It is impossible for the discerning listener not to notice that the arena of new music is today facing a crisis. In the decades following musical modernism’s high tide during the 1960s, succeeding generations of composers have engaged in apologetics on behalf of what are considered the “excesses” of the mid-20th century avant-gardists. The younger these composers are, the louder the public disavowal of their modernist predecessors—not to mention the more timid their art seems to be. The electricity, the freshness, even the audacity which once had been integral to the concept of “new music” has largely evaporated in the past half-century of overt pandering on the part of academic composers (which has failed to re-engage the wider audience, it must be added).
Artur Avanesov, however, stands apart. Born in Moscow in 1980, the composer early in his life earned attention at home and abroad for the breadth of his musicianship, collaborating with such figures as Pierre Boulez, Kim Kashkashian, and Rohan de Saram. His erudition is readily apparent in his work as composer, pianist, and musicologist. There is another quality which his art possesses, altogether rare in a living composer, virtually nonexistent in those of his generation: A subtlety of gesture, color, and architectural vision that seem borne from serene confidence.
“I don't think that musical composition is such an activity where one can be untruthful,” Avanesov related in an interview earlier this week. “In my opinion, only two things are needed to write music: Professionalism and sincerity.”
His String Quartet will be performed for the first time this Sunday, March 17 by Dilijan Chamber Music Series, which commissioned the score. Avanesov is careful to place some distance between himself and the historical connotations which the term and genre of the “string quartet” is loaded with. He confided that even in his own mind he does not regard this score as a “true string quartet,” musing whether he is yet capable of going any further in the Beethovenian notion of the form.
“I had to forget about the classical string quartet and just [remember] ‘to mine own self be true,’” he said. “I could think of Beethoven, Haydn, Bartók, Shostakovich, or [other notable composers of string quartets] as people who first traveled to previously unknown places. Now it is my turn to travel, and who knows, maybe I can find something there, too.”
“The three pieces for string quartet that will be performed on Sunday are part of another work in progress [similar in nature to my Feux follets for piano],” Avenesov continued, “a deliberate set of an x number of unpretentious miniatures. When I write enough of these little pieces, the performers will be able to compile the ‘bouquets’ of these by randomly combining them. One can think of it as a book with no predetermined order of pages.”
Avanesov has been a regular feature of Dilijan’s programs, both as composer and performer. Their relationship began in 2005 when Movses Pogossian commissioned from him a work for soprano and violin. Since then, he has composed a number of other scores for Dilijan, for which he said he has “the professionalism and outstanding human qualities” of Pogossian to thank.
“The one thing that I find to be really important is the idea of representing Armenian music in a much wider cultural context, and to do it extremely skillfully and with a great musical taste. It seems very appealing to me.”
The premiere of Avanesov’s String Quartet will surely stand to be another important event in the continuing career of this distinguished composer. As his finest scores reveal, his is an art which has no need to pander. It simply lives, calmly awaiting the searching listener.
“Recently a violist friend of mine told me: ‘I finally understood what music is. It is something that starts, and ends, and may express something in between,’” contemplated Avanesov. “I find this to be profoundly accurate. Many things fall into this category: Bach, Monteverdi, Schubert, Xenakis, Mozarabic chant, Björk, Los Panchos—you name it. I don't care how ‘accessible’ my works are, [nor do I] care how ‘modern’ or ‘postmodern’ they are. The only thing I care about in that context is: To say things that I really mean to say.”
Avanesov’s music will appear in a Dilijan Chamber Music Series program honoring the music of Hungarian composer György Kurtág this Sunday, March 17. The concert will take place at Zipper Hall in Downtown Los Angeles at 3:00 p.m. Tickets are $35 for general admission, $20 for students. For more information, please visit Dilijan’s website.