AFTER RUBEN HAKHVERDYAN’S CONCERT
Naira Hayrumyan

KarabakhOpen
15-04-2008 10:08:38

Last Saturday the youth wing of the ARF Dashnaktsutyun with the
assistance of Karabakh Telecom organized a concert of the famous
Armenian composer and singer Ruben Hakhverdyan in Karabakh.

Perhaps the first thing that occurred to me was that there have been
no such concerts for a long time when you listen to professionals,
watch performers who do not just work but live on the stage, who
sing with a normal human voice and wear normal human clothes. I do
not even remember when it was last time. Perhaps the concert of the
Chamber Orchestra.

Accordionist Gago and contrabassist Simon who had arrived with
Hakhverdyan amazed with their ability to seize in the air the mood of
their changeable boss. All through the concert they kept their eyes
on Ruben’s left hand to guess the right tonality – of the guitar and
the singer.

Ruben did not spare his friends. And also the audience. The
people of Stepanakert who came to listen to music suddenly became
"accomplices" of almost a political show. Ruben who is used to tell
what he thinks did not spare the authorities, neither the local nor
those in Yerevan, neither the past nor the present. As an ex-Soviet
dissident he confessed that now it is much harder to speak freely
than in the Soviet years.

The audience responded reservedly to Hakhverdyan’s political
statements.

People applauded but did not relax. Moreover, after the concert the
reporters of local official media accused the singer of tapping a
wedge between the neighborly relations of Armenia and Karabakh.

In reality the singer only said what they had been saying in Yerevan
over the past few months, and in Stepanakert they had been pretending
that they do not notice anything. He said straightforwardly, as a man
of arts, marking the upper and lower pitches. People who prefer the
"golden middle" disliked it.

And the songs were marvelous. The good old Yerevan songs about
Mrs. Arus, the gypsy woman who told fortune, about the souls of
everyone and what Ruben Hakhverdyan read 20-30 years ago. Perhaps by
the number of masterpieces (if people listen to a song for 30 years
on, it’s a masterpiece) he is ahead of many classics. He cannot bow
to public, he confessed that it looks like a movement of the head
of the horse. Besides, there is no need to bow – the fresh wind
which stirred the sluggish air of Stepanakert may take applause for
granted. Leaving bows to others.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress