Tjeknavorian

The music of Johannes Brahms has long been close to Emmanuel Tjeknavorian's heart. Now, with the WDR Symphony Orchestra under Cristian Măcelaru, he has recorded Brahms' Violin Concerto and Zwei Gesänge,op. 91 with Anna Lucia Richter and Andreas Haefliger. On this album he not only plays the violin, but also the viola.

Borodin’s First Symphony isn’t especially interesting, but his Second is a masterpiece, tightly constructed, brilliantly orchestrated, and tunefully delightful. It’s really the only work of its period to rank with the symphonies of Tchaikovsky (along with, possibly, Balakirev’s First), and Tjeknavorian’s performance of it, indeed of all three works, is outstanding. He doesn’t fuss with or manipulate tempos or textures, preferring instead to keep the music moving energetically and allowing the musicians of the National Philharmonic to inject as much color and vitality as possible. The scherzo flashes by like lightning, the slow movement is aptly seductive, and the finale dazzles. As I suggested, the other two works are less obviously successful, but the performances are no less adept. Produced by Charles Gerhardt, we can expect fine sonics, and that’s just what RCA delivers. In this music, you won’t find better.

Great composers of Armenia are reunited under this great CD to capture the essence their country! Great choice and great result! A must have for any people who love Armenia and is beautyful music!

Easily the finest account of Khachaturian’s Piano Concerto since Moura Lympany’s pioneering recording under Fistoulari (Decca, 3/53 – nla), this new version on ASV is the one to have. Dora Serviarian-Kuhn and her Armenian compatriot, Loris Tjeknavorian are in every way first-class: both identify naturally with the sinuous oriental flavour of the melodic lines and understand – as did Lympany and, in America in 1946, William Kapell (RCA, 5/95) – that the outer movements need above all to convey thrusting vitality. (Remember that the first Moscow performance – which delighted the composer – was by the Russian virtuoso, Lev Oborin.) Here there is plenty of drive and rhythmic lift in the outer movements.

The musicians of the Tonkunstler Orchestra – and especially their concertmaster Kirill Maximov in soloist mode – want to tell you some fabulous stories. There can be few other orchestral pieces that capture the imagination as directly as Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s musical tales from the «Thousand and One Nights». Violin concerto? Symphonic poem? Or suite? «Scheherazade», written in the summer of 1888, has a little of each, or even better: everything in one! The four movements have names like «The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship» and «Festival at Baghdad»; the musical bor- rowings come from Persia, India and the Caucasus. Emmanuel Tjeknavorian chose this work for his first ever CD production as conductor of a full symphony orchestra because he has an emo- tional connection to it. He explains why in his deeply personal message in the booklet. The young violinist, now increasingly making a name for himself as a conductor, has complemented «Scheherazade» with other showpieces of the Russian orchestral repertoire by Mikhail Glinka and Aleksandr Borodin.

Virtuoso repertoire, brilliantly arranged: Dominik Wagner will release his Bottesini album 'Revolution of Bass' via Berlin Classics on 29th of October 2021. He presents the solo Double Bass Concerto No 1 in F sharp minor as well as two duets with Benjamin Schmid on violin and Jeremias Fliedl on cello. Additionally some bonustracks featuring soprano and piano have been recorded. The musicians will be accompanied by the Württembergisches Kammerorchester Heilbronn under Emmanuel Tjeknavorian a great wish of Dominik Wagner, who played the first concert together with Tjeknavorian ten years ago and has been close friends with him ever since.