Biography
Armenian pianist Lusine Grigoryan made her first appearance on disc with a collection devoted to works by Komitas Vardapet, issued by ECM. Her preparation aligned precisely with the path Komitas had followed, combining formal conservatory training in Western classical repertoire with parallel research into the folk traditions of Armenia.
Grigoryan was born in Gyumuri and progressed through successive institutions: a music school in Akhuryan, the Kara-Murza Music College, and finally the Yerevan State Komitas Conservatory. That conservatory bears the name of Komitas Vardapet (1869–1935), also known as Soghomon Soghomonian, whom many regard as the leading figure among Armenian composers. His works characteristically blended sacred and secular elements, a synthesis rooted in exhaustive fieldwork among Armenian folk sources. Grigoryan replicated those same lines of inquiry.
Paul Griffiths captured the outcome in his booklet essay for the Komitas: Seven Songs album, observing that “In Lusine Grigoryan, Komitas’ piano music has an interpreter deeply versed not just in what is on the page, but in the whole folk music background. Her legato phrasing might suggest the duduk, her staccatos the tar; drums and zurna are here, too, together with a folk-like flexibility of rhythm. She also achieves a mysterious presence in her playing such as is typical of rural or ritual music.”
Issued in 2017, Komitas: Seven Songs constituted Grigoryan’s debut recording for the label. ECM had already explored Komitas’s output on several earlier projects, the first of them being Kim Kashkashian’s Hayren: Music of Komitas and Tigran Mansurian, released in 2000. Grigoryan’s contribution advanced that exploration by supplying her own annotations, which drew upon both her command of the historical and cultural milieu in which Komitas operated and her familiarity with the specific dances referenced in individual pieces. In the section titled “Wrestling” from the multipart Msho Shoror, she noted that “kokh is Armenian traditional wrestling. This part starts with two or three beats of the drum, to announce a wrestling match, a symbolic contest of strength that yields to merriment, as the music reflects.”
Grigoryan was born in Gyumuri and progressed through successive institutions: a music school in Akhuryan, the Kara-Murza Music College, and finally the Yerevan State Komitas Conservatory. That conservatory bears the name of Komitas Vardapet (1869–1935), also known as Soghomon Soghomonian, whom many regard as the leading figure among Armenian composers. His works characteristically blended sacred and secular elements, a synthesis rooted in exhaustive fieldwork among Armenian folk sources. Grigoryan replicated those same lines of inquiry.
Paul Griffiths captured the outcome in his booklet essay for the Komitas: Seven Songs album, observing that “In Lusine Grigoryan, Komitas’ piano music has an interpreter deeply versed not just in what is on the page, but in the whole folk music background. Her legato phrasing might suggest the duduk, her staccatos the tar; drums and zurna are here, too, together with a folk-like flexibility of rhythm. She also achieves a mysterious presence in her playing such as is typical of rural or ritual music.”
Issued in 2017, Komitas: Seven Songs constituted Grigoryan’s debut recording for the label. ECM had already explored Komitas’s output on several earlier projects, the first of them being Kim Kashkashian’s Hayren: Music of Komitas and Tigran Mansurian, released in 2000. Grigoryan’s contribution advanced that exploration by supplying her own annotations, which drew upon both her command of the historical and cultural milieu in which Komitas operated and her familiarity with the specific dances referenced in individual pieces. In the section titled “Wrestling” from the multipart Msho Shoror, she noted that “kokh is Armenian traditional wrestling. This part starts with two or three beats of the drum, to announce a wrestling match, a symbolic contest of strength that yields to merriment, as the music reflects.”
Albums