Pittsburgh Tribune Review
October 22, 2008 Wednesday
Teen cellist Haknazaryan will solo at WSO opener
by Bob Karlovits
Cellist Narek Haknazaryan is pleased at the acclaim he is getting at
age 19, but says it does not reflect how he wants to shape his work.
"It is nice to hear who you play like," the Armenian says, "but I
don’t want to play like Yo-Yo Ma or (Msistislav) Rostropovich. I want
to play like Narek Haknazaryan."
He will be doing that Saturday when he solos on Peter Ilyich
Tchaikovsky’s "Rococo Variations" at the season-opening concert of the
Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra.
Music Director Kypros Markou has not worked with Haknazaryan before,
but says his talent is "quite exceptional." The performance was put
together through the orchestra’s work with Young Concert Artists in
New York City, and he calls it a "good choice."
Reaction to Haknazaryan’s talent has been similar elsewhere. He took
first place in the 2006 Aram Khachaturian International Competition in
Armenia, first in the 2006 Johansen International Competition in
Washington, D.C., and fifth in the 2007 Tchaikovsky International
Competition in Moscow.
His appearance in Greensburg is flanked by recitals at Zankel Hall in
New York City and at the Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theater in
Washington, D.C.
Those concerts are part of eight he is doing this month, which also
included a stop at St. Vincent College in Latrobe earlier in October.
Haknazaryan says he is shaping his performance style around close
study of what a composer wants, and presenting those works with that
dedication.
He is in the third year of work toward a performance degree at the
Moscow Conservatory, and says he is glad "they don’t mind" his
balancing a concert schedule with educational work.
"That is, after all, what I do," he says,
The concert will feature works that provide a different kind of
balance, that of styles.
On the first half with the "Rococo Variations," Markou says, will be
Johannes Brahms’ "Variations on a Theme By Haydn."
Both works are looks at classical-era styles by composers better known
for works from the romantic period.
The second half, he points out, is made up of Tchaikovsky’s "Capriccio
Italien," a work more similar to those for which the composer is
known. It is joined by a suite from the opera "The Mother’s Ring," by
Manolis Kalomiris (1883-1962).
That Greek composer was greatly influenced by Tchaikovsky, Markou
says, and those two works fit together in their "graceful, elegant,
rich, lush sounds."