One can recognize his hand by literally several bars of any composition", wrote Dmitry Shostakovich about Khachaturian. The renowned musicologist Boris Asafiev compared Khachaturian with Rubens meaning his rich and expressive palette, vividness and a lifelike relief of his music images. It is difficult to name another composer who was able to combine so organically the spirit of deeply rooted in ancient times music traditions of oriental culture with achievements of Russian and European music of the 20th century.
Melodiya presents an anniversary collection of the works by Aram Khachaturian, a classic of Armenian, Russian and Soviet music.
Apart from very popular suites from the ballets Spartacus and Gayane and music from Masquerade composed after Lermontov's play, the set features some of the now rare works such as the concerto-rhapsodies for violin, cello and orchestra, music to the motion pictures Othello and The Battle of Stalingrad, one-movement symphonic pieces Welcoming Overture and Ceremonial Poem, and the famous Bell Symphony (No. 2), a dramatic tale of the Great Patriotic War.
Khachaturian's works are performed by the leading domestic soloists such as Leonid Kogan, Mstislav Rostropovich and Jivan Gasparian, and orchestras conducted by Alexander Gauk, Kirill Kondrashin, Evgeny Svetlanov and others, and by the composer himself.
The Khachaturian programme is supplemented with a piece by Tolib Shakhid, a contemporary Tajik composer and one of Khachaturian's best pupils. His composition is dedicated to the Teacher.
