The concert by Filharmonie Brno under Dennis Russell Davies on Thursday 6 November in Besední dům offered a fascinating programme combining the work of two contemporary composers from the former Soviet Union. The performers included Armenian baritone Aksel Daveyan, violist Julian Veverica, percussionist Lukáš Krejčí, and the Austrian Hard-Chor Linz choir under choirmaster Alexander Koller.
Music by the Estonian composer Arvo Pärt appears regularly on Brno's stages, so it was only fitting that, in the year of the composer’s 90th birthday, a dedicated programme should appear in the orchestra’s season. The first half of the evening, however, belonged to the music of the Armenian composer, Pärt’s contemporary and close friend, Tigran Mansurian, whom Brno audiences may also know as a percussionist from the Brno Music Marathon festival.
The concert opened with Tagh for The Funeral of The Lord from the cycle Three Taghs for viola and percussion, which Mansurian composed around the turn of the millennium. Each of the ancient poetic taghs (allegorical medieval monodic songs) is dedicated to an event in the life of Jesus (Crucifixion, Burial, Resurrection). Mansurian’s inspiration came from archival recordings of taghs by Komitas, the founder of Armenian national music, and the work is based on a quarter-tone system. The unexpected placement of soloists Lukáš Krejčí and Julian Veverica on the balcony, flanking the organ, with stark lighting, made for a pleasant change. Their performance was marked by calmness, poise and the intimacy this repertoire requires. When the hall went completely dark, singer Aksel Daveyan began the hymn Orhnerg – Navapet Bari a capella. With each new verse, the lighting gradually increased; Daveyan moved across the stage, joined in turn by the orchestra and choir. His resonant, full-bodied and beautifully coloured baritone blended superbly with the choir, whose unified dynamics and polished sound were a highlight of the evening. If one criticism could be made, it would be occasional text clarity, as the choral part was at times overshadowed by the orchestra, although the orchestral sound itself was well balanced. The orchestra was excellent in its role of accompaniment, and the string pizzicato was especially commendable for its precision.
The second part of the evening opened with Pärt's Arbos (1977) for brass and percussion. In this three-minute miniature, the composer was inspired by the branching of trees, unfolding through a proportional canon. For listeners attuned to it, Pärt's tintinnabuli technique became clearly audible in the successive entries of the canonic melody. This was followed by the playful If Bach Had Been a Beekeeper…, in which the B-A-C-H motif buzzes through the ensemble like a musical in-joke. Its colourful onomatopoeia lightened the atmosphere before the evening’s centrepiece: the Berliner Messe. Composed in 1990 during Pärt’s exile, the Mass weaves Christmas and Pentecost Alleluias and the Veni Sancte Spiritus sequence into the traditional liturgical structure. While the performance by singers and musicians was generally excellent, there were a few intonation flaws amongst the sopranos. However, the work suffered in the Besední dům acoustics, which proved unforgiving. The individual phrases and the final amen did not resonate as intended, and a more reverberant church setting would have better served the delicate, sometimes intentionally dissonant harmonic palette in the choir and orchestra. Despite the above reservations, the programme and the pairing of these two composers deserve high praise.
Programme:
Tigran Mansurian - Tagh for the Funeral of the Lord, Orhnerg - Navapet Bari
Arvo Pärt – Arbos, If Bach Had Been a Beekeeper..., Berliner Messe
Aksel Daveyan – baritone
Julián Veverica – viola
Lukáš Krejčí – drums
Hard-Chor Linz
Alexander Koller – choirmaster
Filharmonie Brno
Dennis Russell Davies – conductor
Thursday 6 November 2025 at 7:00 p.m., Besední dům Brno
No comment added yet..