Tigran Mansurian Archive

Tigran MANSURIAN: Requiem – RIAS Kammerchor/Münchener Kammerorchester/Alexander Liebreich – ECM 

by Audiophile Audition | Jun 22, 2017 | Classical CD Reviews

Tigran MANSURIAN: Requiem – RIAS Kammerchor/Münchener Kammerorchester/Alexander Liebreich – ECM New Series 2508 (4/14/17) 45:25 ***1/2: Heartfelt music which reminds us of a cultural tragedy. The darkest side of human behavior has given history plenty of truly shocking incidents and stories for generations to ruminate upon and – one would hope – learn from. In April 1915 the Ottoman government within Turkey embarked upon the systematic decimation through both execution as well as neglect of its civilian Armenian population. The persecutions continued until 1923 when the Ottoman Empire ceased to exist and was replaced by the Republic of Turkey. The Armenian population of the Ottoman state was reported at about two million in 1915. An estimated one million had perished by 1918, while hundreds of thousands had become homeless and stateless refugees. By 1923 virtually the entire Armenian population of Anatolian Turkey had disappeared. The Armenians were largely Christian in a country run by the Islamic Turks. This dark period of time provides the inspiration for Armenian composer Tigran Mansurian with his Requiem. I am not very familiar with the work of Tigran Mansurian but his own website tells us he is Armenian educated and has spent a number of […]