Légende arménienne Akhtamar Quartet

• Komitas Vardapet (1869 - 1935): Miniatures:
• 1 Miniatures: I. Al aylughs 02:14
• 2 Miniatures: II. Yerkinkn ampel e 02:35
• 3 Miniatures: III. Oh, Nazan 02:26
• 4 Miniatures: IV. Krunk 04:40
• 5 Miniatures: V. Shogher jan 04:40
• 6 Miniatures: VI. Shushiki 03:13
• 7 Miniatures: VII. Khumar 01:27
• 8 Miniatures: VIII. Vagharshapat 02:12
• 9 Miniatures: IX. Kele, kele 01:41
• 10 Miniatures: X. Chinar es 03:48
• 11 Miniatures: XI. Habrban 01:21
• 12 Miniatures: XII. Keler, tsoler 03:00
• 13 Miniatures: XIII. Garun a 03:21
• 14 Miniatures: XIV. Kagavik 01:41
• Eugénie Alécian (b. 1952): Un quatuor arménien:
• 15 Un quatuor arménien: I. Allegro 05:21
• 16 Un quatuor arménien: II. Andante 05:58
• 17 Un quatuor arménien: III. Tarentelle 03:33
• 18 Un quatuor arménien: IV. Final 03:40
• Total Runtime 56:51

Info for Légende arménienne

The miniatures of Komitas have the merit of being able to condense in a few minutes all aspects of Armenian musical culture. Each of them is an invitation to travel, allowing us to discover the soul of a country through its music, both joyful and nostalgic.

Thanks to his arrangements for string quartet, Serguey Aslamazyan gives these miniatures their nobility and amplifies their emotional impact without distorting the message they convey. This message of peace and hope is also the one that Eugénie Alécian wishes to transmit to us with Un quatuor arménien, a powerful work narrating a country that never stops dancing and singing despite the intense pain.

Akhtamar Quartet

Akhtamar
an Armenian legend. The name of the quartet is a reference to the Armenian Miniatures by Komitas/Aslamazyan, which the ensemble has performed with passion since its foundation.

Founded in Brussels in 2014 by Franco-Belgian artists, the Akhtamar Quartet quickly establishes a constant and rich connection with European string quartet centers (Brussels, Paris, Lyon, Vienna, Milan and Yerevan).

The ensemble is one of the six quartets selected for the “Tremplins Jeunes Quatuors” of Paris’ Philharmonie in 2016 and in the same year won the second prize at the Musiq’3 festival in Belgium. In 2021, the quartet won third prize in the International Johannes Brahms Competition.

The Akhtamar Quartet performs in Europe’s most prestigious festivals and concert halls: Festival Radio France Montpellier, Concertgebouw Brugge (BE), Festival MonteLeón (ES)… as well as in Brazil, the United States and China.

The quartet’s first two albums were released in 2020 and 2023 by Cypres Records. Regularly broadcast on major national radios (Musiq’3, France Musique and SWR2 in Germany), Légende Arménienne was awarded four stars by the prestigious Classica and BBC Music Magazine, and was one of five nominees in the Classical Music category at the Octaves de la Musique 2021 (Belgium), while Enluminures was applauded for an interpretation of Debussy’s String Quartet “that has never been heard in such effortless, self-evident conciseness” (Fono Forum – DE).

The Akhtamar Quartet is highly committed to working with contemporary composers. Several composers such asJudith Adler de Oliveira, Roger Boutry, Eugénie Alécian, Ward De Jonghe and Jelena Dabic have asked the ensemble to perform and record their works.

To share its high quality classical repertoire with a wide audience, the ensemble has created several original shows, programmed in a diverse range of venues (psychiatric institutions, schools, hospitals, etc.). The ensemble’s performances have also won awards: The Dream Makers, a show for young audiences, and Freestyle Classics (a creation combining hip-hop dance and string quartet) were prizewinners at the YAM Awards in 2021 and 2023 respectively.

This enthusiasm has led to a number of humanitarian projects, which have received considerable support: Music 4 Armenia, a tour of twenty free concerts in Armenia after the war in autumn 2020; Harmonies of Dreams, a concert series for patients in psychiatritc hospitals in Belgium created in collaboration with healthcare professionals; and Music 4 Lebanon in September 2022.

The Akhtamar Quartet is supported by the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles, Wallonie-Bruxelles International, the Centre National de la Musique, Le Dimore del Quartetto, the Boghossian Foundation, the Spedidam and Merita.

This album contains no booklet.