Asmik Grigorian - Dissonance - Financial Times

An electric role debut at the Salzburg Festival as Strauss’s Salome announced Asmik Grigorian as a singer to watch. She is accompanied by Lukas Geniušas, who has already recorded Rachmaninov’s Preludes for solo piano in his own right, and they make a compelling duo. Grigorian’s singing is pristine, athletic, strong, less formidably impassioned than the never-to-be-replicated Galina Vishnevskaya, but she has delicacy and tenderness, too. Opening song “Dissonance” immediately starts at a high level of intensity. Favourite Rachmaninov songs like “Do not sing, my beauty” and “Spring Waters” get radiant performances, and has anybody ever written a more beautiful song than “How fair this spot”? As Grigorian’s last phrase hangs in the air, the heart stands still.