After appearances at Alexander Grigoryan’s “Arshaluys” theater-studio for a short while, Gabrielyan appeared at the Art Workers’ Home in Yerevan and started reading poems by Andrey Voznesensky and Marina Tsvetayeva with her guitar, which was something new at the time.For many, Marina Tsvetayeva was a breakthrough poetess because it was only during the years of Khrushchev’s “snowmelt” that gave the opportunity to present the great Russian poetess’s poems, tell about the days of her sufferings, speak about her misfortune during the assaults and persecutions of the Stalin era…

Susanna Gabrielyan was the first to recite poems by Marina Tsvetayeva and paved the path for the “silver age” of Russian poetry. Then there were Anna Akhmatova, Osip Mandelschtam, Nikolay Gumilyov and Alexander Blok. Alongside them were Armenian poets such as Vahan Teryan, Yeghishe Charents, Paruyr Sevak and  Silva Kaputikyan…There were also many Armenian reciters, including Suren Kocharyan, Haykuhi Garagash, Sirvard Mesropyan, Tamar Demuryan, Hrachuhi Zinanyan, Metaksya Simonyan, Vladimir Abajyan, but it was Susanna Gabrielyan who established her place and time, differed from the rest, formed a school and had her own ways of reciting poetry.

“My mother was born in Gyumri and was part of the family of Gabrielyans. My mother’s parents appreciated, art, literature and science and that is why they did everything possible for their son Levon to become a lawyer and my mother to become a philologist and actress. My mother admired Gyumri, and that admiration passed on to me. Gyumri has a unique smell for me. When I was a child, I used to touch the balcony rail and the smell of hot stones would reach me. When my mother used to read, the smell of those stones would come to me and I would feel warmth…Even when my mother told jokes in the Gyumri dialect, I could feel the smell of the city and its stones…My mother used to take me to Gyumri often, introduce the city and the people who loved my mother and would attend her concerts. They would see an average woman who would appear on stage, quickly transform into a mysterious person and present the charm of poetry to the people of Gyumri,” says Susanna Gabrielyan’s daughter, stage director Mariam Gabrielyan whose voice is so much like her mother’s that one of her close friends, RA Distinguished Artist Evelina Shahiryan always asks her to not speak to her on the telephone because Shahiryan thinks she is talking to Susanna…

Susanna Gabrielyan truly differed from other reciters. The important thing for her was not as much to emphasize feeling as much as the poem’s meaning, the idea, thoughts and emotions. She didn’t rule out emotions, but she placed emphasis on meaning and the idea first in order to make the poem comprehensible and get the poet’s message across. It seemed as though Susanna Gabrielyan was neither reading nor reciting, but talking to herself, the listeners, engaging in a dialogue with the poet and coming closer to the essence and content of the poem…

An event in memory of the remarkable reciter was organized by the RA Ministry of Culture with support from Minister Hasmik Poghosyan at the Aram Khachatryan Concert Hall. The reciter’s birthday was belated and a little forgotten, but it was remembered throughout the evening. There to share their stories about Susanna Gabrielyan were RA People’s Artist, RA State Prize winner Azat Gasparyan; RA Distinguished Artist, Professor Nikolay Tsaturyan; RA Distinguished Artist, Professor Lala Mnatsakanyan; actors Hasmik Ter-Karapetyan, Rudolph Ghevondyan and journalist Garik Ghazaryan. Each presenter remembered Susanna Gabrielyan, who formed a whole school of reciters and paved new paths that had not been taken before.

Levon Mutafyan