Classical Music | Piano Music

Recorded on 03/11/2008, uploaded on 01/22/2009

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

Adagio of Spartacus     Aram Khachaturian (arr. Willie Sargsyan)

Aram Khachaturian was the first composer to place Armenian music within an international context. By synthesizing the musical achievements of his age with Armenian traditions such as peasant song, urban instrumental folklore, the art of the ashugh, the ornamental style of medieval monody and the purism of national idioms of Komitas, he created a new aesthetic. He was also the first composer in the country to write music for films with sound. In 1950-54 he wrote the ballets Gayane and Spartacus, the latter being first performed at the Kirov Theatre in Leningrad in 1956 and in a revised form at the Bolshoy in Moscow in 1968. Khachaturian's music was one of the bridges that most effectively connected European and Eastern traditions during the 20th century.    Hayk Arsenyan

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.