The Philharmonia Orchestra marks the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide

20 April 2015, 00:00 | Updated: 15 December 2016, 11:50

Join world-class Armenian soloists and the Philharmonia Orchestra for this commemorative concert at the Royal Festival Hall on Sunday 3 May.

In a year of commemorative Armenian concerts taking place from LA and New York to Yerevan, London’s Royal Festival Hall hosts a special concert featuring the Philharmonia Orchestra and Philharmonia Voices (Classic FM’s Orchestra on Tour).

On Sunday 3 May, two of Armenia’s world-class artists, violinist Sergey Khachatryan and soprano Anush Hovhannisyan, join the orchestra for a programme of Mozart, Górecki and Armenia’s best-known composer Khachaturian.

A solemn, spiritual first half opens with excerpts from Mozart’s Requiem, one of the greatest and most poignant settings of the Mass for the Dead.

Following it we have the second movement of Górecki’s Symphony of Sorrowful Songs, a work that when released on disc in 1992 sold over a million copies worldwide. A universal symbol of mourning, particularly for the casualties of conflict and oppression, the work sets the words of an 18-year-old prisoner scrawled on the wall of a Gestapo prison cell, ‘Oh mother, do not cry – Immaculate Queen of Heaven, support me always’.

This is then matched with life-affirming music of the country’s best known composers, rounded off with a climax of colour. Firstly, Komitas’s Krunk (The Crane) for violin and orchestra is based on an Armenian folk song, and through its rhapsodic and improvisatory nature bears a resemblance to Vaughan Williams’s similarly folksong-based The Lark Ascending. Excerpts from Yekmalian’s Armenian Mass: Surb, Surb (Sanctus) and Hayr Mer (Lord’s Prayer) are then performed by the Philharmonia Voices.

To complete the concert, we have two works by the best-known Armenian composer of the 20th Century, Aram Khachaturian. To start, Sergey Khachatryan performs the Violin Concerto, a work that brought the composer general acclaim, infused with folk song and dance melodies. Then, excerpts from Spartacus, including the famous ‘Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia’, which was memorably used as the theme music for the 1970s British TV series The Onedin Line.

Khachaturian’s Sabre Dance completes the programme.

For more information and to book, go to the Philharmonia Orchestra website >