Dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide
The Liturgy for Strings is Armenian music at its most intensely beautiful and poignant, embodying traditional liturgical melodies transmitted, and sanctified through devotion, over centuries. These melodies were edited and polyphonically arranged by Archimandrite Komitas (1869-1935) on the eve of the Armenian Genocide (of which he himself was to become a traumatised survivor), and masterfully arranged in the late sixties as a concert suite by Zareh Sahakiants (1933-1983). The Genocide itself served as a precursor to the Holocaust; the elegiac contrapuntal elegy, marked In Memoriam, for 23 solo strings by Komitas’ contemporary Richard Strauss (1864-1949), mourns the destruction wrought by World War II.
R. STRAUSS: Metamorphosen
KOMITAS / SAHAKIANTS: Liturgy for strings
Conductor: Haig Utidjian
Supporters: Pafos Municipality
In collaboration with the Οrganization “European Capital of Culture – Pafos 2017”.
In collaboration with the Armenian Genocide Centenary Committee of Cyprus
Event Information
Pafos: Thursday 22 October 2015
“Palia Ilektriki” Cultural Center, 20:30
Lefkosia: Friday 23 October 2015
Pallas Theatre, Pafos Gate, 20:30
