{"id":16429,"date":"2013-12-05T08:33:07","date_gmt":"2013-12-05T13:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=16429"},"modified":"2013-12-05T14:04:45","modified_gmt":"2013-12-05T19:04:45","slug":"preview-young-armenian-cellist-narek-hakhnazaryan-plays-tchaikovsky-but-pines-for-auerbach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2013\/12\/05\/preview-young-armenian-cellist-narek-hakhnazaryan-plays-tchaikovsky-but-pines-for-auerbach\/","title":{"rendered":"Preview: Young Armenian cellist Narek Hakhnazaryan plays Tchaikovsky but pines for Auerbach"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"narek\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Making his Toronto Symphony Orchestra d\u00e9but on Friday and Saturday, cellist Narek Hakhnazaryan may only be 25, but he has already spent more of his life performing than doing anything else.<\/p>\n

So much so that he has played in Toronto twice before, the first time as a teenage member of New Names, an organization dating back to Soviet times that tours talented child musicians.<\/p>\n

But then there was a watershed moment in Hakhnazaryan’s life that cast everything that happened before into shadow: a gold-medal win in the cello category at the 2011 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. (This is the same competition that introduced the world to magical pianist Daniil Trifonov.)<\/p>\n

With conductor Valery Gerghiev’s influential blessing, a guaranteed management contract and a raft of concert d\u00e9buts in Europe, North American and Japan, Hakhnazaryan’s calendar was suddenly full, and he hasn’t had a moment to look back.<\/p>\n

Hakhnazaryan’s first post-competition visit to Toronto was in October, 2012, as a soloist with Sinfonia Toronto at George Weston Recital Hall.<\/p>\n

One of the dozens of larger orchestras to sign the cellist up was the Toronto Symphony, for an all-Tchaikovsky programme led by young Brazilian-born conductor Marcelo Lehninger. Hakhnazaryan’s contribution to a programme anchored on Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5<\/em> is a romp through the ever-popular Variations on a Rococo Theme<\/i>.<\/p>\n

“There are so many competitions, even important ones, that come with a money prize and a couple of concerts, and that’s all,” says Hakhnazaryan. Not so with the Tchaikovsky, which he assures changed his career. “Since winning I’ve played in most of the greatest halls in the world and with the greatest orchestras.”<\/p>\n

Not even the cellist’s parents, whom he calls his finest teachers\u00a0 — both are respected musicians who teach at the Moscow Conservatory — could have anticipated the sudden attention, he admits.<\/p>\n

Now Hakhnazaryan has his sights set on a new goal: introducing the world’s music audiences to new repertoire.<\/p>\n

“When you’re playing d\u00e9buts, you play what you’re offered,” he says of the half-dozen staples of the cello repertoire — like the Rococo Variations<\/em>. “But when I return for the second or third or fourth time, then I will be able to push a little bit,” he adds. “I’m trying to cover both sets of repertoire at this point in my career.”<\/p>\n

Last month, Hakhnazaryan made his solo recital d\u00e9but at Carnegie Hall, and managed to sneak in a new work by a favourite contemporary Russian composer along with Robert Schumann, Sergei Rachmaninov and Gy\u00f6rgy Ligeti. “I wanted audiences in the United States to hear and know it,” he says, and felt vindicated when the greatest post-concert buzz was around the new piece.<\/p>\n

The cellist has arrived in Toronto from Sao Paolo, Brazil, where he was part of the premiere of U.S.-based Russian composer Lera Auerbach’s Symphony No. 2<\/em>, subtitled “Requiem for a Poet.” “It’s incredible music,” he gushes. His first meeting with Auerbach turned into an instant friendship — so much so that he is flying to Auerbach’s Florida home as soon as he is done at Roy Thomson Hall.<\/p>\n

“I’m hoping I can commission and encourage composers,” he says of his longer view. “That’s what my favourite musicians of the past did,” he explains. One of his own childhood mentors, Mstislav Rostropovich inspired Dmitri Shostakovich and Benjamin Britten, among other 20th century composers, to write works that are now part of the cello canon.<\/p>\n

“It’s not just about playing well,” says Hakhnazaryan of his life’s purpose. “My goal is to do something important.”<\/p>\n

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You can find all the details on this week’s Toronto Symphony concerts here<\/a>. Saturday’s performance has a more casual attitude and includes a post-concert party in the Roy Thomson Hall lobby hosted by The Outlanders.<\/p>\n

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For a taste of Hakhnazariyan’s particularly lyrical turn of bow, here he is with a bit of J.S. Bach:<\/p>\n