IN THE SOURCES OF ARMENIAN MUSIC

Interview with pianist Marine Abrahamyan

-Mrs. Abrahamyan, those who are more or less acquainted with your creative life know that obvious successes begin still in the years of childhood, that your first solo concert at the age of 12 was a serious claim in the world of the classical art.

– I entered the school named after Chaykovski with excellent results. At the age of 10 I had my first solo concert and two years later I played with the symphonic orchestra. That concert had an exceptional success and brought me great fame. My acquaintance with the world famous pianist Yakov Flier was fatal. My teacher – professor Zargaryan knew him and he had asked him to listen to my play. At first the legendary musician had refused but then he had given way to my teacher’s obstinacy and insistence. One day Zargaryan telephoned me and told me that he was waiting for me with Flier in the Great Hall. I was so excited that I hurried and hurt my finger badly while closing the door. Much time had passed before the pain was relieved a little. My teacher got very angry when he saw me and began to scold me for being late, “Let him play a three minutes’ play,” – said Flier unwillingly and wearily. Trembling I went on the stage, but when my fingers touched the piano I forgot the pain, the anxiety and the fear. Instead of three minutes Flier listened to me for two hours – a whole repertoire. Then he said: “Graduate from school and come to the Conservatory of Moscow, you must be my student”. I want to mention that a very few had the opportunity to be the students of Flier – one of the best pianists of the 20th century. I graduated from school named after Tchaikovski with a golden medal. I didn’t have to pass the exams in the Conservatory of Moscow. In the all-union contest of the pianists I was included in the list of the best three players. The judges thought very highly of my performance. World famous pianist Maria Grinberg came on the stage in person saying “It’s a miracle, a miracle.” Then the minister of culture Furtseva invited me, congratulated and told that I was a student of the Conservatory of Moscow. A new stage of creative life opened before me. The concerts of Flier’s students had exceptional success. We were playing in crowded halls.

– One of the famous pianists of Georgia was criticized for playing with Georgian accent. Have you ever been blamed for Armenian accent?

– On the contrary, they wrote that I played as the composers had felt and moreover, the composers of different nationalities. And I truly believe that the advantage comes from my Armenian origin. Studying the sources of the Armenian music you see that with their simplicity, structure and taste our melodies are similar to classical music and you begin to think that classical music has originated right in the sources of the Armenian music and for the Armenian who has mastered the structure of the Armenian classical music with his blood and genes, it is easier to understand its different manifestations, the shades which are typical to different nationalities and to play without an accent.

– At one time the newspapers wrote that after your performance in Madrid the listeners had surrounded the hotel. This often happens during the performances of celebrities.

– I have had many happy and glorious moments. During one of the concerts it was counted that the listeners had invited me to play out of the program 17 times. In Prague I played in an authoritative concert hall the doors of which were only open to the world famous musicians. The concert had an exceptional success. It was long since I had left the stage but the audience was still standing up with applauses. The critics wrote that Prague didn’t remember such a concert. All the authoritative media responded to it, some publications were also reprinted in Armenia. I am glad that my Armenian surname is mentioned on the posters of the authoritative concert halls. The critics highly estimate the performance of the Armenian.
Culture also needs devoted men; culture also needs patriots who will do everything to reestablish the old traditions and standards. Besides losing so many territories we have also had many losses in cultural values. We have become victims of barbarism, but we have always struggled for our rights with dignity and in a cultured way, we haven’t repeated the handwriting of the barbarians; we have won them due to our talent, endowments and at the same time we have created ever-lasting values. We also need devoted soldiers in the field of culture; we need patriotic, strong, self-sacrificing soldiers like the ones who are standing in the front; we need them if we want the gates of our cultural inheritance to be as strong as the borders of our fatherland Armenia.

GAYANE POGHOSYAN