Inspired by the music of Komitas, a pioneer of ethnomusicology and revered as the founder of the Armenian national school of music, Kirill Gerstein’s most recent initiative epitomizes his approach to music-making.

Scheduled for release in the weeks between the anniversary of Debussy’s death and Armenian Genocide Memorial Day, Music in Time of War is a double album which places the music of Komitas alongside that of Claude Debussy, a seminal composer in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, who held a deep admiration of Komitas’s music. Both composers were profoundly affected by the implosion of their worlds – Komitas by the Armenian Genocide, Debussy by the First World War – and their musics reflect a close emotional alignment. For many Komitas is terra incognita, yet for those already familiar with his work, his memory burns more brightly than ever.

The project is presented as an illustrated book with a series of in-depth essays commissioned by Kirill.
Music in the Time of War highlights Kirill’s fascination with music’s power to reflect a narrative and to connect to the world past and present. Born in 1869, Komitas spent his formative years transcribing and preserving rural Armenian songs and published his earliest edition – the original collection of Kurdish folk songs – in 1903. In Paris, where Komitas travelled in 1906, he enjoyed the praise of Debussy who, on hearing the song Antuni (Homeless) is quoted as saying “If Komitas had written only Antuni, that alone would have been enough for him to be considered a great artist.”

Though Komitas physically survived the Armenian genocide of 1915, he was subsequently brought to Paris, where he spent the remaining 20 years of his life in a psychiatric clinic.

For the recording, Kirill is joined by the Armenian soprano, Ruzan Mantashyan, and, pianists Thomas Adès and Katia Skanavi to perform a selection of works for solo piano, voice and piano, piano four hands and two pianos. Kirill pairs Debussy’s 12 Études from 1915 and Komitas’s Armenian Dances for piano, composed the following year and, includes a selection of Debussy’s late piano pieces composed to raise funds for the war. Komitas’s Armenian Songs and, Debussy’s Chansons de Bilitis and his final song, Noël des enfants qui n’ont plus de maison, are sung by Ruzan Mantashyan; En Blanc et Noir pour deux pianos, Debussy’s most overtly anti-war piece is performed by Thomas Adès and Kirill; and, 6 Épigraphes antiques, Debussy’s only completed piece from 1914, is played by Katia Skanavi and Kirill.

Accompanying the recording are four in-depth essays that explore the impact of war and Genocide on society in general and artists in particular. Commissioned from Annette Becker, Professor of Contemporary History at Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense, who has written extensively on the two world wars and the extreme violence they nurture; the Armenian composer, Artur Avanesov; Khatchig Mouradian, author, academic and lecturer at Columbia University, and the Armenian and Georgian Area Specialist at the Library of Congress; and composer, virtuoso oboist, and conductor Heinz Holliger, the essays give context to Debussy’s and Komitas’s music and their response to creating in times of catastrophe.

Recorded 2021 at Konzerthaus Wien, Siemens-Villa Berlin and the American Academy of Arts and Lettres New York.