Discovering Komitas
Recommended recordings For those new to Komitas, an excellent starting point is Armenian pianist Lusine Grigoryan’s album which includes the Seven Dances. Through judicious use of staccato and pedalling, she evokes the original folk instruments which inspired these pieces
(ECM 481 2556).
An album often cited as a companion to Grigoryan’s disc was concurrently recorded in 2015 by the Gurdjieff Ensemble, which performs Komitas’s piano music effectively transcribed for the folk instruments he would have known (ECM 2451).
More transcriptions of Komitas, this time by living Armenian composer Tigran Mansurian (b1939), may be heard in an album by viola player Kim Kashkashian with percussionist Robyn Kchulkovsky (ECM 461 8312).
Another evocative album of Komitas’s piano works, filled out by a number of pieces for piano and violin, is presented by Mikael Ayrapetyan with violinist Vladimir Sergeev (Grand Piano GP 270).
Finally, a remarkable album of choral works by Komitas, originally composed for all-male choir but here arranged for mixed choir and superbly sung by the Latvian Radio Choir (Delos DE 3590).