Khachaturian Aram Ilyich. Biography.

People's Artist of the USSR (1954)
People's Artist of the Armenian SSR (1955)
People's Artist of the Georgian SSR (1963)
People's Artist of the Azerbaijan SSR (1973)
Honored Artist of the RSFSR (1944)
Honored Artist of the Armenian SSR (1938)
Honored Artist of the Uzbek SSR (1967)
Lenin Prize Laureate (1959, for the ballet "Spartacus")
Laureate of the State Prize (1941, for the Concerto for Violin and Orchestra)
Laureate of the State Prize (1943, for the ballet "Gayane")
Laureate of the State Prize (1946, for the Second Symphony)
Laureate of the State Prize (1950, for the music for the two-part film "The Battle of Stalingrad")
Laureate of the State Prize (1971, for the music of the Triad of Concertos-Rhapsodies for violin and orchestra; for cello and orchestra; for piano and orchestra)
Laureate of the State Prize of the Armenian SSR (1965)
Hero of Socialist Labor (1973)
Chevalier of three Orders of Lenin (1939, 1963, 1973)
Chevalier of the Order of the October Revolution (1971)
Chevalier of two Orders of the Red Banner of Labor (1945, 1966)
Awarded the medal "For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945."
Awarded the medal "In Commemoration of the 800th Anniversary of Moscow"
Awarded the medal "For the Defense of the Caucasus"
Awarded the medal "For the Defense of Moscow"
Awarded with the medal “For Valiant Labor. In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin "
Chevalier of the Order of Science and Art, 1st degree, United Arab Republic (1961, for outstanding musical activity)
Honored Artist of the Polish People's Republic (for services to Polish culture)

“You can recognize his hand by literally several bars of any piece. And this individuality manifests itself not only in technology, but also in the composer's very worldview, based on an optimistic, life-affirming philosophy. " Dmitry Shostakovich.

Aram Khachaturian was born on June 6, 1903 in Kojori - a suburb of Tiflis (now Tbilisi) into an Armenian bookbinder family.

His father Yeghia (Ilya) Khachaturian came from peasants who had long lived in the village of Verkhnyaya Aza of the Nakhichevan district, located near the city of Ordubad, near the border with Iran. In the late 1870s, at the age of thirteen, Ilya left his native village in search of work in Tiflis. At that time, Tiflis was already a large trade and cultural center of the Transcaucasus, where enterprising people from all over the Caucasus gathered. Ilya arrived in Tiflis in peasant bast shoes, having only a few copper coins in his pocket. He managed to get a job as an apprentice in a bookbinder, and in a short time he mastered the profession of a bookbinder, gaining a solid reputation in the workshop of Tbilisi craftsmen. In the early 1890s, having saved up money, he bought out the owner's business, which had fallen into disrepair and was able to acquire a solid clientele in a short time. So Yeghia Khachaturian became the owner of a bookbinding workshop, in which his sons Vaginak and Levon later worked.

Aram's mother, Kumash Sarkisovna, before marriage, lived in the village of Nizhnyaya Aza, located next to Verkhnyaya Aza, where Aram Khachaturian's father, Ilya, was from. The composer's parents were engaged without knowing each other, when Kumash was 9 years old, and Ilya 19. But this engagement turned out to be very happy. Taking 16-year-old Kumash as his wife, Ilya took her to Tiflis, where all 5 children were born: the eldest daughter Ashkhen (died at the age of one and a half years) and four sons - Vaginak, Suren, Levon and Aram. “Mother,” Aram Khachaturian recalled later, “was a very beautiful woman: tall, slender. Until the end of her days she was a caring guardian of the family hearth and enjoyed deep respect from her father, which was not often seen in those years in the East. " Kumash loved to sing Armenian folk songs, and these tunes were deeply imprinted in the soul of the child. Under their impression, the boy climbed into the attic of the house and for hours tapped out the rhythms he liked on a copper basin. “This initial“ musical activity ”of mine, - said Khachaturian, - brought me indescribable pleasure, while it drove my parents to despair ...”. Later, Aram Khachaturian's mother eventually fell ill, went blind and died in 1956 in Yerevan in the family of her son Vaghinak, where she lived for the last 10 years of her life.

“Old Tiflis is a sounding city,” Khachaturian wrote later, “a musical city. It was enough to walk along the streets and lanes lying to the side of the center to plunge into the musical atmosphere created by the most diverse sources ... ". In Tbilisi then there was a branch of the Russian Musical Society, as well as a musical school and an Italian opera house. Prominent cultural figures came there, including Fyodor Chaliapin, Sergei Rachmaninov and Konstantin Igumnov. There lived talented musicians who played a prominent role in the development of the Georgian and Armenian schools of composition. All this formed the basis of Aram Khachaturian's early musical impressions. A kind of multinational intonation "alloy" was firmly included in his auditory experience. It was this “fusion” years later that served as a guarantee that Khachaturian's music was never limited to the framework of nationality and always appealed to the widest audience. It should be especially noted that any manifestation of national narrow-mindedness was always alien to Khachaturian himself. He had deep respect and keen interest in the music of different nations.

The historical events of the beginning of the century are captured in the memory of Aram. One of them was the 1905 revolution. Later Khachaturian said: "Incomprehensible bustle around, crying women take me from the yard to the room, lock the gates, lower the curtains, screams come from the street ..." Then the First World War began, the economic crisis, the revolution, the intervention of the Anglo-Indian, German, French troops and the establishment of Soviet power ... At some point, the echoes of the genocide forced the Armenian families to flee from Tiflis. Leaving their apartment and workshop, Yegia and his wife Kumash, along with their two younger sons, set off on a long journey to the Kuban, to Yekaterinodar (now Krasnodar), where their eldest son lived. “These were terrible days, full of anxiety, moral and physical stress. Suffice it to say that almost all the way, including through the Georgian Military Road, we walked on foot, carrying some pitiful belongings. Fortunately, the Turkish executioners did not make it to Tiflis. In the autumn of the same year, we returned home ... ”.

The Khachaturian family. Sitting: Suren, Kumash Sarkisovna, Aram, Egiya Voskanovich, Levon. Standing: Sarah Dunaeva (Suren's wife), Vaginak and his wife Arusyak. 1913, Tiflis.

Internationalism was one of the characteristic features, features of Khachaturian's worldview and creativity. At home little Aram spoke Armenian, on the street with friends - in Georgian, at school - in Russian. Then it was normal and natural, there was no question of any ethnic enmity. As a child, Aram was a mobile, strong and rather cocky child. He loved to sing, mainly Armenian folk songs that sounded in this area of \u200b\u200bthe capital of Georgia. When the time came to study, his father sent him to a private paid boarding school of Princess Argutinskaya-Dolgorukova (it was a school for children of wealthy parents). Aram liked the singing lessons the most. The students sang Georgian, Russian, Armenian, Azerbaijani songs, and Aram was among the best in these classes. Somehow a family left the house where Aram lived with his parents and brothers, and his father bought for a pittance, like old junk, a grand piano, on which half the keys did not work. Aram began to try his hand at playing familiar melodies on this instrument. He independently learned to play by ear and later became a pianist, completely ignorant of musical notation.

However, his attraction to music did not find any support in the family. Relatives treated the musicians with ill-concealed contempt. It was believed that the folk music performers who formed the "sazandari" ensembles (they played at weddings, funerals, revels, etc.), as well as actors, were people who could not acquire any serious profession and were engaged in a worthless business. Aram later regretted that he began to study music very late, when he was already 19 years old. “Soon I became completely bold,” Khachaturian recalled, “and began to vary familiar motives, to invent new ones. I remember what joy these things gave me - albeit naive, funny, awkward, but still my first attempts at composition.

Students and teachers of the boarding house S. Argutinskaya-Dolgoruky. Aram is the second from the left in the first row. 1911, Tiflis.

After boarding school, his father arranged for Aram at the Commercial School, but even there he was attracted mainly by the classes of the brass band. Aram's older brothers entered Moscow University, and after graduation, brother Suren became a director at the First Studio of the Moscow Art Theater (later transformed into the Moscow Art Theater II).

Khachaturian got to Erivan in 1921 as part of an agitation group that left Tiflis by a special train. Their task was to explain to the population of cities and villages of Armenia the great ideas of October, to distribute leaflets and brochures, to organize meetings and concerts-lectures. There was one essential detail in this story. Here is how Khachaturian himself described it: “One of the cheap freight cars of the train, on which the group arrived, was turned into a concert stage with a piano standing in front of open doors. When the train stopped on a siding at a station, I began to play bravura marches. The members of our brigade, with the help of horns, began to call the audience, which immediately gathered in front of the carriage. The rally began, accompanied by songs, simple concert numbers, distribution of propaganda materials. Even now I often remember the genuine delight of the motley audience. "

Student of the Commercial School, 1920s.

A sharp turn in his fate was determined by the arrival of his elder brother from Moscow. Suren Khachaturov was 14 years older than Aram. While studying at the Faculty of History and Philology of Moscow University, he became interested in theater, made friends with Stanislavsky, Nemirovich-Danchenko ... After graduating from the university, he worked at the Moscow Art Theater - first as an assistant director, then head of the production department of the newly created First Studio at the Moscow Art Theater, which was founded by Sulerzhitsky , Vakhtangov and Mikhail Chekhov.

In 1921 (at that time Aram had just finished the 7th grade) Suren went to Tiflis and Erivan to recruit Armenians for an acting studio: he was fired up with the idea of \u200b\u200blaying the foundations of the Armenian national theater. At the same time, he took Aram and his younger brother Levon from Tiflis. “What kind of a commercial advisor are you ?! Better take up art, ”he said to Aram. At this time, Suren wrote to his wife about his younger brothers: “These boys follow me like a daddy, look into my mouth, what I will tell them and whether I will take with me. I love them, I love them truly, because in them I see the genius of my people, the spirit of my people. " The journey from Tiflis to Moscow took 24 days, and the emaciated travelers had to find food for concerts and performances in roadside towns and villages. Aram accompanied these concerts and performances by playing the piano.

In Moscow, Aram and Levon settled with Suren. Arriving in Moscow, he experienced a real culture shock - he went to symphony concerts, the best theatrical performances, enthusiastically listened to Mayakovsky's performances. At first he lived in Suren's house, in one of the Arbat lanes. Prominent figures of art gathered here, heated discussions about theater, literature, music were held. Friends of his brother insistently advised Aram to take music seriously. But this decision was not easy. “My father, who was deeply in love with folk music, nevertheless, upon learning that I, who had already lived in Moscow, was going to enter the Gnesins Musical College, asked me with bitter irony:“ Are you going to become a Sazandar? ” - that is, a street musician playing in markets, weddings and funerals. Adults believed that music was not for men. My father wanted me to become an engineer or a doctor. Anyone but a musician. "

Suren forced Aram to prepare for entering the university, and in September 1922, after completing the preparatory courses, Aram entered the biological department of the Physics and Mathematics of Moscow State University. At the same time, he often attended musical performances and concerts, and soon realized that he was attracted not by biology, but by music. Without giving up his studies at the university, he went to audition at the Gnessin Music School, which was then at the Dog Playground. Determining Khachaturian's musical data was entrusted to Evgenia Fabianovna Gnesina, who, perhaps for the first time, encountered such a strange applicant without musical theoretical training, with only the most vague ideas about notes, and a lack of knowledge in the field of musical literature and the history of music. But on the other hand, the over-aged applicant easily coped with all the tests of hearing, sense of rhythm and musical memory, in addition, he played very smartly by ear. Khachaturian said: “Having no, even elementary theoretical training, I appeared before the commission. To test his voice and hearing, he briskly sang something like a “cruel” romance “Break the glass”, causing the examiners to smile ... I easily coped with the tests of hearing, rhythm and musical memory, despite the fact that all these tasks I had to do for the first time in life. Soon after the end of the exam, I was informed that I had been admitted to a musical college, but it was not known what specialty I was.

At the Gnesins' Music College. 1920s.

Khachaturian became a student at a music school, but it was too late to learn to play the piano, and Aram was enrolled in the newly opened cello class. Suren helped Aram get an instrument. It turned out that the cello of the Zimmermann factory was owned by the relatives of his brother's wife in the city of Kovrov. Aram drove out for the instrument. He said: “It was unbearably cold in the carriage. All the passengers lay on bunks, huddled closely to each other, and rode in complete darkness. When our train was already approaching Moscow, I woke up in the arms of some bearded peasant, who, like me, had a cello case as a pillow ... ”.

At first, Aram lagged far behind his fellow students in musical-theoretical disciplines. He mastered playing technique, theory and history of music. In parallel, he studied chemistry and passed exams in zoology, plant morphology, osteology, human anatomy and other disciplines at courses at Moscow University. He even managed to earn money as a loader in a liquor store. Once he cut his finger on a broken bottle and had to interrupt classes for several weeks. Elizaveta Fabianovna Gnesina, who taught solfeggio at the technical school, offered Khachaturian another type of income - tutoring, which, however, brought very little income. On Sundays, Aram with his brother Levon and the students of the Armenian Drama Studio sang in the choir at the Armenian church, receiving a ruble for each performance.

When the famous composer and teacher Mikhail Fabianovich Gnesin moved to Moscow from Rostov-on-Don in 1924, he took over the leadership of the composition class that had just opened at the school. Aram took a course of compulsory harmony with him and showed a desire for composing. In an effort to quickly master the cello, Aram overplayed so that for a long time he could not move the fingers of his left hand. It got to the point that Mikhail Gnesin suggested leaving the cello and taking up composition in a specially created class. Khachaturian denied it for a long time, but in the end he had to agree. He eventually left the university. Later, friends often recalled this incident, which “helped Khachaturian become a composer, and the world found Aram Khachaturian”. Later, Mikhail Fabianovich recalled Aram: “The compositions that he wrote almost towards the end of the second year of studies were so vivid that the question of the possibility of their publication was already raised. A number of plays, which soon brought fame to Khachaturian, were written by him when he was a student of a musical college ”.

Aram Khachaturian.

In the future, Khachaturian regretted that he began to learn to play the piano too late, believing that a good knowledge of the piano helps a lot when composing music. But even the knowledge and skills that gave lessons in the general piano course brought results. The teacher A.N. Yurovsky said: “Strange, damn it! What is difficult comes easy for you. That which is easy is difficult for you! " (Aram did not like to play scales, etudes, exercises).

During his studies, Aram, on the recommendation of his brother, began to study Armenian art at the House of Culture of Soviet Armenia in Moscow. Meetings of prominent figures of art, literature, science were held there. Ruben Simonov wrote about the House of Culture: “Every spectator felt himself, coming to an old mansion in the center of Moscow, in Armenian Lane, as if he were at home. The artists, musicians, composers who worked here were doing a work of tremendous patriotic importance. "

Khachaturian met Yeghishe Charents, Alexander Spendiarov and Ruben Simonov. The beginning musician treated the founder of Armenian symphonic music Alexander Spendiarov with great reverence. He, in turn, called the young man a lump who was to become the author of the first Armenian symphony, the first instrumental concert, and finally the first Armenian ballet.

Khachaturian was actively involved in the work of the House of Culture. And he even began to teach music lessons in a kindergarten and an Armenian school. “While working in kindergarten, I created noise orchestras there. The fame about them spread in Moscow, and we were invited to perform in other kindergartens ... Working with children gave me a lot. She excited imagination, forced to find exact colors for expressing thoughts. " On behalf of the House of Culture, he went to Yerevan in search of talented children. On one of the visits I noticed a boy who, barely reaching the pedals with his feet, enthusiastically improvised on the piano. Khachaturian tested his hearing, sense of rhythm, musical memory and was shocked. He explained to the child's parents that they should take his son's musical inclinations as seriously as possible and give him a good musical education. The boy's name was Arno Babajanyan.

Spendiarov suggested that Aram publish works under the name of Khachaturian (and not Khachaturov, as Aram assumed, taking an example from his older brothers). More and more works began to be published from the pen of Aram, and not only on the initiative of M.F. Gnesin. Mikhail Fabianovich half-jokingly, half-seriously said: “Because you can't play the piano, you get it in a very original way” (this was due to Khachaturian's composition of the Piano Concerto).

After graduating from college, Aram entered the Moscow Conservatory, where he continued his studies of composition with the same M.F. Gnesin, then he became a student of the famous Soviet composer N.Ya. Myaskovsky. While still in Gnesin's class, Khachaturian tried to combine the musical palette of the East with the most complex, strictly regulated musical form - this is how “Seven Fugues for Piano” appeared. In the future, the author altered something and added seven more recitatives to the fugues. In Myaskovsky's class, he composed a "Dance Suite" of 5 dances on the themes of Armenian, Georgian, Uzbek and Azerbaijani dances. At the same time, "Waltz-Caprice" and "Dance" appeared. "Dance" to this day remains in the repertoire of many violinists. It was performed by D. Oistrakh, L. Kogan, M. Polyakin and Y. Sitkovetsky. In 1929, a group of Armenian folk musicians-ashugs arrived in Moscow with their instruments. They sang the ashug songs of Sayat-Nova and other masters of Armenian music. In honor of these ashugs, Khachaturian wrote a "Song-Poem" for violin and piano. In 1932, Toccata for piano appeared, followed by the Trio for clarinet, violin and piano. Sergei Prokofiev liked the "Trio" so much that, with the consent of the author, he took the score of this work to Paris, where it was performed by French musicians.

The first published work of Khachaturian - "Dance" for violin and piano - already bore some of the characteristic features of the composer's stylistics: improvisation, a variety of methods of variation, as well as imitation of timbre effects widespread in oriental instrumental music, and especially the famous "Khachaturian seconds" , rhythmic ostinato. The composer himself remarked: “These seconds come from the sounds of folk instruments, which I heard many times in my childhood: sazandar-tar, kemancha and tambourine. From oriental music comes my addiction to organ points. "

Gradually, Khachaturian moved from small forms to more detailed ones, from "processing" folk song and dance material to its "development". In 1932, the Piano Suite was born, the first movement of which, Toccata, gained wide popularity and entered the repertoire of many pianists. She has stood the test of time. Created by Khachaturian in his youth, "Toccata" has retained all its charm and power of influence even now. “Many years have passed since the inception of this dynamic brilliant piece, but its performance still evokes the enthusiasm of the public,” wrote the composer Rodion Shchedrin. - There is no professional who would not know her by heart, would not treat her with a feeling of warm sympathy ... ”.

In 1933, Aram Ilyich married his fellow student composer Nina Makarova. At the same time, in 1933, his new work was performed - "Dance Suite" for a symphony orchestra. Composer Dmitry Kabalevsky wrote: “The first performance of this work, which radiated sunlight, joy of life, spiritual strength, was a great success and immediately introduced the young composer, who had not yet parted from his student days, into the forefront of Soviet composers”. There was a lot of new in it. The young author showed his outstanding orchestral skills and a penchant for symphonic thinking. In the festively elegant, colorful score of the "Dance Suite" the contours of Khachaturian's brightly individual orchestral style were clearly visible.

In 1935, in the hall of the Moscow Conservatory, the orchestra under the direction of E. Senkar sounded the First Symphony, presented by the graduate composer as a thesis for graduation from the Conservatory. She completed a most fruitful period of study and at the same time began a new stage in the life and work of the composer, who was entering the period of maturity. The audience, the press, colleagues and friends noted the great artistic value of the new composition, the originality and social significance of its content, the richness of melodies, the generosity of harmonic and orchestral colors and especially the bright national color of the music. In the winter of 1936, in the office of the director of the Conservatory, G.G. Neuhaus, an audition of the Piano Concerto took place. The first performer was the famous pianist Lev Oborin, to whom Khachaturian dedicated this concert. On February 14, 1942, the concert was performed in Boston, after which a telegram from Sergei Koussevitsky, conductor of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, arrived in Moscow from there. Koussevitsky reported that over the past 20 years he does not remember such a success of a new work by a modern composer. The soloist was the young pianist W. Cappell, who followed the premiere on a tour of a number of US cities with the performance of this Concerto. The famous Arthur Rubinstein also played it. The Globe and Mail newspaper wrote that from now on, the Americans will remember the name of Khachaturian. Khachaturian's fame also grew in the USSR, he was introduced to the organizing committee of the Union of Composers as deputy chairman.

At first, social activities did not interfere with the creative work of Aram Ilyich, and he began to work on the first ballet "Happiness", which he completed in 1939. The reason for composing the ballet was a trip to Armenia, where the premiere of the ballet took place. At the same time, he began working on the Violin Concerto, and at the same time Khachaturian wrote music for productions of Lermontov's drama Masquerade and Lope de Vega's comedy The Valencian Widow. In the same year, Aram Ilyich was awarded the Order of Lenin. He was on the crest of success.

When the war began, the House of Creativity in Ruza, organized with the active participation of Khachaturian, where it worked so well, found itself on the front line. Composers were evacuated to the Volga and the Urals. The organizing committee of the Investigative Committee managed to achieve that the premises of a former poultry farm near Ivanovo were given to him for the House of Art. At the same time, the piano was placed in the houses of collective farmers, where the leading composers lived. For example, Dmitry Shostakovich, taken out of Leningrad, worked on his Eighth Symphony in a room adapted from a chicken coop. Khachaturian was appointed chairman of the Military Commission of the Union of Composers. During the war, composers worked with extraordinary intensity. Aram Ilyich himself finished the Violin Concerto, wrote the music for the drama Masquerade, and in the fall of 1941 began working on the ballet Gayane, which included fragments of his first ballet Happiness. The premiere of "Gayane" took place in December 1942 in Perm, where the Kirov Theater was evacuated from Leningrad. The choreographers and "controlling authorities" demanded a number of changes in the score. “I agreed to everything too easily: of course, these were unacceptable and unprincipled concessions on my part,” Khachaturian later lamented. When he completed the Violin Concerto, David Oistrakh became the first performer of the solo part (this Concert was dedicated to him). This work became widely known outside the USSR. Oistrakh performed it several times during his foreign tours and recorded it on gramophone records. At the same time, Aram Ilyich composed the 2nd, "Military" symphony (it is also called the Symphony with Bells), the first performance of which took place on December 30, 1943 in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory (conducted by B.E. Khaikin). During the war years, Khachaturian wrote the "Song of Captain Gastello" and the march "To the Heroes of the Patriotic War." Graduated from Khachaturian and the music for the comedy "Valencian Widow". At the end of 1941, the music for the drama Masquerade was completed. Some experts argue that if Khachaturian had not written anything except "Waltz" to "Masquerade", he would still have become a world famous composer.

Sergei Prokofiev, Dmitry Shostakovich and Aram Khachaturian.

In "Valencian Widow" based on the play by Lope de Vega, in contrast to "Masquerade", Khachaturian used oriental motives. The fact is that Aram Ilyich received from the writer Rafael Alberti as a gift a disc with a recording of Spanish folk songs and was shocked by the closeness of these songs to the scale and intonations on which he himself was brought up from childhood. “I even thought: if these recordings were broadcast on the radio and announced that folk songs were being performed, say, from the Echmiadzin region, then many probably would not have doubted,” Khachaturian wrote. By the way, the phenomenon of the proximity of many factors of the Spanish (Basque) and Caucasian ethnic groups is being studied by modern ethnographers.

In 1944, Khachaturian wrote the national anthem of Armenia. Khachaturian arrived in Yerevan with his own version of the music to the words of Sarmen. One late night, sitting at the instrument with his family, the composer began to sing and play his hymn. It happened in the summer, and everyone's windows were open. It turned out that a lot of people gathered around (on the balconies, in the windows, in the street), who, inspired by what they heard, sang the Khachaturian melody in a single impulse. A year later, the war ended, and soon the Third Symphony - "victorious" appeared. Indeed, the Third Symphony is an agitated ode full of pathos, a kind of hymn to the victors. In connection with Khachaturian's Third Symphony, one can recall the words of academician BV Asafiev: “Khachaturian's art calls:“ Let there be light! And let there be joy! "...

After the war, Yerevan hospitals were full of wounded. Khachaturian, who arrived in Yerevan at that time, expressed a desire to visit one of the hospitals with a concert. During the performance, the music was interspersed with interesting stories of the composer about the life of musicians during the war years. Among the recollections of Khachaturian was such a funny case when, during the evacuation, at one of the stations, he, Oistrakh and Shostakovich were literally starving. Oistrakh helped to get out of the critical situation, jokingly offering to give a concert on the spot. However, Shostakovich and Khachaturian found the idea tempting, and they accepted the offer with pleasure. For an impromptu concert, wonderful musicians received lunch.

In the summer of 1946, the composer created the Cello Concerto, which was performed with great success in Moscow by S. Knushevitsky. At the same time, a vocal cycle was created on the verses of Armenian poets. If the instrumental concert has long become one of the most beloved genres for the composer, then he essentially turned to the vocal cycle for the first time.

Aram Khachaturian, Galina Ulanova and Vakhtang Chabukiani.

However, overhead Khachaturian, like many leading composers of the Union, clouds began to gather. On Stalin's instructions, A. Zhdanov attacked the country's leading composers, accusing them of formalism, modernism, anti-nationality, etc. Khachaturian, as best he could, defended his favorite composer - Sergei Prokofiev, and then the critical blow fell on him. He, one of the leaders of the organizing committee of the Union of Composers, was accused of missing the prosperity of modernism and formalism in the work of composers. In addition, he himself was credited with a passion for the same formalism. Organizational conclusions followed. Khachaturian was removed from his post in the organizing committee. In addition, his works were subjected to sharp criticism, and the critics themselves, in general, it was completely incomprehensible what the speech was about, because of course there were no traces of formalism in Khachaturian's work. In all his works, he made a start from folk music and repeatedly declared: “I myself am an ashug”. At the same time, he strongly objected to citing the phrase allegedly belonging to Glinka, "The people create music, and we, composers, only arrange it." Aram Ilyich argued that composers still create music, and they are the people - the creator of it. None of his works contain direct quotations of folk melodies. “You can't just be, as it were, dependent on folk music -“ photograph ”it,” wrote Khachaturian. - This is tantamount to marking time. You cannot “pray” to folklore and be afraid to touch it: folk melodies should excite the composer's imagination, serve as a pretext for creating original works ”. A sign of the folk style is the intonation nature of the melody itself, he believed. In the process of composing, Khachaturian more than once proceeded from the auditory idea of \u200b\u200bthe sound of the folk instruments of the Transcaucasus with their characteristic structure. He once said: “I really love the sound of tar, from which folk virtuosos are able to extract surprisingly beautiful and exciting harmonies”. In the second part of the Piano Concerto, the lyric song theme is composed on the basis of a radical modification of the popular song melody he heard in his childhood on the streets of Tiflis (it was sung by street singers from Guria - "krimanchuli"). But this is by no means a quote from a folk song. Sometimes Khachaturian's melodies themselves became a folk song. This was the case, for example, with the song he composed in his youth for the film "Pepo": it is presented to the audience as a folk song.

Fired from an administrative position, Khachaturian plunged into creative work. Soon after the notorious decree of 1948, Aram Ilyich presented his Third Symphony for performance, while prudently keeping silent that it had been completed even before the Zhdanovites had “worked through” it. The latter noted with satisfaction that the composer "took into account the criticisms" and that it was good for him. Khachaturian continued to work on the ballet "Spartacus", which he completed in 1954. The ballet premiered in 1956 at the Kirov Theater in Leningrad. Unfortunately, then the choreographers spoiled the musical part of the ballet a lot. In 1968, a new, more complete version of "Spartacus" was presented to the public in Moscow, on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater. It should be said that "Spartacus" became widely known abroad, and "Dance with Sabers" from the ballet "Gayane" turned into a real hit, especially in the USA, which angered the author a lot.

Lauren, Georgy Alexandrov, Aram Khachaturian and Nina Makarova.

By chance, in 1950, Khachaturian began conducting while performing his works. It began with the fact that he was asked to conduct a concert before the next elections to the Supreme Soviet. L. Kogan performed the II part of the Violin Concerto; then the orchestra was to play dances from "Gayane". The concert organizers assured Aram Ilyich: “The orchestra has rehearsed, everything is done. Even if you conduct the other way around, the musicians will still play correctly. " “From that day on, I was poisoned by conducting,” Khachaturian recalled. By the way, conductor Khachaturian was sometimes dissatisfied with Khachaturian-composer.

Also, Aram Ilyich was widely involved in composing music for films. In total, he wrote music for 25 films and 20 dramatic performances. On the basis of some of these works, he created suites, which began to be widely performed, for example - "The Battle of Stalingrad", "Masquerade", "Valencian Widow", "Lermontov", "Macbeth", "King Lear", "Spartacus", "Gayane »And other works.

With Nina Makarova visiting Hemingway. Cuba, 1960.

In 1950 he was invited to teach composition at the Gnesins Institute and the Moscow Conservatory. Among his students were Eshpai, Gabunia, Khagagortyan, Rybnikov and Vieru. The 1960s in Khachaturian's work were marked by another concert "burst" - three rhapsody concerts appeared one after another: Concerto-Rhapsody for Violin and Orchestra in 1961, Concerto-Rhapsody for Cello and Orchestra in 1963 and Concerto-Rhapsody for piano and orchestra in 1968. The composer has repeatedly shared his thoughts about his desire to write the fourth Concerto-Rhapsody, where all three instruments would act as concertists, combined at the end of the work ... In 1971, the Triad of Concertos-Rhapsodies was awarded the State Prize.

With Queen Elizabeth of Belgium. Brussels, 1960.

Khachaturian devoted a lot of effort to pedagogical work. For many years he directed the composer class at the Moscow Tchaikovsky Conservatory and the Gnessin Music Institute. Developing the pedagogical principles of his teacher Myaskovsky, relying on his own life and creative experience, Khachaturian created his own school of composition.

The composer's personal life was also eventful. In 1963, Khachaturian was elected a full member of the Academy of Sciences of the ASSR, an honorary academician of the Italian Music Academy "Santa Cecilia", he became an honorary professor at the Mexican Conservatory in 1960, and in the same year - a corresponding member of the Academy of Arts of the GDR. Aram Khachaturian had the titles of professor and doctor of art history. No one could understand how a person of his age, burdened with a serious illness, could work so intensively and productively outside the home, and not only work himself, but also cause activity in everyone who was involved in this work in one way or another. In the sixties, he wrote three Concertos-Rhapsodies: for violin in 1961, cello in 1963 and piano in 1968. Unlike Dmitry Shostakovich, he did not refuse foreign business trips organized by the authorities for propaganda purposes. He met and talked about music with Chaplin, Hemingway, Karayan, Rubinstein, Sibelius, Stravinsky, the Pope, Queen Elizabeth of Belgium, and actively traveled to different countries and continents. “I could write an opera if I were relieved of these representational duties,” he once said sadly. By his seventieth birthday, Khachaturian was awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor.

With Ernesto Che Guevara. Moscow, 1965.

In a happy and long marriage, Aram Ilyich and Nina Vladimirovna had a son, Karen.

With his wife, composer Nina Makarova, and son Karen. 1945 year.

Aram Khachaturian was the absolute head of his small family, and this gave him great joy. His incredible energy was enough for everything - for the smallest concerns of the current life and for the implementation of the largest "global" family concerns. But for all the "independence" in this very current life, he still absolutely could not do without Nina Vladimirovna, with whom they were always inseparable. Once Nina Vladimirovna was hospitalized for three weeks. Aram Ilyich felt confused in his own home, spoke a lot with pride to all his relatives and friends about Nina Vladimirovna, spoke with excitement about her illness and tormented her with questions and demands from the attending doctors. His faithful companion and assistant was absolutely necessary for Aram Ilyich on his countless trips, in business and friendly meetings. He always strove to ensure that the whole family was together, and was pleased if in distant countries, at home or in the country, there was also a son nearby. Due to his hot temperament, Aram Ilyich did not easily endure the trials of parental love associated with Karen's marriage, with the fact that he had his own family, his worries. The death of Nina Vladimirovna was a real blow for him. It was a sudden upheaval of his whole life, a grief that fell on Aram Ilyich with a heavy burden that crushed him until the last hour of his life and, undoubtedly, broke him. Once, in the middle of his wife's illness, he wrote: "... if Nina dies, she will take me away with her." The meaning of these words was extremely clear - life without her could not go on for a long time for him.

About Aram Khachaturian and Nina Makarova a television program from the cycle "More than love" was filmed.

In the early 1970s, Aram Ilyich became often ill, and his last works (these were Sonata-Fantasy for Cello, Sonata-Monologue for Violin and Sonata-Song for Voice) were written by him almost in a hospital ward. His health was noticeably undermined by the death of his wife Nina in 1976. Aram Ilyich died on May 1, 1978. The composer was buried in the pantheon of the Komitas Park in the capital of Armenia - Yerevan.

On October 31, 2006, a monument to Aram Khachaturian was unveiled in Moscow. Sculptor Georgy Frangulyan and architect Igor Voskresensky captured the maestro in moments of creative inspiration, surrounded by musical instruments. The monument is also installed in the center of Yerevan in front of the Great Concert Hall, named after the great composer.

About Aram Khachaturian a television program “How the idols left” was filmed.

Your browser does not support the video / audio tag.

The text was prepared by Tatiana Khalina

Used materials:

Tigranov G. "Aram Khachaturian"
Kharajanyan R. "The Piano Creativity of Aram Khachaturian"
Eva Kochikyan, "From Aram to Khachaturian"
Materials of the site www.khachaturian.am
Serper Y. "Ashug's Way"
Spartacus - libretto and photographs of the ballet staged by the Theater of Classical Ballet directed by N. Kasatkina and V. Vasilev

Khachaturian's works:

Ballet:

Happiness - Ballet in three movements with an epilogue, 1939
Gayane - Ballet in four movements with an epilogue, 1942,
Spartacus - Ballet in four movements with an epilogue, 1954.

Symphonies:

Dance suite - 5 parts, 1933
Symphony No. 1 - 1934
Two dances - 1935
Symphony No. 2 ("Symphony with a Bell") - 1943, revised 1944
Russian Fantasy - from the ballet "Happiness", 1944 - 1945
Symphony No. 3 ("Symphony-Poem") - 1947
Ode to the memory of V.I.Lenin - 1949
Battle of Stalingrad - 1949
Solemn Poem - 1952
Welcome overture - to the opening of the XXI Congress, 1958

Works for solo instruments and orchestra:

Piano Concerto - 1936
Violin Concerto - 1940
Cello Concerto - 1946
Rhapsody for cello and orchestra - 1961 - 1962
Rhapsody for Violin and Orchestra - 1963
Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra - 1967

Suites:

Suite from the ballet "Happiness" No. 1 - 1939
Suite from the ballet "Happiness" No. 2 - 1939
Suite from the ballet "Gayane" No. 1 - 1943
Suite from the ballet "Gayane" No. 2 - 1943
Suite from the ballet "Gayane" No. 3 - 1943
Suite from the music for the play "Masquerade" - 1943
Suite from the music for the film "The Battle of Stalingrad" - 1949
Suite from the music for the play "Valencian Widow" - 1953
Suite from the ballet "Spartacus" No. 1 - 1955-57
Suite from the ballet "Spartacus" No. 2 - 1955-57
Suite from the ballet "Spartacus" No. 3 - 1955-57
Suite from the music for the play "Lermontov" - 1953
Suite from the ballet "Spartacus" No. 4 - 1967

Other orchestral works:

March for Brass Band No. 1 - 1929
March for brass band No. 2 - to the tenth anniversary of the Armenian SSR, 1930
Arrangement of Armenian folk songs - for brass band, 1933
Arranging Uzbek folk songs - for brass band, 1933
To the Heroes of the Patriotic War - March for brass band, 1942
March of the Moscow Red Banner Police - 1973

June 6, 1903 - May 1, 1978