Aram Khachaturian (1903-1978)
Piano Transcriptions
Gayane excerpts (1942, arr. A. Tseitlin and Villy Sargsyan)
Spartacus excerpts (1950-54, arr. Emin Khachaturian and Villy Sargsyan)
Masquerade Suite (1941-44, arr. Alexander Dolukhanian)
Mikael Ayrapetyan (piano)
rec. 2023, Zipper Hall, Colburn School of Performing Arts, Los Angeles
Grand Piano GP946 [70]
Aram Khachaturian is one of those composers who has a select portion of their output enjoyed by music lovers but also by a wider public as a result of the use of his music in other media. His Sabre dance of course, the adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia which I confess I thought was called the Onedin Line until I was about twelve, and other works that have found their way into films as diverse as the Hudsucker Proxy and Ice Age: the Meltdown. Ironic that this is his legacy as a film composer rather than the twenty-odd films he actually he scored. His concertos have gained popularity, notably the piano concerto which found fame through recordings by Moura Lympany and William Kapell and the violin concerto, originally taken up by David and Igor Oistrakh, with three recordings from Oistrakh senior.
He was born to an Armenian family in a village near Tbilisi in Georgia and lived there until his late teens. He joined his brother in Moscow in 1921 and simultaneously studied music and biology, eventually graduating in both disciplines. He later studied with Nikolai Myaskowsky and Sergei Vasilenko and went on to teach at both the Gnessin Musical Institute and the Moscow Conservatory. His Armenian heritage was always important to him and his music is often a synthesis of this and more traditional classical music. The first ballet suite that Mikael Ayrapetyan plays is Gayane, the story of a hard-working and patriotic Armenian heroine, Gayane, who works on a collective farm and ultimately helps to foil the murderous machinations of her lazy husband Giko. The music is heavily folk influenced using the music of Armenia and the Caucasus and the choreography was inspired by Armenian folk dance traditions. The familiar sabre dance is perhaps the least folk inspired and souding item amongst them and it is notable that it was added later at the request of the choreographer to represent a dance of one of the Soviet union states and was not particularly admired by the composer himself; that one piece that haunts a composer, overshadowing their other music is such a familiar tale. The sabre dance is the most exciting piece in the suite but one can sympathise with the composer when you hear the haunting Aisha’s dance with its unusual five bar phrase lengths, the energy of the young men’s lezginka and strutting, arrogant Shalakho, Gayane’s passionate lullaby for her child Ripsime or the graceful Dance of Nuneh and the girls in the style of an Uzundara, an Armenian dance. Of course Gayane would be incomplete without the sabre dance and its relentless energy and it is a fitting conclusion to this suite. Ayrapetyan has compiled the suite from arrangements by A. Tseitlin and Villy Sargsyan published in 1962 and 2005 respectively; no information is given about either of these musicians in the booklet.
Sargsyan also contributed three items to the Spartacus suite adding to the four items that Emin Khachaturian, Aram’s much younger brother, arranged. Khachaturian completed the ballet in 1954, more than a decade after he first conceived the idea and the premiere took place in 1956. As with Gayane Khachaturian prepared orchestral suites for the concert stage that helped to popularise the music before the official premiere; the ballet remains in the repertoire of many companies and the music is still some of his best known. It is perhaps even more colourful than Gayane and there is a greater sense of thematic connection in its music with hints of the adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia in the lilting dance of the Egyptian girl and scene and dance with crotales. The suite opens with the Dance of the nymphs, a slow, rich waltz, and the dance of the Egyptian girl whose exotically lithe and supple melody shares some of its harmony with Tchaikowsky’s Egyptian dance from the Nutcracker. The dance of the Roman courtesans is altogether more rigid in its rhythms though fluting arabesques throughout belie its restraint. It contrasts sharply with the high spirited sword dance of the young Thracians that may not have the wild abandon of the sabre dance but is just as energetic. The scene and dance with crotales, low key and moody before suddenly throwing off restraint for its impassioned conclusion is for me the closest in mood to the Armenian folk music of Gayane. Aegina’s dance and bacchanal is the whirlwind waltz of Spartacus and Phrygia’s nemesis Aegina, the concubine of Roman consul Crassus whose soldiers impale Spartacus, dazzlingly virtuosity that precedes the famous adagio whoseardent music has the final word in the suite.
Themusic of the Masquerade suite was commissioned by the Vakhtangov Theatre as incidental music to the play by Mikhail Lermontov in 1941. The play’s hero is Arbenin who is married to Nina; a masquerade ball is the scene of misunderstandings that lead Arbenin to poison Nina for her infidelity. Nina was actually innocent and it was the deceitful behaviour of the other characters that fed Arbenin’s already jealous nature. Echoes of Othello in the plot only prove that there is nothing new under the sun. If the innocuous, playful music of the mazurka and final headlong galop belie the tragic nature of the plot they serve to present a surface jollity that disguises the underlying tensions whilst the romance and nocturne are wonderfully lyrical and are backdrops to Nina’s scenes in the play. Khachaturian had seen the play with Glazunov’s 1913 incidental music – this has appeared on Naxos 8572011 review – and was surprised that no waltz was written as he considered it an integral part of the play. Thankfully he corrected this omission in his own music and this wonderfully grand concert waltz has rightfully gained a secure place in the concert hall. The suite was arranged by Alexander Dolukhanian, an Armenian composer born in Tbilisi and who also studied with Myaskowsky.
Mikael Ayrapetyan was born in Armenia and the wider recognition of his homeland’s music is a big part of his ethos. He certainly hits the mark here with a perceptive sense of colour and rhythm and a technique that easily surmounts the tough demands of the sabre dance as well as the intricate details of Khachaturian’s imaginative orchestration. As far as I can see only the Masquerade suite has been recorded before, by Anthony Goldstone on his disc The Piano at the Carnival (DivineArt DDA 25076 review); he is perhaps a little more nimble and madcap in the final galop but Ayrapetyan holds his own and is in fine sound.
Rob Challinor
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