Albuquerque Journal, Violinist Rounds Out Her Repertoire, Emily Van Cleve, Oct 7 2007
Catherine Manoukian may never use the doctoral degree she'll be getting in philosophy from the University of Toronto, but that was all part of the plan when she studied philosophy last year.
Music is her life, and the violin her love. But the study of aesthetics, epistemology, the philosophy of the mind, and the nature of rationality were too interesting to ignore. “Philosophy has definitely changed the way I look at music,” said Manoukian, who is Santa Fe Pro Musica's guest artist during the ensemble's opening performance at the Lensic on Saturday night. “It has discouraged me from using any kind of set rule or system of interpreting music. My teacher, Dorothy DeLay, felt this way, too. She didn't stipulate how I should interpret a piece of music. She helped me understand the overall structure and asked me how I felt I could best communicate it.” Manoukian has two core groups of music in which she's keenly interested. The first is Soviet music, and in particular works by late 19th- and early 20th-century composers including Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Khachaturian. She's also passionate about lyrical music, which is why she's delighted to play Felix Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E Minor with Pro Musica. “I learned the piece about seven years ago and have played it about three times in the past, which is a rather small number compared to other works,” she said. “I always look at a piece with fresh eyes before I perform it. Of course, there's continuity in the way I play, but I may vary the interpretation from time to time. Interpretation is to an extent received through conventions, so when it's altered, the artist needs to make a compelling case for the changes.” A native of Toronto, Manoukian won the grand prize at the 1994 Canadian Music Competition when she was 12 years old and made her orchestral debut with the Vancouver Symphony that year. From 1994 to 2000 she studied with DeLay at New York's Juilliard School of Music. In recent years she has appeared as a soloist with many major North American and international orchestras, including the Calgary Philharmonic, the Boston Pops Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra and the Tokyo Philharmonic. Last year she took a sabbatical so she could study philosophy at the University of Toronto and build repertoire. When she's not traveling the world to perform 40 concerts during the 2007-2008 season, she'll return to Toronto to write her doctoral dissertation. “My musical career is number one,” she said. ‘The Ph.D. work enhances the personal part of my life.” Santa Fe Pro Musica's artistic director Thomas O'Connor conducts the concert, which also features Haydn's Symphony No. 49 in F Minor and Dvorak's Czech Suite. “I haven't played the modern oboe in about four years, and I'll only be playing the Baroque oboe in a few of our concerts this season,” O'Connor said. “Conducting is incredibly stimulating for me. I think about the ebb and flow of the music and get to be involved in every second of the performance.”
Cape Cod Times, Cape orchestra triumphs in stirring performance, Anna Crebo, Apr 14 2008
Opening this program was Antonin Dvorák's rich and sparklingly textured Violin Concerto in A-Minor, performed by the young, award-winning Canadian violinist Catherine Manoukian, who has been appearing with orchestras in Japan, Turkey, and Armenia, as well as in North America.
Especially in the beautiful adagio movement, Manoukian's playing was as masterful and soul-satisfying as one could wish — warmly expressive sound, exquisitely turned phrases, fine shadings of color. Her assertive, tossed-off virtuoso patterning in the first and last allegro movements was impressive as well.
This uplifting performance of Khachaturian's Violin Concerto, one of the undoubted masterpiece of the 20th century repertoire, comes from musicians associated with the composer's homeland.
The Armenian orchestra's playing is stylish and rhythmically finessed, with some especially beguiling woodwind. Eduard Topchjan keeps his forces admirably controlled, allowing space for the violin soloist to shine. There are vibrant and vital passages for the orchestral strings, especially after the soloist's cadenza - launched by an exquisite dialogue with the clarinet- and in the Andante sostenuto, where middle strings play plaintively above pizzicato cellos and double basses.
Canadian-born Catherine Manoukian is an eloquent exponent of this appetizing work. Her tone is pure, with nicely understated vibrato, and her playing throughout is gorgeously expressive. The gentle lilt of Khachaturian's high-flying melodic lines, not least in the berceuse-like Andante, comes across almost effortlessly, as if the violin were floating on an oriental carpet of air, swayed here and there by gentle breezes, until the spirited finale calls forth a more vigorous tone. All in all, a scintillatingly good performance, splendidly captured.
The Shostakovich begins in somber vein, with atmospheric orchestral strings. The first movement, shrouded in mystery, is brilliantly sustained. The solo line comes over admirably, not least when engaging in sad dialogue with dark lower woodwind. A gutsy Scherzo follows, before the intense, varied Passacaglia, to which Manoukian's involvement and restraint lend added power. The prolonged cadenza is superbly executed and the jaunty closing Burlesque is brilliantly played. All in all, an exciting, beautifully recorded disc.
In the course of studying the history of the Soviet Union, Canadian violinist Catherine Manoukian became attracted to the music of its leading composers and took particular interest in Aram Khachaturian's Violin Concerto and Dmitry Shostakovich's Violin Concerto No. 1, which she added to her already impressive repertoire.
This 2006 release on Marquis presents Manoukian with the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra, led by Eduard Topchjan, in exciting performances that demonstrate both her aptitude for this music and the intensity of her expression, which comes through with great clarity and immediacy at all points in these recordings. Manoukian's playing is consistently accurate in rhythm and intonation, and her energy is steady in the demanding cadenzas and passages of flashy repartée with the orchestra. But her most affecting playing is found in the Andante sostenuto of Khachaturian's concerto, and in the brooding Nocturne and Passacaglia of Shostakovich's work, where her sustained lines and penetrating tone communicate emotions that are mysterious, dark, and profound, especially in the latter two examples. These are unusual vehicles for a young performer to play, far from the popular Romantic concertos that have become de rigueur for others, yet Manoukian seems to thrive on playing music off the beaten path, and the selections on this album show her to be fully capable and confident in the modern violin literature. Marquis' reproduction is terrific, with clear separation of the violin from the orchestra and with just the right amount of resonance to enhance Manoukian's presence.
Lyricism indeed! But these largely short, romantic lyric pieces also showcase the violin's–and Manoukian's–capacity for compelling virtuosity and robust tunefulness.
Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Elgar, Vieuxtemps and Massenet are joined by less familiar composers such as Armenians Nova and Babajanian, giving Manoukian the opportunity to engage in some exquisitely ornamental eastern stylings.
Heifetz's arrangement of Khachaturian's Sabre Dance allows for further display of the violinist's versatility and we find the wonderfully rich and melancholic tones made manifest in the preceding tracks giving way to a more aggressive, husky timbre. The other pieces are played so smoothly that you never hear the bow, but here it is intended that you do–and it's entirely appropriate to the spirit of the piece.
21-year-old Manoukian is already in command of her own very individual sound and has a lot going for her: tasteful vibrato, sweet but earthy consistent tone and flawless intonation (even in the cadenza at the end of Tartini's Devil's Trill sonata, a 15 minute tour de force where fiendishly roaming trills are played in tandem with multiple stopped strings with apparent ease and grace).
Accompanist Satoshi Sando deserves credit here too for his very effective interpretations. Both players execute these works with great conviction and vigour; their rhythmic timing is such that it is as if they'd been playing together for a quarter century and everything has moved to the realm of pure intuition. If you enjoy lyrical melodies and romantic violin-driven music, don't overlook this disc.
Albuquerque Journal, Violinist Rounds Out Her Repertoire, Emily Van Cleve, Oct 7 2007
