The closing concert of Isabel Bayrakdarian's North American tour celebrating the music of Armenian composer Gomidas Vartabed was held in Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall on Monday. It featured songs from the soprano's Nonesuch debut, Gomidas Songs, which the New York Times calls "irresistible." In the recital, says the Times, she "playfully gamboled through childlike melodies, her voice warm and sunny; in the laments her plaintive tone cut to the heart. She made sinuously winding melismatic passages seem effortless."
The closing concert of Isabel Bayrakdarian's North American tour celebrating the music of Armenian composer Gomidas Vartabed was held in Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall in New York on Monday. The concert featured songs from the soprano's Nonesuch debut, Gomidas Songs, which the New York Times's Steve Smith calls "irresistible."
In the Zankel recital, says Smith, "Ms. Bayrakdarian playfully gamboled through childlike melodies, her voice warm and sunny; in the laments her plaintive tone cut to the heart. She made sinuously winding melismatic passages seem effortless."
The review credits the orchestrations by pianist Serouj Kradjian, Bayrakdarian's husband, with providing "a flattering backdrop, with colorful flourishes" on some songs and the contribution "gorgeously breathy sounds" on the duduk by Hampic Djabourian, but says of all, "the loveliest selection was the simplest ... in which Ms. Bayrakdarian’s voice soared over Mr. Kradjian’s spare arpeggios."
To read the full review, visit nytimes.com. To listen to selections from Gomidas Songs, click here.
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