Nareh Arghamanyan – To the Memory of an Angel | Live in Vienna

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"To the memory of an Angel": Thus reads the dedication of this live recording of Nareh’s piano recital in Vienna (June 18, 2025): Following the senseless shooting of school children in Graz (June 10, 2025), Nareh restructured the program of her upcoming concert, to honour and remember the children, by creating a seamless journey from melancholic introspection, to a gradual evolution into "Joy" and "Exaltation".

Elsewhere we have presented each of the works in isolation, as individual video clips. But that approach totally misses the point on how Nareh went about creating her “Memory of an Angel”: Dissecting a long (90 min) experience into snippets of 2-5 min looses the concert’s most powerful element, namely: “Evolution”.

The trick is to listen to Nareh’s recital in its entirety. “What music would be most appropriate to celebrate and remember an angel?” Not ONE memory in isolation, but all the memories, woven together into one gradual and seamless evolution. It is one thing to be a brilliant pianist, but it is even more impressive when you witness Nareh’s conceptualisation of “Memory” as a seamless gradual journey from melancholic introspection to a powerful outburst of joy, an evolution that gets totally lost when just listening to bits and pieces in isolation.

Note that the audience, throughout the first 60 min or so, without having received any instructions, listens intensely and never claps, honouring the message behind Nareh playing, before eventually going wild, when the journey takes us to “Joy" and "Exaltation”

Recorded by https://www.dieklangschmiede.at (Schoeps)

00:00-04:17 Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750) / Sergio Fiorentino (1927–1998)
Adagio aus der g-Moll Sonate für Solo Violine BWV 1001
04:18-14:31 César Franck (1822-1890) / Ignaz Friedman (1882-1948) / Nareh Arghamanyan
Prélude, Fugue et Variation Op. 18
14:32-18:01 Arno Babajanyan (1921–1983) / Nareh Arghamanyan
Aria Vocalise
18:02-21:53 Alessandro Marcello (1669–1747) / J.S. Bach (1685–1750) / Earl Wild (1915–2010)
Adagio
21:54-23:24 Federico Mompou (1893–1987)
Angelico aus “Musica Callada”
23:25-26:56 Claude Debussy (1862–1918)
Prélude 'Des pas sur la neige' (Préludes I, Nr. 6)
26:57-29:30 Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924) / Earl Wild (1915–2010)
Après un rêve
29:31-32:53 Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904) / Eduard Schütt (1856–1933)
Als die alte Mutter, Op. 55 Nr. 4
32:54-36:48 Aram Chatschaturjan (1903–1978) / Nareh Arghamanyan
Lullaby
36:49-40:09 Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714–1787) / Giovanni Sgambati (1841–1914)
Mélodie
40:11-51:51 Enrique Granados (1867–1916)
‘El Amor y la Muerte’ (Goyescas)
51:54-54:54 Georg Friedrich Händel (1685–1759) / Wilhelm Kempff (1895–1991)
Menuett in g-Moll
54:56-57:18 Federico Mompou (1893–1987)
Pájaro triste
57:19 1:00:13 Else Schmitz-Gohr (1904–1988)
Élégie für die linke Hand
1:00:14-1:03:55 Federico Mompou (1893–1987) / Arcadi Volodos (*1972)
Damunt de tu Nomes les flors
1:03:56-1:06:54 Aram Khachaturian (1903–1978) / Nareh Arghamanyan
Tanz der Aegina
1:07:34-1:12:52 Alfred Grünfeld (1852–1924)
Soirée de Vienne
Encores:
1:13:40-1:15:31 Aram Khachaturian (1903–1978) / Nareh Arghamanyan
Sabre Dance
1:17:32-1:20:36 Francisco Tárrega (1852-1909) / Nareh Arghamanyan
Recuerdos de la Alhambra
1:21:37-1:27:19 Nareh Arghamanyan
Hommage à Komitas (1869-1935)

An adjacent “Memory” (but in reverse: going from “Joy” to “Despair”, before evolving into “transfiguration”) can be found in Alban Berg’s Violin Concerto, written in 1935 to commemorate the short life of Manon, the 18-year old daughter of Walter Gropius and Gustav Mahler’s widow, Alma. Manon died after suddenly contracting polio. This affected Berg deeply. The first section of his violin concerto represents life, ranging from erotic folk melodies to a Viennese dance. The second section represents death and transfiguration, starting with an anguished cry from the full orchestra and a mournfully elegiac solo violin melody. The final part is underpinned by Bach’s haunting harmonisation of the chorale, Es ist genug (“It is enough”), a fitting tribute both to the life of the young Angel and, as it turned out, to Berg himself - he never heard his violin concerto performed, dying himself a few months after Manon. The twelve-tone series that Berg uses is based on triads built on each of the violin’s open strings and completed by a short whole-tone scale, which form the opening four notes of the Bach chorale.

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