The Gurdjieff Ensemble - Komitas, Bartók, Gurdjieff
Exerting a similarly pronounced influence as Bartók and Kodály did in the 20th-century movements renewing Western classical music based on folk music foundations were the Armenian composer Komitas and the Armenian-Greek philosopher and composer George Gurdjieff. It is after the latter that The Gurdjieff Ensemble, a group founded by Levon Eskenian to play music on traditional Armenian instruments, is named. At Müpa Budapest, they will partner with pianist Lusine Grigoryan to play, for the first time, works by Bartók, drawing a parallel between them and pieces Komitas based on folk music collections.
Founded in 2008 from an assortment of outstanding Armenian folk musicians, The Gurdjieff Ensemble returns the work of its namesake spiritual leader to its roots. In other words, they play - on Armenian folk instruments - the piano works and classical pieces he transcribed from folk music collections with the aid of the Russian Thomas de Hartmann. The band released and toured with its first album on the ECM label in 2011 and then paid tribute in similar fashion to the work of Komitas, the Armenian musicologist who collected 4000 Armenian folk songs, with an inspired 2015 album. Although this concert will feature excerpts from these programmes, the Gurdjieff Ensemble is also preparing a première, playing traditional arrangements of a few of the pieces Bartók collected from Anatolian villages inhabited by Armenians in the 1930s. The guest for the evening will be the Armenian pianist Lusine Grigoryan, who is famous for her Komitas programme - which appears on her album, also released by ECM - will perform Bartók works inspired by folk music in the first part of the concert.
The Gurdjieff Ensemble:
Duduk, zurna, pku - Emmanuel Hovhannisyan
Blul, zurna - Avag Margaryan
Kamancha - Armen Ayvazyan
Oud - Aram Nikoghosyan
Kanon - Meri Vardanyan
Santur, vocals - Vladimir Papikyan
Tar - Davit Avagyan
Dap, dhol, tmbuk - Mesrop Khalatyan
Duduk - Norayr Gapoyan
Featuring:
Piano - Lusine Grigoryan
Creator:
Arranger, artistic director: Levon Eskenian
Presented by: Müpa Budapest
