21-YEAR-OLD PIANIST SHOWS MATURE, MAGNIFICENT ARTISTRY
By Alan Becker

South Florida Classical Review
/03/21-year-old-pianist-shows-mature-magnificent-a rtistry/
March 24 2010

Nareh Arghamanyan is not a name familiar to most concertgoers,
but just wait. The 21-year-old Armenian pianist has garnered many
impressive awards and recognitions. They include the Gina Bachauer
international Junior Piano Competition, the 1997 International Chopin
Competition in Yugoslavia, and the 2008 Montreal International Musical
Competition. In 2004 she was the youngest student admitted to the
University for Music and Performing Arts in Vienna and graduated in
2008 with highest honors.

>>From what was heard Tuesday night at the University of Miami’s
Gusman Concert Hall, Julian Kreeger and Friends of Chamber Music of
Miami deserve our gratitude for bringing this exceptional artist to
the Miami audience, since this young pianist demonstrated talent and
musicianship of the highest order.

Arghamanyan opened with three of Domenico Scarlatti’s sonatas, all
in D minor. They formed a most satisfying triptych and the playing
ranged from the most refined tones, barely sounding forth, to the
electricity of rapid passagework with lightning repeated notes to
take one’s breath away.

This refinement was matched in Schumann’s rarely played Humoresque,
in which the composer puts his two personalities—Florestan and
Eusebius–clearly on display in six sharply contrasting sections. The
contrasts between Schumann’s passionate and introspective side were
manifest in this performance, realized to the fullest in Arghamanyan’s
supple yearning, and powerful fleet-fingered technique. It was a
remarkable achievement, and further pointed out what a first-rate
work Schumann has given us.

Franz Liszt’s Ballade No. 2 dates from 1853 and is a substantial work
that tells the adventure of a melody, much as the composer has done
in his Piano Concerto No. 2. It is chock full of Lisztian rhetoric,
but the melody itself has a gentle character in most all of its
variations. Once again this young aritist was able to encapsulate
all of its moods and passions with great feeling and depth.

After the preceding challenges, taking on Rachmaninoff’s
knuckle-busting Etudes-tableaux, Op. 33 would almost seem to be
a cruel and merciless challenge. Needless to say Arghamanyan was
well-suited temperamentally to this music, and gave us performances
of great passion, rhythmically stunning contrasts, and great beauty
in all of Rachmaninoff’s yearning vocalise-like lines. This reviewer
would be hard pressed to recall another performance of the set quite
as outstanding as this one.