Haik Davtyan will first time play Richard Strauss’s Concerto for violin and orchestra
On hearing the name Strauss, the broad public suitably associates it with the Austrian “Waltz King” Johann Strauss. However, the global musical treasury also has the name of the German composer Richard Strauss who is also a king but not for waltz but for other symphonic poems. We know his famous “Don Juan”, “Don Quixote”, and of course, “Space Odyssey” poem, the sounds of which are voiced in the beginning of the famous TV show “What? Where? When?”. R. Strauss is also an author of famous and beloved operas, including “Arabella”, “Salome”, “Electra”, “The Knight of the Roses”, “A Woman without a Shadow.”
Richard Strauss is a piece that is unknown even to the specialists. On July 14, at the “Aram Khachatryan” Concert Hall, the program of the State Youth Orchestra of Armenia (artistic director Sergey Smbatyan) regular concert included R. Strauss’s only Concerto for violin and orchestra. The first performance of this piece in Armenia was played by France-based violinist Haik Davtyan and his father was the conductor –an Armenian master of conducting (especially, opera) arts, Yuri Davtyan.
“Aravot” has referred to Haik Davtyan’s art many times. Note that he has received a high-quality education in Yerevan as a violinist in the class of renowned instructors Tatyana Hayrapetyan and Eduard Tadevosyan, and as a conductor –taught by his father. He is one of the unique Armenians conductors who have participated in the international competitions. Haik won a Grand Prix in 1996, at the Pierre Lantier prestigious international contest. Before that, he used to live and work in France since 1991 as he had met his life companion, a psychologist by profession, Ellen Vali-Davtyan there. Haik has constantly performed in the homeland both as a violinist and as a conductor, we remember him last time 3 years ago, when he played a brilliant interpretation of the Sibelius Concerto for violin accompanied by National Philharmonic Orchestra of Armenia under the conductor Eduard Topchyan. Opportune, the musician earlier was the conductor of Verdi’s “La Traviata” at the National Opera House (it was his first performance on the stage as a conductor), as well as he performed with the Youth Orchestra.
Today, our compatriot is a professor at the Higher Conservatory of Paris and not only in France but also in other countries he performs as a violinist and as a conductor. To our half-jokingly and half-serious remark that we – the naïves, without exaggeration, if not every day then every year are waiting for the day when finally our professional musicians living and creating in abroad will return to Armenia and continue to live with this hope … Haik Davtyan replied, “See, I also nurse a hope in France to return to Armenia one day forever, go on stage in the homeland and transfer my accumulated knowledge to young people who are making their first steps in the great art.” To our curiosity of what is eventually necessary for our compatriots in abroad to return forever, Haik Davtyan said that he can only respond for himself, which he already did.
Samvel DANIELYAN
In the photo: father and son Davtyans
“Aravot”
13.07.2016
