Armenian Spirit

One has to admire Jordi Savall, now bravely continuing the campaign he and his wife, the singer Montserrat Figueras, had waged together until her untimely death last year. Their message was one of peace, and their medium took the form of a series of brilliant collages in which Mediterranean and Middle Eastern communities are brought together through their common musical roots. Figueras loved Armenian music, and Savall has been researching and playing the songs and dances recorded here as a form of daily therapy. Four additional Armenian musicians – two duduk (double reed flute) players, a kamancha (upright fiddle) player and a percussionist – enrich the mixture.

Savall acknowledges as his primary source the thesaurus of Armenian melodies published in 1982 by Nigoghos Tahmizian, to which he's added other melodies for kamancha and duduk. He has also brought in pieces by Armenia's first 19th century composer Tigran Tchukhadjian, as well as melodies by Sayat Nova and songs collected by the great collector Komitas. With Savall himself officiating on the viéle (an ancestor of the violin), the combined instrumental results are often lovely, but the cumulative effect is a little monotonous. Almost everything is a lament. The Armenians had more misfortune to lament than any other European group until the Nazis came along – Hitler's dismissive ‘Who remembers the annihilation of the Armenians?’ will ring forever through history. But to portray them as congenitally melancholic is to present only half the story. The songs Komitas collected are often full of fire and fancy, though you wouldn't guess that from the performances here.