People and events:

• ARAM KHACHATURIAN: NATIONAL ROOTS - WORLDWIDE RECOGNITION
• THE MASTER OF MUSIC YEVGENY MRAVINSKY

ARAM KHACHATURIAN: NATIONAL ROOTS - WORLDWIDE RECOGNITION

By N. Yakhontova
June 6 marked the birth centenary of the outstanding 20th-century composer Aram Khachaturian. An Armenian born in Tiflis (the former name of the Georgian capital Tbilisi, he took in everything he saw around him - the hot southern sun, the bright palette of oriental markets, the culture and traditions of Georgians, Russians, Ukrainians, Greeks, for Tiflis was a multiethnic city and each community was trying to preserve its identity. "I am convinced that there can be no true art without ethnic roots. What I mean is not purely ethnographic sources, but something larger - art is rooted deep in the history of a people, its lifestyle and mentality, rites and individual characters".
At the age of 19, Khachaturian goes to Moscow where he enrolls in the just-opened Gnesins Higher Music School and later in Moscow Conservatory. He literally burst into music with his vibrant and colorful pieces based on Caucasian folk tunes: the Dance Suite, the Trio for Clarinet, Violin and Piano, the 1st Symphony, and the 1st Piano Concerto dubbed by critics a "feast of sounds". By the way, it was this concerto that earned the young composer international recognition. His 2nd Symphony written during World War II takes as a theme the wrath of the Soviet people in its struggle for humanity, the courage and valor of Soviet soldiers fighting on the battlefield and heroes of the home front, and their will for victory.
Starting from 1950 Aram Khachaturian toured many countries as a conductor of his own pieces. The same year he began teaching music in Moscow Conservatory. "He could express the torments and passions of an Armenian soul", says Khachaturian's disciple Andrei Eshpai. "Whereas his great compatriot Komitas sort of locked his music in a temple, Khachaturian held his talent open to the world, not merely "quoting" Caucasian folklore, but creating his own language and images. The closer a composer sticks to his ethnic roots, the more interesting he is. Khachaturian's music is vibrant with energy and life."
Nearly all of Khachaturian's versatile legacy entered the golden fund of Soviet music. His ballet "Spartacus" was staged across the world and is continuously revived. Millions of music lovers know his waltz from the film "Masquerade" based on Mikhail Lermontov's drama. And his Dance With Sabres from the ballet Gayane is one of the most widely performed 20th-century pieces.
Khachaturian's turbulent nature made him a prominent public figure: he combined a leading post in the Soviet Composers' Union with membership in the Soviet Committee for the Protection of Peace and presidency in the Association for Friendship and Cultural Cooperation with Latin-American Countries. A doctor of the arts, he was elected honorary member of a number of foreign academies.
Khachaturian's optimistic impulsive and temperamental music representing an organic mix of oriental and western cultures is on the playbill of music festivals in his honor, launched in Moscow and in the Armenian capital Yerevan where a concert hall and a street were named after him and where he was laid to rest in the local pantheon. Khachaturian is the author of Armenia's former hymn adopted in 1994. In 1990 it was replaced with another one, but now most Armenian art figures say they want the old hymn back.

THE MASTER OF MUSIC YEVGENY MRAVINSKY

O. Bugrova
June 4 marked the 100th birth anniversary of the famous Russian conductor Yevgeny Mravinsky.
Mravinsky symbolizes a whole epoch in the Russian music culture of the 20th century. For 5 decades he directed the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, one of the oldest Russian orchestras set up in 1882. Today it's called St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra, but many keep calling it the "Mravisnky orchstra".
Mravinsky was 35 when he took over the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, a fairly young age for a conductor. However, his personal achievements by that time had been quite impressive: after graduating from the Leningrad (St. Petersburg) Conservatory, he worked at the Kirov, now Mariinsky Theatre, for a few years and then won the 1st all-Russia conductors' competition. His colleagues recall that he held the orchestra in full control, his gestures were emotional and expressive but never ostentatious despite his rare, Nordic beauty. In 1937 Mravinsky premiered Shostakovich's 5th Symphony at the Leningrad Philharmonic. Both the author and the conductor, hardly over 30, received a half-an-hour standing ovation. The two worked together for years afterwards. Mravinsky, dubbed "a lifetime missionary of Shostakovich's symphonies", confessed that Shostakovich's music had deeply impressed him and filled his life with important content.
Although not big, according to modern standards, Mravinsky's repertoire contained "weighty" pieces. He felt drawn to musical drama verging on tragedy: symphonies by Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Shostakovich, Brahms, Bruckner, Prokofiev, Wagner. In later years Mravinsky focused his efforts on the interpretation of 20th-century composers, including Bartok and Stravinsky. As a conductor he had some dictatorial features that brought him closer to Arturo Toskanini. Laconic and ascetic in words and gestures, he could hypnotize musicians with his strict gaze. However, during concerts the impression was that playing music was the only form in which the musicians could exist.
The Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra was the first Soviet orchestra to be allowed to perform abroad. Over the past decades it has toured Europe, Japan and the United States, ranking among the world's best music collectives. 30-minute ovations and epithets like "brilliant", "phenomenal", "incomparable" were a norm. The Vienna Express wrote about Mravinsky's orchestra: "Like any extraordinary personality, the Leningrad orchestra is unique in its own way. The rich and full sound of the strings is set off by the rolling elegance of the brass… Lyricism with a grain of heroics, pathos never overdone but triumphant … Mravinsky conducts in a free-flowing and clear-cut manner. A mere turn of the head - and the orchestra obeys his will. A rare master of music and musicians…"
 
06/20/2003