Margarita Mirimanova

The history of the Armenian piano art of the 20th century is represented by the names of musicians who lived not only in Armenia itself, but also in Russia, and the countries of Western Europe. These are Olga Kalantarova (St. Petersburg), sisters Yelena and Yevgenia Adamyans (Germany), Maria Kalamkarian (Germany), and Margarita Mirimanova (France).

Shushanik Apoyan knew little about Margarita Ivanovna Mirimanova — only what the press of the early 20th century and the Russian Musical Newspaper (1916-1917) reported. It was known that the pianist studied at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in the class of the famous Anna Yesipova, then with the outstanding Western European pianist Leopold Godowsky.
During the years of the «Iron Curtain», the name of Margarita Mirimanova was unknown to us.

In the 1970s, it became known that she lived in France, gave many and successful concerts.

Small in stature, affable, and lively, Margarita Mirimanova, who spoke several European languages, spoke Russian as well. Like all true artists, the main thing in her life was music.

She was acquainted with outstanding composers and musicians, such as Maurice Ravel, Alexander Glazunov, Sergei Prokofiev, Feodor Chaliapin, Pablo Casals, and Leopold Godowsky, among conductors — Bernhard Paumgartner, Franz Schalk, A. Konradt, Piero Coppola.

The Mirimanov family, known in Tiflis (Tbilisi) for its high culture, loved music. Margarita’s mother was personally acquainted with Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and Anton Rubinstein, who were in Tiflis (Tbilisi). The love of parents for music was passed on to their children: three sisters and one of the brothers became musicians. The youngest, Iolanta, a violinist, studied with the famous Czech teacher Otakar Ševčík in Prague. But the artistic fate of the eldest — Margarita — was especially successful.

At the age of five, she began learning to play the piano from her mother. Soon she became a student of the founder of the Georgian piano school, teacher, and pianist Alois Mizandari. A Greek by nationality, an enlightened musician, who in the past gave concerts in Vienna and Paris, communicated with many Russian and Western European composers, in particular with Johannes Brahms, he did a lot for his gifted students.

The rapidly developing talent of young Margarita overturned all age criteria: At the age of nine she performed a poetic masterpiece of piano music — Chopin’s Piano Concerto No.1 in E minor, Op.11. In 1910, Mirimanova brilliantly graduated from college in Tiflis (Tbilisi), in the same year, she entered the St. Petersburg Conservatory in the class of Professor Anna Yesipova.

Of all the professors of the conservatory, the outstanding Russian composer, and rector of the St. Petersburg Conservatory Alexander Glazunov had the strongest influence on the formation of the personality of the young pianist. With pride, she called herself a student of Glazunov. This is understandable: Glazunov’s pedagogical abilities extended not only to composers. He highly appreciated the talent of Margarita Mirimanova and it was to her that he entrusted the performance of his Piano Concerto No.1, Op.92 at the author’s symphony evening. The author himself conducted the orchestra. Mirimanova often performed Glazunov’s «Theme and Variations», fis-moll in later years.

In the St. Petersburg memoirs of Mirimanova, images of other Russian composers have also been preserved — Anatoly Lyadov, Sergei Lyapunov, pianists Nadezhda Golubovskaya, Natalia Pozniakovskaya. She also remembered the outstanding Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev.

A feeling of sincere respect for Russian culture can also be seen in the fact that on all her concert posters Mirimanova indicated «Russian pianist», and sometimes «Armenian pianist».

Following the Russian musicians, one of the greatest masters of the piano art of the first half of the 20th century, Leopold Godowsky, whom Heinrich Neuhaus called «my incomparable teacher» in his book, also played a decisive role. She improved with Godowsky at the Meisterschule at the Vienna Academy of Music.

Mirimanova lived in Italy, and during the war years — in Cairo, but for the longest time in France.

Living abroad for many years, Mirimanova often mentally returned to her homeland — Armenia. In 1919, at the invitation of the «Literary and Artistic Circle» (its artistic part was headed by Academician of Architecture Alexander Tamanian), Mirimanova gave a piano recital in the building of the former State Duma of the Republic of Armenia (the old building of the Yerevan State Theater of Musical Comedy). The concert was a great success. The collection from the concert was supposed to lay the «first stone» in the foundation of the Yerevan Conservatory. For the same purpose, the pianist performed in Batumi. However, the conservatory was founded later, already under a different socio-political system…

This does not exhaust Mirimanova’s connections with Armenian culture. As an Armenian, Margarita Mirimanova was invited to the anniversary celebrations of Komitas in Berlin, in 1969, where she performed the Piano Dances by Komitas.

Mirimanova’s artistic life was long. One of the highlights of her life was the award of the diploma of the Bologna Philharmonic Academy «For special merits» (1931). To give an idea of how high this honor is, let us recall that the laureates of this ancient, well-known in European Academy were such musicians as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, almost a hundred years after him — Ferruccio Busoni. In the first half of the 20th century — conductor Arturo Toscanini, singer Beniamino Gigli, and others.

Seeing Armenia again was Margarita Mirimanova’s dream. The Committee of Friendship with Armenians Abroad finally invited her to visit Armenia. The same invitations were sent by the Union of Composers of Armenia and the Yerevan State Conservatory. But the advanced years of the outstanding pianist prevented the realization of an old dream. The last years of her life, she said, were «hard and unbearable.» The husband died a long time ago.
Complaining of loneliness, she said, “To whomever I call from friends, the footman says: “Elle est morte” (she died).

Margarita Ivanovna Mirimanova died in August 1984 in a Parisian clinic at the age of 90. The fate of her archive, books, and rare music is unknown.