Long-running and influential online magazine Textura has just released its top 20 lists for classical and jazz recordings of 2024. Coming in at number three on the list for quartet, ensemble or orchestral classical recordings is Serenade with a Dandelion, a four-disc set of new recordings of Armenian music, led by Movses Pogossian, professor of violin performance. The recording featured a number of UCLA faculty, including Violinists Varty Manouelian and Movses Pogossian, violist Che-Yen Chenand saxophonist Jan Berry Baker. The disc also features UCLA’s VEM String Quartet.
Textura writes:
03. Movses Pogossian & Varty Manouelian: Serenade With a Dandelion (New Focus Recordings)
Arriving four years after the inaugural Modulation Necklace collection, violinists Varty Manouelian and Movses Pogossian present a four-volume sequel offering a panoramic overview of twentieth- and twenty-first-century Armenian music. Serenade with a Dandelion is a stunning act of curation on the part of the married couple and captures the incredible richness of Armenian music, past and present. Chamber pieces, solo piano works, and art songs collectively attest to the breadth of music originating out of the mountainous Caucasus region between Asia and Europe. However daunting the prospect of digesting 270 minutes of Armenian classical material might be, the four-disc set proves to be extremely accessible, and one comes way from the release’s performances with a clear grasp of the Armenian musical spirit the creators have dedicated themselves to presenting and preserving.
Textura reviewed the album in September 2024. The album is available through New Focus Recordings, is available for purchase and on all major streaming applications.
Stills from the world premiere concert in Lani Hall on March 4, 2024
