Nocturne - Eduard Bagdasarian

[Music Starts at 5:19]
Today is May 15, 2022
On April 13th, a little over a month ago, I decided to restart my #Respite series. I did this after a brief period of time in February this year when it seemed that things were really improving with the virus giving us a break and the economy recovering. That period came to an end with the resurgence of the pandemic, Putin’s war on Ukraine and increased polarization in the USA. What else could go wrong?
Last week was a good week, at least until late yesterday. Reviewing the recording of a performance with violinist Christine Kharazian at the Lyceum for the Friday Morning Music Club on April 24th I was happy with the recording and the audience reaction; on Thursday morning I did a very well received Respite talk and recital over ZOOM to the Metro Bethesda Rotary.
My mood changed in a flash as I was reviewing the recording from the Lyceum Concert when I was gobsmacked twice in rapid succession by truly appalling and unnerving news - First was news of yet another mass shooting, this one undeniably an act of White Nationalist Terrorism at a Buffalo supermarket, and, while I was getting my head around that, the second, when a message popped up on my Facebook feed informing me that one of my fellow local musicians had died unexpectedly and suddenly. No cause was given, but a little investigation revealed that this person had died of COVID 19 in just two days from first symptoms! So much for the new variants being less dangerous. This was a person with whom I’d judged a local competition in January. Our last email exchange was about a week prior to her death. Yes, it was a shock, and I am grief stricken over it.
 
Today I offer some music as Respite, for me and for anyone who listens. It is one of the things I can do as a musician. Quoting Leonard Bernstein after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, “…This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly, than ever before”.  
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Today’s piece is “Nocturne” for Violin and Piano by Armenian Composer, Eduard Ivanovich Bagdasarian. He was born in 1922, and he died at 65 years of age in 1987. A generation younger than the more famolus in the West, Aram Khachaturian, Bagdasarian was born in Yerevan and studied piano and composition at the Yerevan Conservatoire before going to Moscow in 1951 where he continued his composition studies at the House of Armenian Culture. It should also be noted that in 1953 he took part in an expedition to the Sisiansky district of Armenia to collect folk-songs, many of which he used subsequently in his own compositions. He eventually joined the composition faculty of the Romanos Melikian Music School and later became a member of the conservatory faculty. This Nocturne clearly shows the influence of his Russian mentors as well as his knowledge of and love for the folk songs of his own country.
Christine Kharazian is a concert violinist, a graduate of the Komitas State Conservatory and the Tchaikovsky Advanced School of Music in Yerevan. She studied violin with Prof. Edward Dayan, a pupil of David Oistrakh. Her early performance experience includes 5 years with the Armenian National Opera's Symphony as a member of the first violins, and with the Sharakan Ensemble of Ancient and Medieval Music of Armenian TV and Radio, as a soloist.
As a soloist, she has performed in concerts at the Kennedy Center, Strathmore Hall, Dumbarton House, the Gallery at The Ellipse, and various Embassies in Washington. She enjoys exploring many musical genres from Gypsy Jazz to Brazilian choro, and she plays with various bands in the area including Orchester Praževica. She can be reached through the contact page at her website at christinekhara....
Recorded live in performance on April 24, 2022 by Paul Ritterhoff.
As always, I hope you find this piece and my playing of it worth hearing. Share, if so moved. More to come as I discover more music that fits the #respite or #unknowncomposersworthhearing profile.
PLEASE help support me with these projects - my #Respite and #UnknownComposersWorthHearing work by clicking on the paypal.me link, or using the @AndrewKrausPiano id on Venmo. No contracts, no pledges, no ongoing commitments, just a request to help me keep the music coming. Thanks for listening.
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