Asmik Grigorian

The Auditorium Parco della Musica, as part of the Chamber Music Season of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, hosts a recital by Lithuanian soprano Asmik Grigorian and Russian pianist Lukas Geniušas, who weave together pieces spanning a century of vocal lyricism.

The works range from the Vocalises of Sergei Rachmaninov, Gabriel Fauré, and Olivier Messiaen, pure song without words, to the miniatures of Reynaldo Hahn, Georges Bizet, and Maurice Ravel, in which dream, nostalgia, and exoticism harmoniously intertwine. The second section is entirely dedicated to Richard Strauss: from his early Stimmungsbilder (“Environmental pictures” or “Impressions”), early piano works written primarily in a conservative harmonic style, reflecting the influences of Mendelssohn, Brahms, and Schumann, to his most celebrated and poignant works, such as the Vier letzte Lieder, the composer's poetic and sonic testament.

A fascinating musical journey, then, that opens with lightness and enchantment, concluding in an intense meditation on time and the end.

soprano: Asmik Grigorian
piano: Lukas Geniušas

Rachmaninov: Vocalise
Fauré: Vocalise Etude
Hahn: Souvenir de Constantinople
Bizet: Chants du Rhin op. 6
1 L’Aurore
2 Le Départ
3 Les Rêves
6 Le Retour
Messiaen: Vocalise-Étude
Ravel: Habanera

R. Strauss: Cäcilie
R. Strauss: Zueignung
R. Strauss: Stimmungsbilder op.9:
– “An einsamerQuelle”
– “Interlude”
– “Träumerei”
R. Strauss: Vier letzte Lieder

Photo credits: the Auditorium Parco della Musica official site