Composer: Aram Khachaturian
Performer: Natalia Shakhovskaya
Orchestra: USSR State Symphony Orchestra
Conductor: Aram Khachaturian
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Melodiya
Catalogue: MEL CD 1001839
Release: 1975/2011
Size: 319 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover
Symphony No. 1 in E Minor
01. I. Andante maestoso con passione
02. II. Adagio sostenuto
03. III. Allegro risoluto
04. Concerto – Rhapsody for Cello and Orchestra
Aram Ilyich Khachaturian penned quite a number of compositions, from large symphonic and ballet canvases to elegant miniatures, and he was consistently faithful to his principles in each of them. The composer’s roots went deep in his homeland, he glorified the idea of creation of something new and beautiful in life, he celebrated a beautiful, strong and free man. Khachaturian’s music is a sort of chronicle of his time and his motherland; it is an enthusiastic tale of the life of his country that was built before the artist’s eyes. Symphony No. 1 (1934) dedicated to the 15th anniversary of Soviet Armenia was the composer’s diploma thesis. Khachaturian narrates about his beautiful homeland, its history and culture, and its people. It was a true song of inspiration about new Armenia. “Humanism must rule over the world. Humanism and the art of music are inseparable,” said Aram Ilyich in one of the interviews. These words can be considered a basis of his creative credo. They well could be an epigraph to the composer’s concerto-rhapsodies which were some of his last larger works. The Concerto-Rhapsody for cello was written in a burst of inspiration in a free developing form similar to well-known Chausson’s Poème and Ravel’s Gitana for violin. The composer found quite a rigid structure that connected the principle of rhapsodic development of music based on a free flight of fantasy with important elements of sonata style that add a clear logic of symphonic thinking to the whole. The musical texture of the concerto-rhapsody is rich in expressive themes growing from a single prosodic core having bright national features.