned first: the appealing, direct, bushy-tailed concerto for violin and strings from 1956 by the violinist’s father Loris. The concerto tumbles open with an eye-widening gesture and what follows is perhaps a touch more conservative and compartmentalised than that gesture would have suggested. It’s a fun, occasionally bold piece ‘in the folk style’, obviously influenced by Khachaturian’s Concerto in both its drive and its spiced lyricism derived from Armenian folk music, and it suits the soloist’s playing well (not unlike Sibelius’s in its use of sequencing and passagework). This is a score well worth taking up as a companion piece to mid-20th-century string orchestra works from Eastern Europe already in the repertoire. The sound here, in a Frankfurt studio, is brighter than in the live-recorded Sibelius, where the orchestra can seem a touch recessed and flattened.

— Andrew Mellor

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Loris Tjeknavorian (born 13 October 1937) is an Iranian Armenian composer and conductor. Born in Boroujerd, Iran, to an Armenian‑immigrant family, he pursued advanced musical studies at the Vienna Academy of Music, the Salzburg Mozarteum with Carl Orff, and the University of Michigan. As a conductor, Tjeknavorian has toured extensively across Europe, the Americas and beyond, conducting leading orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra and the Vienna State Opera. His compositional output exceeds sixty works, including symphonies, operas, chamber music and ballet.

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Jean Sibelius (8 December 1865 – 20 September 1957) was a Finnish composer who is widely regarded as his country's greatest composer. His teachers included Martin Wegelius, Robert Fuchs and Karl Goldmark. The core of Sibelius' oeuvre is his set of seven symphonies, which are regularly performed and recorded in Finland and around the world. His other best-known compositions include Finlandia, the Karelia Suite, Valse triste, the Violin Concerto, the choral symphony Kullervo, and The Swan of Tuonela. Sibelius composed prolifically until the mid-1920s, then stopped producing major works in his last 30 years.

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Emmanuel Tjeknavorian (born 22 April 1995 in Vienna) is an Austrian violinist and conductor, the son of composer and conductor Loris Tjeknavorian. His conducting career includes engagements with leading European orchestras and upcoming debuts in the United States and opera houses in Florence and Rome. Formerly an internationally acclaimed solo violinist, he performs on a 1698 Stradivari violin. An Abbiati Prize and OPUS Klassik Award winner, he is also active in broadcasting, recording, and supporting young musicians. Since September 2024, he has served as Music Director of the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano.

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