Release Date: 12 January 1999
Label: Naxos - Nxc / Naxos Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 730099580229
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: KHACHATURIAN
Description
Aram Il'yichKhachaturian (1903 - 1978)Spartacus: Suite No.4?á?á?á?á?á Bacchante's Melancholy Dance?á?á?á?á?á Spartacus' Procession?á?á?á?á?á Death of the Gladiator?á?á?á?á?á Call to Anns: Spartacus'UprisingMasquerade: Suite?á?á?á?á?á Waltz?á?á?á?á?á Nocturne?á?á?á?á?á Mazurka?á?á?á?á?á Romance?á?á?á?á?á GalopCircus: Ballet MusicDance Suite?á?á?á?á?á Trans-Caucasian Dance?á?á?á?á?á Annenian Dance?á?á?á?á?á Uzbek Dance Tune?á?á?á?á?á Uzbek March?á?á?á?á?á Lezghinka The Armenian composer Aram Khachaturianwas born in Thlisi in 1903 and had his musical training at the Gnesin Music Academy in Moscow, entering in 1929 the Moscow Conservatory,where he was a pupil of Prokofiev's friend and mentor, Miaskovsky. Heestablished himself as a composer during the 1930s and held official positionsin the Union of Soviet Composers, although he was included in the condemnationof fonnalism, together with Shostakovich and Prokofiev, in 1948. Neverthelesshis style of composition, with the use of regional elements from Armenia andelsewhere in the southern areas of the Soviet Union, in the end ensured hiscontinuing reputation, enhanced once more, after the death of Stalin in 1953,by his ballet Spartacus, a work that combined spectacle in its crowdscenes and attention to individual virtuosity in its solos, with a plot thatcould not but satisfy the ideals of the regime. Writing in a tonal idiom withrichly coloured orchestration, Khachaturian was opposed to modem experiment incomposition and in spite of the condemnation of 1948 held publicly that Sovietcomposers enjoyed a creative freedom impossible in the West, with its modemisingfashions, to which subservience was obligatory. During his life-time hereceived ll1any honours, including in 1954 the title People's Artist. He diedin 1978. The ballet Spartacus, the scoreof which was completed in 1954, deals with the slave rebellion led by the heroof that name against Roman domination. The historical Spartacus himself wasThracian by birth, a shepherd who became a robber. He was taken prisoner andsold to a trainer of gladiators in Capua, but in 73 BC he escaped, with other prisoners, and led a rebellionduring the course of which he defeated the Roman armies and caused devastationthroughout Italy. He waseventually defeated by Crassus, a general well known for his wealth, and put todeath by crucifixion, together with his followers. It should be added that toKarl Marx Spartacus was the first great proletarian hero, a champion of thepeople, while the ultimate fate of Crassus, killed in 53 BC during the courseof a campaign that had taken him to Armena, might have had a particularsignificance for Khachaturian. Spartacuswas first produced at the Kirov Theatre in Leningrad in 1956, with choreography by Leonid Jacobson, and was re-staged atthe Bolshoy in Moscow two yearslater, with choreography by Igor Moiseyev. The relative failure of these productionswas followed by what must be seen as the definitive version at the Bolshoy
Tracklisting
Dariia Lytvishko
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Marin Alsop
Alice Di Piazza; Basel Sinfonietta; NDR Bigband; Titus Engel
Anna Alas i Jove; Miquel Villalba
David Childs; Black Dyke Band; Nicholas Childs
Various
Various
Lully
