Reviews

Article on Hover Choir CD - September 2006, France Arménie
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" 'Armenian Voices' is a wonderful introduction to an amazing choir. This is a beautifully produced CD that I will cherish"

Atom Egoyan, film director

Hover Chamber Choir of Armenia
CANONGATE KIRK, EDINBURGH

THE Hover Chamber Choir of Armenia could not have a more apt name. Hover - pronounced hoe-ver -means "song soaring in the wind", a powerful and evocative image more than matched by the beguiling sound-world conjured up by this consummate choir. One of its strengths is the versatility of the young singers from the Komitas National Conservatory in Yerevan, which is reflected in their wide-ranging repertoire. While Armenian folk, festive and sacred songs made up the bulk of the programme, the choir equally excelled in music from other countries. Britten's Carol and Hymn to the Virgin along with Kodaly's Esti Dai and Sirato Enek were especially moving, demonstrating the choir's ability to exercise phenomenal tone control. To a certain extent, this was achieved by the energetic exertions of conductor Sona Hovhannisyan, who used her whole body to mould and shape the music.
Delightful as these short pieces were, it was the more substantial and challenging music by contemporary Armenian composers that stood out, particularly Arzas Voskanyan's intriguingly titled The Secretary to God, with its razor sharp rhythms and flirtation with dissonance, and one of Stepan Babatorosyan's Six Fables, a sensitive blend of modern and traditional styles.

Susan Nickalls
The Scotsman, Edinburgh , Wed 17 Sep 2003

“A big musical collective assembled owing to the conductor Zaven Vartanyan’s outstanding enthusiasm. Hover Chamber Music Choir became the pivot of it, displaying, as always, a virtuosity of professionalism and choral interpretation”

“Hover has its own character, style, finally – a charm, which perhaps is one of its most striking factors. You can see rarely among us a choir with a beautiful tune, which does not yell for achieving a forte, possesses completely the technique of sound pronunciation, has an outline of homogeneous ensemble. Along with their harmonic unity, the singers of the choir also realize themselves as independent soloists and intertwine their voices in the wholeness with respective devotion”

Z. Ter-Ghazaryan
“Aravot”, 22.12.1999

“Let us confess – after Sona Hovhannisyan’s Hover Chamber Choir it is difficult to be the second one on the stage. This youth choir has performed such theatricalized items that made forget the classical borders of the pure choral art. For being equal to Hover, many of our choirs have a long way to go”

A. Demirjyan
“Hayastani hanrapetutyun”, 20.06.2001