Violin Concerto (Khachaturian)

Aram Khachaturian's Violin Concerto in D minor is a violin concerto in three movements composed in 1940. It was composed for David Oistrakh and was premiered on 16 November 1940 by Oistrakh.[1][2]

Violin Concerto
by Aram Khachaturian
KeyD minor
Composed1940 (1940)
Performed16 November 1940 (1940-11-16)
Movements3

Composition

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In 1940, Khachaturian was enjoying tremendous professional success and personal joy.[3] He worked on the concerto in the tranquility of a wood composer's retreat west of Moscow; he said of the composition that he "worked without effort ... Themes came to me in such abundance that I had a hard time putting them in order."[4] Many sections of the concerto are reminiscent of the folk music of Khachaturian's native Armenia—while he never directly quotes a specific folk melody, "the exotic Oriental flavor of Armenian scales and melodies and the captivating rhythmic diversity of dances" are throughout the work.[3] The work has been charactered by "an exhilarating rhythmic drive and vitality, and a penchant for intoxicating, highly flavored, languorous melody owing much to the inflections of his native Armenian folk music."[5] Having won the Stalin prize in 1941, it has since become one of Khachaturian's famous pieces, in spite of considerable criticism.[6]

Structure

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Violin concerto in D minor (1940)

  • First movement: Allegro con fermezza (about 14 minutes)
  • Second movement: Andante sostenuto (about 12 minutes)
  • Third movement: Allegro vivace (about 9 minutes)

A movement in sonata form, the Allegro con fermezza opens with a melody that has been described as "energetic"[4] a "rollicking dance-like theme,"[5] and this yields to a "more lyrical"[5] secondary melody.

The Andante sostenuto has been described as "a rhapsodic slow movement that sweeps one into a brooding wintry landscape."[5] Geoffrey Norris wrote, "The ease and spontaneity, pungency and flexibility of Khachaturian's melodic inventions are most clearly laid out in the Andante sostenuto of the central movement, cast in a free-flowing, quasi-improvisatory manner redolent of the art of Armenian folk music."[4] The second movement is a free-flowing rondo.[7]

The concluding Allegro vivace has been called "a whirlwind of motion and virtuosity."[5] In this movement, "the folks element is specially pronounced in the dance-like vigor of the main melody and in the repetitive, insistent, wild virtuosity of the solo instrument."[4]

Transcriptions

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When flautist Jean-Pierre Rampal approached Khachaturian to ask him to compose a concerto for flute and orchestra, Khachaturian suggested that the Violin Concerto would be adaptable for flute. With the composer's encouragement, Rampal completed the transcription in 1968, providing his own cadenza as a substitute for the original violin cadenza in the first movement. The orchestral accompaniment throughout the Concerto remains unchanged.[8][9]

Discography

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Year Soloist Conductor Orchestra
1946 David Oistrakh Alexander Gauk USSR State Symphony Orchestra
1947 Gerhard Taschner Artur Rother Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra
1951 Leonid Kogan Aram Khachaturian USSR State Radio Symphony Orchestra
1954 David Oistrakh Aram Khachaturian Philharmonia Orchestra
1955 Ruth Posselt Richard Burgin Boston Symphony Orchestra
1956 Igor Oistrakh Eugene Aynsley Goossens Philharmonia Orchestra
1956 Ruggiero Ricci Anatole Fistoulari London Philharmonic Orchestra (stereo)
1958 Leonid Kogan Pierre Monteux Boston Symphony Orchestra
1959 Mischa Elman Vladimir Golschmann Vienna State Opera Orchestra
1962 Ida Haendel Hans Müller-Kray Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra
1963 Aldo Ferraresi Aram Khachaturian Orchestra Sinfonica RAI Turin
1964 Henryk Szeryng Antal Doráti London Symphony Orchestra
1964 Jean Ter-Merguerian Michael Maluntsian Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra
1967 David Oistrakh Aram Khachaturian Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra
1981 Boris Gutnikov Konstantin Ivanov USSR Large Symphony Orchestra
1984 Itzhak Perlman Zubin Mehta Israel Philharmonic Orchestra
1989 Valery Klimov Evgeni Svetlanov USSR Academy Symphony Orchestra
1990 Lydia Mordkovitch Neeme Järvi Royal Scottish National Orchestra
2001 Mihaela Martin Theodore Kuchar National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine
2003 Arabella Steinbacher Sakari Oramo City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra
2003 Sergey Khachatryan Emmanuel Krivine Sinfonia Varsovia
2004 Julia Fischer Yakov Kreizberg Russian National Orchestra
2007 Aaron Rosand Kees Bakels Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra
2007 Catherine Manoukian Eduard Topchjan Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra
2008 Nicolas Koeckert José Serebrier Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
2010 Ara Malikian Jesús Amigo Extremadura Symphony Orchestra
2011 Mikhail Simonyan Kristjan Järvi London Symphony Orchestra
2014 James Ehnes Mark Wigglesworth Melbourne Symphony Orchestra
2016 Philippe Quint Steven Sloane Bochumer Symphoniker
2018 Nemanja Radulović Sascha Goetzel Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra
2019 Rachel Barton Pine Teddy Abrams Royal Scottish National Orchestra
2020 Antje Weithaas Daniel Raiskin Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie
Year Flute Soloist Conductor Orchestra
1970 Jean-Pierre Rampal Jean Martinon Orchestre National de France
1984 James Galway Myung-whun Chung Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
1992 Patrick Gallois Ion Marin Philharmonia Orchestra
2002 Emmanuel Pahud David Zinman Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich
2004 Wissam Boustany Volodymyr Sirenko National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine
2010 Sharon Bezaly Enrique Diemecke São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra

References

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  1. ^ Khachaturian: Violin Concerto / Concerto-Rhapsody (Naxos 8.555919) Liner Notes
  2. ^ Khachaturian: Violin Concerto / Concerto-Rhapsody for Violin and Orchestra (Naxos 8.570988) Liner Notes
  3. ^ a b "BeavertonSymphony.org :: program notes Khachaturian Violin Concerto". beavertonsymphony.org.
  4. ^ a b c d Khachaturian, Violin Concerto, EMI CDC 7 47087 2, CD liner notes by Geoffrey Norris
  5. ^ a b c d e "KHACHATURIAN violin concerto, Concerto-Rhapsody Naxos 8.555919 [RB][KS]: Classical CD Reviews- May 2004 MusicWeb(UK)". www.musicweb-international.com.
  6. ^ "Aram Khachaturian Violin Concerto + Dimitri Shostakovich String Quartets". 17 October 2014.
  7. ^ "Error | Kennedy Center".
  8. ^ flute4u.com
  9. ^ violamusicplus.com
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