On the memorial day for victims of Armenian genocide, we are launching another project on the musicAeterna digital platform: online readings of chapters from Grigor Narekatsi’s “Book of Lamentations”, translated by Naum Grebnev. A great poet of the medieval Armenian culture, Narekatsi left 95 lamentation songs as his legacy; 46 of those have been translated by Grebnev and published in Russian.
Alfred Schnittke is known to have written his Choir concerto on the basis of chapter 3. The music piece was supposed to be performed by the musicAeterna choir in Saint Petersburg today. Chapter 3 and the other chapters will be read out by outstanding artists of our time, from Elizaveta Boyarskaya to Irina Nikitina. Recorded at home in self-isolation, the videos will appear on the digital platform once every few days. We are happy to announce Mikhail Piotrovsky, head of the State Hermitage, as the first participant in the project.
The Armenian Assembly is the main partner of the project.