Alan Hovhaness - Symphony No. 3 Op. 148 - Mystery of the Holy Martyrs (Khorhoort Nahadagats), for Guitar and String Orchestra Op. 251 - Michael Long, Guitar - KBS Symphony Orchestra, Vakhtang Jordania - Soundset Recordings 1996

What a spectacular Hovhaness release this is and was back in 1996-I pretty much flipped my musical lid, snapped my ("I-am-a-hardcore-Hovhaness-freak") cap, and needless to say played this treasured release a good 1,000 times..but who is counting?? I literally had difficulty driving with this disc playing at first; it was such a knock-out to me, so damn exciting (Symphony No. 3) and so very beautiful (Mystery of the Holy Martyrs) that I had to pull over, somewhere shady and quiet, and only then proceeding to listen to the whole thing from exuberant, (surprisingly non-Eastern) beginning to mystical, gorgeous and somewhat aleatoric end. Soundset is one of the smallest of labels, however Hovhaness followers surely will find this to be a holy grail-like experience. Those of you that I have been fortunate enough to come to know on my blog surely already own this; but hopefully this will be new to enough people, thus enabling others across the globe to also flip their wigs for a 65 minutes and 51 seconds!

The energetic Symphony No. 3 is surprisingly (although its content is far from entirely so) of a traditional Western classical mold and likely it will induce something of a listening "double-take" if one is mostly familiar with AH's brilliant "Armenian period", or most of his other better-known (available) works in general, as so many are to greater or lesser degrees influenced by early polyphony, Baroque counterpoint, ancient Asian court music, Eastern modes and techniques among others (the final movement does contain a good measure of counterpoint however). This might not produce the sort of spiritual transcendence and spine-tingling chills that Symphony No. 2 provides, but that's not it's motivation, after all-instead one's pulse is instantly quickened, and likely one's posture is inadvertently "at attention", either that or simply nearing the edge of the seat! This symphony is often the equivalent of ecstatic dancing-at least in the outer movements.  Symphony No. 3 was premiered by Stokowski in 1956, as Symphony No. 2 was famously the year before. 

"Mystery of the Holy Martyrs" is in 17 sections and here performed by solo guitar and string orchestra. It can also be performed on a Lute or an Oud, with optional string quartet accompaniment instead of string orchestra. I would love to hear a performance with an oud soloist! This just might be one of Hovhaness's most sublime creations. I believe that it is. -I am including the booklet notes, especially helpful so as to curb my enthusiasm, I have to go out but hopefully will post a few more things late late tonight! 

Take a look below. This is just too too amusing. And REAL. Just when you think you've seen it all, along comes the opportunity to own your very own Hovhaness "Mystery of the Holy Martyrs" iPhone case!!!! YES! The St. Vartan Armenian Cathedral I believe is the new ultra-obscure-chachkies-for-smartphones capital of the *whole* world.  Hipper/more culturally stylish-than thou (or than me!) for sure!! This image made my day ;)



Talk about putting concert flyers to shame!

The best ring-tone for this bedazzled phone surely would be an excerpt from Hovhaness's "Fantasy on Japanese Woodprints" for marimba (or xylo-iPhone).  Again-I'm so happy that this phone cover

actually exists.

Enjoy everyone!!

Hovhaness_Mystery_Of_The_Holy_Martyrs_Symphony_3-Tzadik .zip

http://www14.zippyshare.com/v/6ob0R8OP/file.html

-I don't think it should matter but once again there is a space between the 'dot' and the extension 'zip'.
If you have an issue, just delete the space so it's: .zip instead of . zip