Aram Khachaturian

Today, Aram Khachaturian is best remembered for his flamboyant Soviet ballet scores – Gayaneh (1942), source of the indestructible Sabre Dance, and Spartacus (1954). But Khachaturian was born in Tbilisi, Georgia, to Armenian parents, and is regarded as the national composer of Armenia. Arriving to study at Moscow's Gnessin Musical Institute in 1921, he was unfamiliar with western instruments, but after studying with Nikolai Miakovsky at the Moscow Conservatoire, he made an international impact with his Piano Concerto (1936). His Violin Concerto (1940) proved even more successful, and while Khachaturian's music was condemned (along with that of other leading Soviet composers such as Shostakovich and Prokofiev) by Stalin's culture-minister Zhdanov in 1948, his distinctive melodic gift and flair for colourful orchestration made his music widely popular both in the Soviet Union and abroad (he was permitted to travel as an ambassador for Soviet music, and conducted across Europe and in both North and South America). Khachaturian preferred to work on a grand canvas, as in his three large-scale symphonies (1934-47). But his knack with a tune has won some of his smaller works, such as the delightful incidental music for Lermontov's Masquerade (1944) a lasting place in the repertoire alongside his concertos and blockbuster ballets.