The European musician about the Turks and Azerbaijanis
“Aravot” hosted Swiss-based composer, pianist and organist Alex Brinken (photo). Our interlocutor said that he first time visited Armenia in 1975 when he was still a student at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. Then, the visits of the artist to our country have become frequent. In 1988, before the earthquake, he took part in the rallies in Yerevan on the national-liberation ground. At that time, he became friends with composers Tigran Mansuryan, Yervand Yerkanyan, musicologists Anna Arevshatyan, Svetlana Sargsyan, Armen Budaghyan and other musicians. Brinken is convinced that he was attracted by our country and us, the Armenians, moreover, not only by our culture that nowadays he masters written and spoken command of the Eastern and Western Armenian languages, he has a large library of Armenian culture and history, he considers himself an amateur Armenologist. He said that he is in favor of Mesrop-times orthography.
To the question about his nationality, Brinken noted that in 1992, he moved from St. Petersburg to Switzerland where he is living until now, then smiled and said, “Judge for yourself, the blood of a Georgian, Russian, German and Pole is running in my veins…” The composer is the author of an oratorio Messiah, 4 symphonies, a number of choral and chamber works and one “Snow Queen” ballet. On April 30, Alex Brinken’s “Song about Armenia” Oratorio will be first time performed at Aram Khachatryan’s concert hall, composed on Varoujan’s, Siamanto’s, Isahakyan’s and V. Davtyan’s texts for Armenia’s National Philharmonic Orchestra, Armenia’s National Academic Choir, small staff of folk instruments, voice and 2 reciters. Invitees are RA Honored Artists: tenor Perch Karazyan, reciters Silva Yuzbashyan and Sarkis Najarian. The conductor is Eduard Topchyan. During the conversation, Alex Brinken said that he has performed the mentioned work for the first time in 2011 to the Minister of Culture, Hasmik Poghosyan, and the work is devoted to the Armenian people to commemorate the martyrs of the Armenian Genocide committed by Turkey in 1894-1923 and to the centennial of the Genocide in 1915.
As for the war unleashed by Azerbaijan, our interlocutor said, “There is no way to reach a peaceful solution through negotiations with this tribe because the world knows too that Azerbaijan has always violated and continues to violate the ceasefire. Moreover, the recent actions showed that they are slaughtering even the civilians. When I say an Azeri, I mean also the Turks. The only language to speak with them is the language of military force and with the help of it, we must reach the Kura River and compel our enemies to admit their own defeat and recognize the independence of Artsakh.”
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Samvel DANIELYAN, “Aravot” daily
