Ohan Duryan: Armenia is being destructed and we have no right to remain silent (video)
“Music is my world, my element, conducting is my vocation. I had for criteria such conductors as Furtwängler, Toscanini, Von Karajan, but my greatest teacher has been Her Majesty the Music, said the great conductor, Maestro Ohan Duryan. When Maestro Duryan was on the stage, it was a feast of pleasure either in the concert hall or in the listeners’ soul. Foreign press compared him with Bernstein, Karajan and Toscanini. Born in Jerusalem and educated in Paris and Vienna, Ohan Duryan connected his future with hism homeland – the Soviet Armenia. Since two stars with the same surname could not shine in the sky, Hovhannes Khachaturyan became Ohan Duryan. The best orchestras of the world invited the conductor to work with them, but unfortunately the only way to accept the invitations was to leave the country. Then the Maestro returned to the independent Armenia and again left it after he was sacked as principal conductor of the State Opera and Ballet Theatre, reasoning that ‘his hands were trembling.’ The Maestro spent the last years of his life in Armenia. “An intellectual cannot say ‘I am an intellectual, I have nothing to do with politics’. This is weakness and crime. Armenia is being destructed and we have no right to remain silent,” he said. This is weakness and crime. Armenia is being destructed and we have no right to remain silent. Who will come and say, “Do not tell lies any more, do not take bribes. Fraud is the biggest disaster if it becomes extremely voracious. Lie begets a lie,” said the Maestro. Ohan Duryan would turn 94 today.
