Like all of our performing arts groups, the vibrant chamber music society in Ojai, Chamber on the Mountain, has had to vacate the remainder of its 2019-20 concert season, including a May 3 concert by the brilliant clarinetist, Narek Arutyunian.
All is not entirely lost, however, since Chamber on the Mountain, in company with so many of our performing artists, has turned to the internet to continue its mission by other means, and to keep in touch with friends and supporters.
Narek Arutyunian has recorded a delicious 35-minute solo clarinet concert at his home in Queens, N.Y., and has made it available, exclusively, to Chamber on the Mountain donors, subscribers and friends. We may listen to it by clicking on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xyJqRbgTo4U&feature=youtu.be.
Arutyunian performs the following works: Béla Kovács‘ “Hommage a Manuel de Falla“ and “Hommage a J.S. Bach;” Igor Stravinsky‘s “Three Pieces for Solo Clarinet ”(1919); and Ivan Olenchik’s “Spanish Caprice for Clarinet Solo” and “Zarmanali e Ints (It is wondrous to me),” an Armenian šarakan, or canonical hymn, by the eighth century composer Khosrovidukht, arranged for Clarinet Solo.
Béla Kovács (born 1937) and Ivan Olenchik (born 1952) are both virtuoso clarinetists, the former Hungarian and the latter Russian. Both are composers as well, who have made significant contributions to the literature for their instrument.
Apart from being engaging and accessible recital pieces, Kovács’s nine “Hommages“ are frequently employed as examination or audition pieces. The same is true of Olenchik’s nifty “Twenty Caprices for Clarinet Solo.”
Everything about Khosrovidukht is cause for wonder, starting with the fact that she is a woman. She is rumored to have been a member of the Armenian royal family, and it is likely she was at least an aristocrat or we would not now know about her. Some sources say she wrote “Zarmanali e Ints” in memory of her brother, who was assassinated in 737 for converting to Christianity.
To get more information about Chamber on the Mountain, or to contribute to its solvency, visit http://www.chamberonthemountain.com/.
— Gerald Carpenter covers the arts as a Noozhawk contributing writer. He can be reached at gerald.carpenter@gmail.com. The opinions expressed are his own.