Aram Khachaturian (1903 - 1978) was a Soviet Armenian composer who, with Prokofiev and Shostakovich, is considered one of the "titans" of Soviet music. Born in Tiflis (now Tbililisi) to a poor Armenian family in what is now Georgia — then part of the Russian Empire — Khachaturian grew up with the Soviet Union, watching it transform itself from an antidote to Imperial tyranny into a tyranny of Stalin’s own.
In his youth, he was fascinated by the music he heard around him, but at first he did not study music or learn to read it. In 1920, when Armenia was declared a Soviet republic, Khachaturian joined a propaganda train touring Armenia. The following year he travelled to Moscow, where, despite his lack of musical training, he was admitted to the prestigious Gnessin Institute, studying the cello for three years before enrolling in courses in composition. He continued his studies at the Moscow Conservatory, graduating in 1934. His First Symphony, completed as his Conservatory graduation work, marks his initial success at blending the thematic material from the music of his beloved Armenia with the structures of the classical symphony. Two years later he won recognition with a piano concerto, followed by the violin concerto that we hear this evening in 1940, and one for cello in 1946.
Of Khachaturian’s many compositions, probably the best-known are the Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia from his ballet Spartacus, and for the "Sabre Dance" from his ballet Gayane and the adagio from the same ballet, widely used in films and TV series all over the world.
Khachaturian was in jubilant spirits at the time he was composing his Violin Concerto. His ballet “Happiness” had just had a successful premiere in Moscow, and he was awaiting the birth of a son. “I wrote music as though on a wave of happiness; my whole being was in a state of joy … I worked quickly and easily; my imagination seemed to fly. Themes came to me in such abundance that I had a hard time putting them into some sort of order.” He completed the concerto in two months. It premiered in Moscow in November of 1940, with David Oistrakh as soloist. Khachaturian had written the concerto with Oistrakh in mind, and dedicated it to him. In his turn, Oistrach had worked with the composer on the solo part before the premiere and again before publication.
Throughout the concerto, there are musical elements drawn from the folk songs and dances of the composer’s native Armenia. Unlike the Samuel Jones selection which opens this concert, there are no direct quotations from individual folk songs, but the exotic Oriental flavor of Armenian scales and melodies and the captivating rhythmic diversity of dances that pervade the concerto set it apart immediately, announcing to even the most unsophisticated ear that this is no product of Western Europe.