Monday, November 16, 2015

Tigran Petrosian: His Life and Games by Vik Vasiliev

Tigran Petrosian: His Life and Games by Vik Vasiliev
English | 22 Aug. 1974 | ISBN: 071342818X | 256 Pages



Tigran Petrosian's place in history - a World Champion with a distinctive personal style - is secure. But still he is misunderstood by many of his contemporaries. As Larry Evans writes: 'Tigran Petrosian is one of the most original and mystifying players in the history of chess.' 

Sunday, November 15, 2015

The Gurdjieff Folk Instrument Ensemble & Levon Eskenian - Komitas (2015)

The Gurdjieff Folk Instrument Ensemble & Levon Eskenian - Komitas (2015) 


Levon Eskenian and the musicians of The Gurdjieff Ensemble feature the music of Komitas Vardapet (1869-1935), composer, ethnomusicologist, arranger, singer and priest, and popularly held to be the founder of contemporary music in Armenia.

"Music, its forms and rituals, has the power to bring us close to distant civilizations," says Levon Eskenian in his booklet notes. "Armenia offers a special case: a sacred culture that was preserved and presented at its fullest flowering through the work of one man, the scholar-monk Soghomon Soghomonian, known under his religious name as Komitas, to which is sometimes appended the title Vardapet (archimandrite)."

In his work as a collector of thousands of folk songs, sacred songs and instrumental melodies, Komitas explored the connections that uniquely bind together Armenian sacred and secular music. With their special focus on folk instrumentation and inspired arrangements the Gurdjieff Ensemble illuminates the deep roots of Komitas's compositions in this programme recorded in Lugano in February 2015.

The Armenian Gurdjieff Folk Instruments Ensemble was founded by Levon Eskenian to play 'ethnographically authentic' arrangements of the G.I. Gurdjieff/Thomas de Hartmann piano music. Their debut album on ECM, 'Music of Georges I. Gurdjieff', was widely acclaimed, and won an Edison Award as Album of the Year in 2012.

Tracklist:

1. Zulo
2. Mani Asem, Tsaghik Asem
3. Msho Shoror
4. Havun
5. Mankakan Nvag XII
6. Lorva Gutanerg
7. Seven Dances: Manushaki of Vagharshapat
8. Seven Dances: Shushiki of Vagharshapat
9. Seven Dances: Unabi of Shushi
10. Seven Dances: Marali of Shushi
11. Seven Dances: Yerangui of Yerevan
12. Seven Dances: Het u Araj of Karin
13. Seven Dances: Karno Shoror
14. Hov Arek
15. Gutane Hats Em Berum
16. Hoy, Nazan
17. Havik
18. Akna Oror