The Strathmore Mansion, Maryland, was chock full of patrons (including cellists and other string players) to hear the 23-year-old Armenian cellist Narek Hakhnazaryan give a phenomenal account of some musical thrillers by Cesar Franck, Frederic Chopin, Dmitri Shostakovich and Mstislav Rostropovich, says an article in The Washington Post.
Franck’s late Sonata in A, the evening’s opener, and Shostakovich’s Sonata in D minor, Op. 40, call on every dimension of a performer’s technique and expressive means.
Hakhnazaryan impresses with a degree of freedom that comes hard-won from discipline of the highest order. And he had a brilliant pianist, Noreen Cassidy-Polera, to support that level of artistry, the article says.
The cellist won first prize at last year’s International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. He is already a seasoned performer in first-rate concert halls with major orchestras around the world.
Hakhnazaryan’s talent was obvious from the opening phrase of Franck’s late Sonata (originally for violin). Whether pianissimo or triple forte, his bow was ever emphatic, and his emotive power and subjective intensity captured the listener immediately, never letting go. The whole thrust of the piece – especially the third movement – is a monumental fantasia, requiring the cellist to hurl through its wavering thematic transformations while seeming to improvise.
Shostakovich’s Op. 40 demands control and fortitude from both players. It was all there, with both players evenly matched.
Hakhnazaryan’s two blazing encores weren’t enough for the audience, who clamored for more, the article says.
