Here is a collection of reviews, previews and CD reviews
from soprano Isabel Bayrakdarian's Remembrance Tour (including Boston, of
course) and new CD, Gomidas Songs. If you missed her recital this past Sunday, well, you really missed something unique and wonderful (the CD is your last shot to get hip):
Reviews of Isabel Bayrakdarian's current recital tour
Boston Globe (Joel Brown), October 20:
Memorable Armenian folk songs carry the day
The New York Times (Steve Smith), October 21:
Summoning the Songs of Voices Stilled
Toronto Star (John Terauds), October 20:
Great talents, great music but something was missing
review:
Concert a testament to survival
Los Angeles Times (Richard S. Ginell), October 6:
Review: Isabel Bayrakdarian and the Manitoba Chamber
Orchestra
OC Register (Timothy Mangan), October 7:
Soprano remembers genocide in song
Vancouver Sun (Lloyd Dykk), October 7:
Review: Isabel Bayrakdarian with the Manitoba Chamber
Orchestra at the Orpheum
San Francisco Chronicle (Joshua Kosman), October 6:
Music review: Isabel Bayrakdarian at Herbst
Previews from tour cities
Armenian tribute comes from her soul
The New York Times (Melanie Toumani), October 17:
Songs Lifted in Praise of an Armenian Hero
The Vancouver Province (Stuart Derdeyn), October 7:
It's Isabel's labour of love
Newark Star-Ledger (Bradley Bambarger), October 6
San Francisco Chronicle (Joshua Kosman), September 28
Ottawa Citizen (Richard Todd), September 27
As for my two cents (you couldn't leave this post without that, surely), Bayrakdarian's concert and her new CD, Gomidas Songs, were/are like listening to ghosts and
perhaps a bit like peering into an alternate version of the present in which
Gomidas, and by extension, the Armenian musical tradition, was able to carve out a
more prominent place for itself in the musical canon. Perhaps this music would
not seem so exotic or so unusual if not for the Armenian Genocide and diaspora. Even though this music is being performed and recorded, it is not prominent. Somehow, it is the sound of what might have been. A fact which, for me, magnifies its poignancy.
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