Views from Ararat Rebekka Hartmann & Margarita Oganesjan

• Ahmed Adnan Saygun (1907–1991): Suite für Violine und Klavier, op. 33 (1958):
• 1 Prelude 03:25
• 2 Horon 03:31
• 3 Zeybek 04:06
• 4 Kastamonian Dance 04:20
• Arno Babadschanjan (1921–1983): Sonate für Violine und Klavier (1959):
• 5 Grave-Allegro Energico 12:31
• 6 Andante Sostenuto 07:12
• 7 Allegro Risoluto 08:43
• Ahmed Adnan Saygun: Sonate für Violine und Klavier, op. 20 (1941)
• 8 Andante 11:09
• 9 Molto vivo 02:58
• 10 Largo 06:56
• 11 Allegro 05:12
• Edward Baghdassarian (1922–1987): Rhapsody für Violine und Klavier:
• 12 Rhapsody 13:19
• Total Runtime 01:23:22

Info for Views from Ararat

“Views from Ararat” - Masterpieces by great composers from Armenia and Turkey. Ararat is a famous mountain. Noah's ark is said to have been stranded on it after the flood. Christian Armenians see the mountain as a national symbol, even though it is not located in Armenian territory, but on Turkish soil near the Armenian border. The border crossing is closed, however, as relations between the two countries have long been strained because of the Armenian Genocide. This mass murder of Armenians in 1915 is denied by the Turkish government.

Despite the difficult history of these two neighbouring peoples, the region has produced much that is positive in a musical regard. This CD brings together important composers from the two hostile nations, with Ahmed Adnan Saygun and Arno Babajanian bearing witness not only to the music of their native countries, but also to all they learned and experienced in the great musical capitals of Paris and Moscow.

Margarita Oganesjan: “As an Armenian, I have been familiar with the singular, painful and unresolved aspects of our history ever since I was born. They make us all the more proud of the famous artists that our people has produced. In my native country, composers such as Babajanian, Komitas, Khachaturian and Mansurian are revered as heroes, and their music is a living part of our cultural life. But for me as a musician, the discovery of the music of Ahmed Adnan Saygun was a profoundly moving process that allowed me to see the culture of our neighbouring country in a different light. I simply cannot help recognising the affinities in the music of this special part of the world and admiring its beauty. That is what our «Views from Ararat” are about».“

Rebekka Hartmann, violin Margarita Oganesjan, piano

Rebekka Hartmann
was born in Munich in 1981. At the age of 5, she started to play the violin according to the Suzuki method, studying with Helge Thelen. Further studies followed, at first with Jorge Sutil, and from 1997 with Prof. Gottfried Schneider at the Munich Conservatory. Her further development was influenced by Prof. Andreas Reiner and Ingolf Turban, as well as by Josef Kröner, member of the Munich Rundfunkorchester. After receiving her high-school diploma, she started studying music with Prof. Alice Schönfeld at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. She took master classes with Wolfgang Marschner, Valery Oistrach and Rainer Kussmaul, to name but a few.

Rebekka Hartmann won numerous national and international prizes in Germany and in the United States. In 2002, she received the Jascha Heifetz Scholarship Prize, and the 1st prize at the international music contest "Pacem in Terris" in Bayreuth in 2004. In 2005, she won the 2nd prize at the international violin contest "Henri Marteau". She had solo appearances with the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, the National Philharmonic Orchestra Klausenburg, the USC Symphony Orchestra of Los Angeles, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival Orchestra, the Peninsula Symphony Orchestra, the Beijing Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Hof Symphony Orchestra. She gave chamber music concerts with famous musicians such as Christoph Eschenbach and Claudio Bohorquez.

Margarita Oganesjan
was born in Yerevan, the capital of Armenia. She received her first piano lessons when she was five years old, and attended the “Tchaikovsky Music School for Talented Children”, where she also had lessons in composition from the age of seven.

At 13, the pianist moved to Germany, commencing her studies under Vadim Suchanov at the Munich College of Music as a preparatory student aged 15. After receiving her artistic and teaching diplomas, she undertook postgraduate studies, then graduating from the master class of Prof. Alexei Lubimov at the Mozarteum Salzburg. Margarita Oganesjan received additional artistic stimulus in master classes given by Menahem Pressler, Christoph Schlüren, Klaus Schilde, Svetlana Navassardian and Oxana Yablonskaya, among others.

She has won prizes at a number of national and international competitions, including First Prize at the international “Wolfgang Jacobi Competition” for modern chamber music and an award at the “Musikförderpreis Gasteig” competition.

Her first CD recording, “Die Winterreise” by Franz Schubert with the singer Michael Kupfer, was released in 2012.

She has performed as soloist and chamber musician in Austria, Italy, Spain, Greece and Switzerland.

Booklet for Views from Ararat