Khachaturian Trio Friday, October 20, 2017 at 8:00pm Pre-concert Talk at 7:00pm This is the 762nd concert in Koerner Hall

Khachaturian Trio Armine Grigorian, piano Karen Shahgaldian, violin Karen Kocharian,

PROGRAM

Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky: in A Minor, op. 50, “In Memory of a Great Artist” I. Pezzo elegiaco: Moderato assai – Allegro giusto II. Tema con variazioni: Andante con moto

INTERMISSION

Sergei Rachmaninov: Trio élégiaque No. 1 in G Minor

Aram Khachaturian: “Adagio of and Phrygia” from Spartacus Suite No. 2, op. 82b

Aṙno Babajanian: Piano Trio in F-sharp Minor I. Largo – Allegro espressivo – Maestoso II. Andante III. Allegro vivace

Pyotr Il'yich Tchaikovsky Born in Kamsko-Votkinsk, Russia, April 25/May 7, 1840; died in St. Petersburg, Russia, October 25/November 6, 1893 Piano Trio in A Minor, op. 50, “In Memory of a Great Artist” (1881-2) “The timbre of these instruments will not blend,” the 40-year-old Tchaikovsky complained to his patron in 1880. One year later, however, he decided to see whether he could rise to the challenge of writing a piano trio. Within three weeks, sketches for the trio were complete and Tchaikovsky set himself a deadline of the anniversary of ’s death to complete the work. Rubinstein, a noted pianist, composer, and teacher, had been Tchaikovsky’s mentor, at once his greatest supporter and greatest critic. The Piano Trio, with its monumental piano part, was designed “to the memory of a dear friend.” Its structure and scale were ambitious; it is twice the length of many works in the repertoire. And structurally, with just two movements, it invites comparison with Beethoven’s final piano sonata, though the two works are stylistically light years apart. Both works, however, have a sonata form first movement followed by an extended set of variations. But, where Beethoven seeks to transcend life’s immediacies, Tchaikovsky determines to expose them through his own grief. The opening theme of the Pezzo elegiaco presents a feeling of infinite melancholy and this continues through the intensity of its development. Often the dense textures of the music are piano-driven, but the contrast that heightens the urgency of Tchaikovsky’s sequences of anguished musical outpouring comes with a wonderfully plangent dialogue between the strings, gently supported by the keyboard. This is music of the utmost tenderness and delicacy. In it, we hear – as Stravinsky once put it – Tchaikovsky letting himself go. Its baring of the emotions throws fresh light on the reprise of the opening material and the mournful coda that is stretched out of the opening theme. The second movement has been referred to as Tchaikovsky’s Enigma variations. Although he was reluctant to specify details, each variation seems designed to refer to some event in Rubinstein’s life. “The variations,” he wrote to his brother in October 1882, “are only memories. One is a memory of a trip to an amusement park out of town [maybe No. 5] and another of a ball we both attended [likely No. 6], and so on.” The mood is far more relaxed than in the opening movement and there is much variety within the variations. They include an exuberant waltz, a Chopin-like mazurka variation (in tribute to Rubinstein’s skill as a pianist), and an academic fugue (maybe to honour Rubinstein’s role as founder of the Conservatoire). The mood generally celebrates aspects of Rubinstein’s life rather than brooding on his absence – or on Tchaikovsky’s own melancholy at his death. The final reprise of the theme, however, is monumental and keening and leads to the briefest of funeral marches.

Sergei Rachmaninov Born in Semyonovo, Russia, March 20/April 1, 1873; died in Beverly Hills, California, March 28, 1943 Trio élégiaque No. 1 in G Minor (1892) Tchaikovsky initiated the Russian tradition of the trio élégiaque with the trio we heard before the intermission. The young Rachmaninov followed with two Elegiac trios of his own, the first of which we are to hear today – and the second of which, written just one year later, was prompted by the death of Tchaikovsky and dedicated to his memory. Premiered in 1892, the score of Rachmaninov’s Trio élégiaque No. 1 was believed lost for half a century until its publication in 1945. “In my youth, I fell completely under the spell of Tchaikovsky’s music,” Rachmaninov said long after he completed the one-movement trio. A plangent opening theme of just three notes plus a jump of a third, marked Lento lugubre, provides a musical cell from which the entire work grows. Accompanied by pulsing strings, the theme also clearly signals that the piano, Rachmaninov’s instrument, is in charge. There are frequent tempo changes – a dozen in all – but the general outline follows that of traditional sonata form. The emotion is close to the surface, often sombre, and generously lyrical. A short coda, marked Alla marcia funèbre, with muffled drum effect low in the piano, adds a tragic overtone to the elegiac score, though Rachmaninov never indicated that anyone close to him had recently died. Rachmaninov, just 18 years old, was already, as Stravinsky famously put it, ‘six feet four inches of gloom.’

Aram Khachaturian Born in Tbilisi, Georgia, May 24/June 6, 1903; died in Moscow, Russia, May 1, 1978 “Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia” from Spartacus Suite No. 2, op. 82b (1950-4) Spartacus, premiered by the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad in 1956, is the third of Khachaturian’s three ballets and a landmark ballet from the Soviet era. The best known of dozens of Russian productions remains a Boshoi staging with choreography by Yuri Grigorovich from 1968. The ballet’s story, massaged into a shape that would best reflect the ideals of Soviet Realism, concerns the First Century BCE Thracian slave Spartacus forced to turn gladiator under the occupying Romans. Spartacus and his wife Phrygia are proletarian fighters against oppression. Their famous Act 3 nocturnal love scene is a pause between the boisterous crowd scenes and the inevitable extravagant portrayals of Roman self-indulgence. Khachaturian’s heart-on-sleeve romantic scoring captures the ballet’s epic expression in a manner that Hollywood would have seized upon were political life in the Fifties different.

Aṙno Babadjanian Born in Yerevan, Armenia, January 22, 1921; died in Moscow, Russia, November 11, 1983 Piano Trio in F-sharp Minor (1952) A generation younger than both Khachaturian and Shostakovich, Armenian composer Aṙno Babadjanian spent 12 of his most formative years studying in Moscow before returning to his native Yerevan. He then taught piano at the Conservatory of the Armenian capital where, at Khachaturian’s recommendation, he himself had studied from the age of seven. Babadjanian’s subsequent career was spent as a pianist of some distinction, as a composer of brilliant piano works, popular songs and musicals, and as a touring pianist and People’s Artist of the USSR. With a father who was a noted folk musician, much of Babadjanian’s music draws from the distinctive modes and rhythms of Armenian folk song. Their influence can be clearly heard in the Piano Trio in F-sharp Minor. This is an early work, from 1952, written during a period in which he produced several of his best known works. The trio opens with a lament, a solemn Largo theme twice introduced by violin and cello in unison octaves, supported by piano. This theme will recur in each of the three movements. It unfolds into the sonata structure of the first movement, Allegro espressivo, formed largely out of a flowing, impassioned first theme and a folk-like, somewhat bluesy second theme, introduced by solo piano. The second movement opens with a serene, sustained song, sung high on the violin over pulsing piano chords. It is a distant relative to the first movement’s lamenting introduction, which does, indeed, return in a more direct quotation at the climax of the slow movement. The sounds of Armenian folk music are recreated most clearly in the rhythmically nimble, five-beats-to-the-bar theme which drives the finale. The cello introduces a contrasting broad and rather sad melody and both ideas build to a high point and to further reflections on the opening movement’s lament. A brief coda brings a stormy conclusion. - Program notes © 2017 Keith Horner

Khachaturian Trio Khachaturian Trio was founded as trio Arsika in 1999. It has toured extensively throughout the USA, Central and South America, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Spain, Japan, China, Lebanon, Bulgaria, Malta, Czech Republic, Australia, Moldova, Georgia, Lithuania, Latvia, Russia, and Armenia in such halls as Musikverein in Vienna, Laiezhalle in Hamburg, Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Gasteig-Philharmonie in Munich, Purcell Room in London, and Suntory Hall in Tokyo. The Trio has participated in a number of prestigious festivals, such as the Festival de las Artes (Costa Rica), Festival International Cervantino (Mexico), Russiche Kammermusikfest in Hamburg, Malta International Music Festival, to name a few, and the Trio’s performances have been frequently broadcasted by TV and radio. Four CDs, dedicated to Armenian and Russian music, were also recorded by the musicians: Mono-CD of Alexandre Arutyunyan’s music, trios by Tchaikovsky, Arensky, Babadjanian, and Shostakovich, and a CD dedicated to the music of Armenian modern composers (Adjemian, Babaian, Chaushian). In 2008, the Trio took the name of an outstanding Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian. In 2010, together with philanthropist Assadour Guselian, who was close friend of Aram Khachaturian, the musicians established Classical Music Development Foundation, which helped them to improve their educational and charity activities. The critics have highly praised the Khachaturian Trio’s virtuoso performances, subtle sense of style, warmest sound, and brilliant and deep musicality. Members of the Trio are involved in pedagogic activity by giving master classes in music schools of various regions of Armenia. In 2013, Aram Khachaturian’s 110th anniversary year, the ensemble presented a colossal project, which continued into the future: in several cities in Russia (Nizhniy Novgorod, Krasnodar, Vladimir, Murmansk), and in Armenia (with State Youth Symphony Orchestra, conductor Sergey Smbatian), the musicians performed in one night three concertos by Khachaturian for piano, for violin, and a concerto-rhapsody for cello. Also during the jubilee year, the Trio performed in Yerevan, in the composer’s House-Museum, all his solo sonatas with violist Maxim Novikov. The Trio works in tight collaboration with contemporary composers. It has premiered a number of new works, which were commissioned by the Trio. While the group’s repertoire covers a wide range of music styles, Beethoven’s Triple Concerto remains a very important part of its repertoire, being performed in Yaroslavl, Chelyabinsk, and Yerevan. The members of the Trio are all established and highly regarded chamber musicians. They work closely with Aram Khachaturian’s House-Museum in Yerevan, which serves as the Trio’s “laboratory.” The Trio records CDs, performs concerts, and conducts education projects there.

Khachaturian Trio is making its Royal Conservatory debut tonight.