Narek Hakhnazaryan, cello
Armine Grigoryan, piano
Available on demand through Sun, Mar 21, 11:59pm EST.
Location: Online
Since winning the Cello First Prize and Gold Medal at the XIV International Tchaikovsky Competition in 2011 at the age of 22, the “dazzlingly brilliant” (The Strad) Narek Hakhnazaryan has inspired audiences with his artistry, securing a reputation as one of the world’s foremost cellists. An alum of SHCS’s Discovery Series, Hakhnazaryan debuts on SHCS’s Subscription Series with the world premiere of a recital pre-recorded at Aram Khatchatourian Concert Hall in Yerevan, Armenia.
The performance will be followed by an Artist Q&A.
Questions about Streaming? Streaming Guide
Please note that this concert's broadcast premiere is on Sun, Mar 14 at 5:30pm EST, followed by on-demand access through Sun, Mar 21 at 11:59pm EST.
The exclusive streaming link will be emailed to all advance ticketholders on Sun, Mar 14 by 1pm EST. All ticket orders placed by 5pm EST will receive the streaming link in time for the concert premiere at 5:30pm EST. Purchases made after 5pm EST will receive the streaming link as soon as the order is processed by SHCS staff.
About the sponsor
The Piatigorsky Memorial Concert

Narek Hakhnazaryan
Since winning the Cello First Prize and Gold Medal at the XIV International Tchaikovsky Competition in 2011 at the age of 22, Narek Hakhnazaryan has inspired audiences with his artistry, securing a reputation as one of the world’s foremost cellists. Hakhnazaryan has performed with orchestras across the globe, earning praise from critics as “dazzlingly brilliant” (The Strad) and “nothing short of magnificent” (San Francisco Chronicle). In 2014, Hakhnazaryan was named a BBC New Generation Artist, and, in August 2016, made his BBC Proms debut to critical acclaim.
A distinguished international orchestral soloist, Hakhnazaryan has appeared with the Baltimore, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Seattle, Toronto, London, WDR, Frankfurt Radio, Sydney, New Zealand, NHK, and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestras; the Royal Stockholm, Czech, Seoul, Netherlands, and Rotterdam Philharmonics; the Utah Symphony; Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra; Orchestre de Paris; and the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome.
An eager chamber musician and recitalist, Hakhnazaryan has performed in New York’s Carnegie Hall, San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre, Washington DC’s National Gallery of Art, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Salle Pleyel Paris, Berlin Konzerthaus, Oji Hall Tokyo, Shanghai Concert Hall, and esteemed festivals such as Ravinia, Aspen, Piatigorsky, Lucerne, and Verbier, among many others. With the Z.E.N. Trio, joined by colleagues Zhou Zhang and Esther Yoo, Hakhnazaryan toured North America, UK, China, and Hong Kong. The Z.E.N. Trio released their debut album in 2017 on the Deutsche Grammophon label.
Narek Hakhnazaryan was born in Yerevan, Armenia, into a family of musicians. Mentored by the late Rostropovich, Hakhnazaryan received an Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory of Music in 2011 where he studied with Lawrence Lesser, following studies at the Moscow Conservatory with Alexey Seleznyov and at the Sayat-Nova School of Music in Yerevan with Zareh Sarkisyan. Hakhnazaryan plays the 1707 Joseph Guarneri cello and F.X. Tourte and Benoit Rolland bows.
“Nothing short of magnificent.” —San Francisco Chronicle
Armine Grigoryan
Armine Grigoryan is one of the brightest representatives of Armenian contemporary pianists.She received her entire musical education first in Yerevan Tchaikovsky school of music, then in Yerevan Komitas Conservatoire and postgraduate studies under the supervision of professors Georgy and Sergey Saradjians, obtaining excellent professional qualities. This is evident in her appearances as a soloist and collaborative pianist.
Armine Grigoryan as soloist and chamber musician has toured CIS, Italy, Germany, United Kingdom, Austria, Check Republic, Spain, Belgium, Bulgaria, UAE, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Baltics, China, Japan, Australia, USA, Canada, Mexico and others.
Armine Grigoryan became a Double Laureate of “Roma 2003” International Pianists Competition, where she also was awarded a special prize and medal of the Chamber of Deputies of Rome. In the same year Armine Grigoryan with Sona Barseghyan (piano duo “Sonet”) won prize of International Competition, organized by “Frederic Chopin” Association in Rome, and took also Special prize for the Best Performance of pieces by Sergio Calligaris. She is the recipient of special awards as a piano collaborative pianist in several International competitions and has released several CDs (“Unknown Khachaturian” among them).
Since 2005 Armine’s artistic originality also shines in her concert programs as a pianist of the Aram Khachaturian Trio along with the talented musicians – violinist Karen Shahgaldyan and cellist Karen Kocharyan. Outside of Armenia the concerts of Trio were held in many countries of the world in such prestigious concert halls as Musikverein in Vienna, Laieszhalle in Hamburg, Gewandhaus in Leipzig, The Gasteig in Munich, Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, and Koerner Hall in Toronto.
Together with the other members of the Trio and with the support of London resident benefactor Assadour Guzelian, Armine Grigoryan established the Classical Music Development Foundation, with the aim to celebrate the work of Armenian composers and to support young gifted musicians.
Grigoryan was awarded the Medals of the Ministry of Culture of Poland and Armenia. She is a Professor of the Yerevan State Conservatory. Director of the Aram Khachaturian Museum since 2004, she popularizes Khachaturian’s music and name both nationally and abroad and establishes new links with other museums around the world.
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827)
7 Variations on “Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen,” Die Zauberflote, WoO 46
- Theme: Andante
- Variation 1
- Variation 2
- Variation 3
- Variation 4
- Variation 5: Si prende il tempo un poco piu vivace
- Variation 6: Adagio
- Variation 7: Allegro ma non troppo
Throughout his life, Beethoven amused himself—and supplemented his income—by composing variations on popular tunes of the day, from patriotic tub-thumpers like “Rule Britannia” to operatic arias by Mozart and Salieri and an unpretentious waltz by Anton Diabelli. In 1796 the ambitious 26-year-old composer embarked on a concert tour to Prague and Berlin, where he presented his first two cello sonatas as a calling card to the cello-playing Prussian monarch, Friedrich Wilhelm II. It was in the German capital that he met the eminent French cellist Jean Louis Duport, for whom he composed the two Op. 5 Sonatas as well as a charming set of variations on Handel’s “See the conqu’ring hero comes” from Judas Maccabeus. The latter’s commercial success inspired Beethoven (or his publisher) to follow up with two more works based on popular operatic themes, this time from Mozart’s Magic Flute.
Beethoven freely acknowledged the debt he owed to his predecessor—his first teacher in Bonn famously predicted that he would grow up to be “a second Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart”—and the two composers may even have crossed paths when Beethoven visited Vienna in 1787. “Bei Männern, welche Liebe fühlen” (Men who feel the call of love), the paean to marriage that Pamina and Papageno sing in Act 1 of Mozart’s popular Singspiel, is disarmingly melodious and straightforward in its phrase structure, both qualities that lend themselves to variation making. In first stating the genial E-flat-major theme, Beethoven subtly mimics the singers’ voices by contrasting the cello’s baritonal and treble registers. The ensuing seven variations range in mood from sassily spirited to warmly sentimental. A poignant excursion to the minor mode in the central variation is echoed in the dramatic introduction to the Coda, where Beethoven literally turns Mozart’s unpretentious tune on its head.
© 2021 Harry Haskell
Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Adagio and Allegro, Op. 70
- I. Adagio
- II. Allegro
“I have never been busier or happier with my work,” Schumann declared in September 1849. As he reviewed his accomplishments of the past few months, the composer had much to be satisfied with. Already that year he had written some 40 pieces and was bringing in more income than ever before. Schumann’s sustained burst of creativity left him feeling euphoric. “I fail to see the nonrecognition from which I am supposed to suffer,” he wrote to the editor of Germany’s leading music magazine. “Appreciation often falls to my lot in full measure; your journal provides many instances. Another practical but very convincing proof is offered by the publishers, who show a certain desire for my compositions, and pay high prices for them.” Then, perhaps wary of tempting fate, Schumann added: “Where is the composer whose fame is universal? Where is the work—were it even of divine origin—universally acknowledged as sacred?”
The year had started off promisingly with the publication of Schumann’s bestselling collection of easy piano pieces titled Album for the Young. Hungry for worldly success, he proceeded to write a string of works tailored for the amateur Hausmusik market, along with more challenging fare. Conceived in February 1849, the Adagio and Allegro followed hard on the heels of the Album for the Young but had a very different target audience: the music’s technical demands place it beyond the reach of all but professional-caliber players. Originally scored for the modern valved horn—which had been in existence for some 30 years, although the older natural horn still held sway in most European orchestras—the Adagio and Allegro anticipates Schumann’s brilliant Concertstück for four horns and orchestra. With an eye on sheet-music sales, however, the composer and his publisher authorized alternate versions for both cello and violin. The Adagio, marked 'Langsam, mit innigen Ausdruck' (slowly, with tender feeling) serves as a broadly lyrical introduction that never strays far from the home key of A-flat major. A quiet cadence leads, with only a brief pause, to an Allegro of a markedly different character—'Rasch und feurig' (fast and fiery)—and tonal range. The Allegro is cast in rondo form, the vigorously athletic main theme alternating with episodes based on the gently arching melody of the Adagio.
© 2021 Harry Haskell
César Franck (1822-1890)
Sonata in A Major for Violin and Piano, M 8
- I. Allegretto ben moderato
- II. Allegro
- III. Recitative-Fantasia
- IV. Allegretto poco mosso
Franck wasn’t precisely a late bloomer—by his early 20s he had several widely acclaimed works under his belt—but he was slow to win recognition as a central figure of the French Romantic school. Groomed by his overbearing father for a career as a concert pianist, he spent much of his early life in pursuit of a prize that stubbornly eluded him, despite his acknowledged brilliance as an improviser on the keyboard. Not until his 50th year did he achieve the equivalent of a tenured position as professor of organ at the prestigious Paris Conservatoire, where he would count Debussy, Bizet, and Vierne among his pupils. Virtually all the music on which Franck’s reputation rests dates from the last dozen or so years of his life, including the ebullient Variations symphoniques for piano and orchestra, the Lisztian symphonic poem Le chasseur maudit, the majestic Symphony in D Minor, and the abundantly melodious Violin Sonata in A major.
Among the handful of chamber works that Franck composed at the beginning and end of his career are some of his greatest and most characteristic creations. By the time he penned the A-major Sonata in 1886, he was firmly under the spell of Wagner and Liszt. In addition to absorbing their harmonic innovations, he adopted Liszt’s technique of generating large-scale works from a small number of germinal motifs. Franck not only dedicated his sonata to the great Belgian virtuoso Eugène Ysaÿe, one of his most stalwart champions, but presented the manuscript to the violinist as a wedding present. (Ysaÿe was also a close friend of Debussy and the dedicatee of his 1893 String Quartet.) Franck’s Sonata proved so popular with performers and public alike that it was soon transcribed for cello, viola, and flute, becoming one of the most frequently heard works in the recital repertoire. The sonata figures memorably in literature as well: in John Galsworthy’s Forsyte Saga, it is Irene’s playing of Franck’s “divine third movement” that triggers Young Jolyon’s fateful decision to tell his son about the tragedy that has loomed over their family since before his birth.
The A-major Sonata is deeply indebted to Ysaÿe’s purity of tone, liquid phrasing, and tasteful reticence. Indeed, after hearing the violinist read through the first movement, Franck adjusted the tempo marking to a livelier Allegretto ben moderato, imparting a fresh undercurrent of urgency to the gently undulating principal theme. For all its lush chromaticism and quasi-symphonic textures, the Sonata has a chaste, limpid quality that permeates even the restless, driving intensity of the second-movement Allegro. The work lacks a true slow movement. In its place, Franck injected an oasis of repose in the form of a spacious minor-mode meditation that revisits earlier thematic material in the manner of Liszt. Freely declamatory in style, the Recitativo—Fantasia mediates between the muscular lyricism of the first two movements and the disciplined canonic writing of the final Allegretto poco mosso. In its blend of vehemence and restraint, intense emotion and scintillating showmanship, Franck’s Sonata epitomizes the spirit of French Romanticism.
© 2021 Harry Haskell
Edvard Baghdasaryan (1922-1987)
Nocturne
View NotesAlthough neither Eduard Bagdasaryan nor Alexander Arutyunian boasts an international reputation to match that of their senior compatriot Aram Khatchaturian, each occupies a distinguished niche in the annals of 20-century Armenian music. As befits citizens of a nation with a rich musical tradition situated at the cultural crossroads of Asia and Europe, their compositions are at once cosmopolitan and parochial, blending elements of indigenous Armenian music with post-Romantic and modernist styles. The two men’s careers followed parallel trajectories. Both were born in Yerevan at the dawn of the Soviet era, studied at the excellent state-run conservatory there, and relocated to Moscow after World War II. Both composed their obligatory quotas of patriotic cantatas and other ideologically acceptable works, while exploring a wider range of expression in their concert music, film scores, and dramatic works, much of which bears the influence of the folkloric idioms they had imbibed and studied in their formative years.
As evidenced by the pair of instrumental miniatures that close today’s program, Bagdasaryan and Arutyunian were no less at home in the intimacy of the small-scale character piece than in the more monumental genres of the symphony and concerto. A distinguished pianist, Bagdasaryan wrote with special sensitivity for the keyboard. The Nocturne sets a wistfully lyrical cello melody (it was originally written for violin) against a steady patter of luminous, quietly pulsing piano chords. The duo’s even-handed colloquy intensifies in the middle section, but the “nocturnal” atmosphere is restored at the end. A more virtuoso impulse is front and center in Arutyunian’s Impromptu, which betrays Khachaturian’s influence in its colorful tunes and vivacious rhythms. As in the Bagdasaryan, a contrasting centerpiece—in this case, an introspective lament—offsets the extraverted verve of the outer sections. Arutyunian wrote the Impromptu around the time he graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in 1948. The next year his grandiose Cantata for the Homeland won a coveted Stalin Prize, marking his ascendancy to the ranks of the Soviet Union’s musical elite.
© 2021 Harry Haskell
Alexander Grigori Arutiunian (1920-2012)
Impromptu
View NotesAlthough neither Eduard Bagdasaryan nor Alexander Arutyunian boasts an international reputation to match that of their senior compatriot Aram Khatchaturian, each occupies a distinguished niche in the annals of 20-century Armenian music. As befits citizens of a nation with a rich musical tradition situated at the cultural crossroads of Asia and Europe, their compositions are at once cosmopolitan and parochial, blending elements of indigenous Armenian music with post-Romantic and modernist styles. The two men’s careers followed parallel trajectories. Both were born in Yerevan at the dawn of the Soviet era, studied at the excellent state-run conservatory there, and relocated to Moscow after World War II. Both composed their obligatory quotas of patriotic cantatas and other ideologically acceptable works, while exploring a wider range of expression in their concert music, film scores, and dramatic works, much of which bears the influence of the folkloric idioms they had imbibed and studied in their formative years.
As evidenced by the pair of instrumental miniatures that close today’s program, Bagdasaryan and Arutyunian were no less at home in the intimacy of the small-scale character piece than in the more monumental genres of the symphony and concerto. A distinguished pianist, Bagdasaryan wrote with special sensitivity for the keyboard. The Nocturne sets a wistfully lyrical cello melody (it was originally written for violin) against a steady patter of luminous, quietly pulsing piano chords. The duo’s even-handed colloquy intensifies in the middle section, but the “nocturnal” atmosphere is restored at the end. A more virtuoso impulse is front and center in Arutyunian’s Impromptu, which betrays Khachaturian’s influence in its colorful tunes and vivacious rhythms. As in the Bagdasaryan, a contrasting centerpiece—in this case, an introspective lament—offsets the extraverted verve of the outer sections. Arutyunian wrote the Impromptu around the time he graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in 1948. The next year his grandiose Cantata for the Homeland won a coveted Stalin Prize, marking his ascendancy to the ranks of the Soviet Union’s musical elite.
© 2021 Harry Haskell