WATERTOWN — The Aznavoorian sisters — cellist Ani and pianist Marta — captivated the audience at a performance at the Armenian Museum of America on Saturday, March 28. While both have performed separately in the Boston area in the past, this was the first time they appeared together as a duo.
The program included four popular works by Gomidas Vartabed, and Johannes Brahms’ Sonata for Cello and Piano in F major, Opus 99. After intermission, the two premiered Mount Ararat, a work commissioned for the sisters from contemporary composter Peter Boyer (b. 1970), followed by Soviet Armenian composer Alfred “Avet” Terterian’s Sonata for Cello and Piano. The program closed with a showpiece, deemed a “show-off” piece by Ani, by Italian composer and violinist Niccolò Paganini — Variations on Theme from Rossini’s ‘Moses’ — which indeed allowed Ani to show off her virtuoso skills.
After fervent applause, the sisters came back and performed Alexander Arutunian (Harutyunyan)’s Impromptu as an encore.
Marta Aznavoorian before performing Gomidas’s works reflected on the Armenian Museum as a setting for the concert, declaring: “It’s quite profound to be performing in a space like this, with artists such as [Arshile] Gorky, and modern-day artists such as [Serj] Tankian, where art is memory and is visible, and it is preserved. Tonight, let’s hear what memory sounds like.”
The Aznavoorian sisters provided some background to each piece before playing it, and afterwards usually gave each other a sororal kiss of congratulations. Ani noted proudly that her cello was crafted in the year 2000 by their father, Peter Aznavoorian, a chemist who loved classical music and later in life changed careers to become a maker of cellos and other string instruments.
