A R U T I U N I a N Violin Concerto Concertino for Piano Sinfonietta
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CHAN 9566 Cover.qxd 28/3/07 15:43 Page 1 Chan 9566 CHANDOS ARUTIUNIAN Violin Concerto Concertino for Piano Sinfonietta C ONSTANTINE O RBELIAN I LYA G RUBERT violin N ARINE A RUTIUNIAN piano M OSCOW C HAMBER O RCHESTRA C ONSTANTINE O RBELIAN CHAN 9566 Book.qxd 25/4/07 14:49 Page 2 Jean-Pierre MathezJean-Pierre Alexander Arutiunian CHAN 9566 Book.qxd 25/4/07 14:49 Page 3 Alexander Arutiunian (b. 1920) Concerto for Violin and Orchestra* 22:22 1 I Andante sostenuto 5:40 2 II Allegretto (Scherzando) 3:04 3 III Adagio recitativo 8:38 4 IV Allegro molto 4:54 Sinfonietta 15:17 5 I Prelude 2:18 6 II Arioso 4:30 7 III Intermezzo pizzicato 2:44 8 IV Finale 5:39 Concertino for Piano and Orchestra† 14:52 9 I Allegro 4:36 10 II Andante – 5:14 11 III Allegro vivace 5:00 TT 52:36 Ilya Grubert violin* Narine Arutiunian piano† Moscow Chamber Orchestra Constantine Orbelian conductor/music director 3 CHAN 9566 Book.qxd 25/4/07 14:49 Page 4 Alexander Arutiunian: Violin Concerto etc. Alexander Arutiunian is among the most within the instrumental concerto as a genre, as important of twentieth-century Armenian well as in works for orchestra or chamber composers. His artistic credo began to take ensemble. Even in his only opera Sayat-Nova shape in the late 1940s and early 1950s, and (1967), the eighteenth-century ashug1 and was consolidated during the 1960s. Despite poet, Sayat Nova, is represented as an the principles which he shares with the older Armenian counterpart of the European generation, in particular the polyphony of Meistersinger who is the victor in a singing Komitas, the orchestral style of Spendiarov, contest. and the harmony of Aram Khachaturian, Alexander Arutiunian was born on Arutiunian focuses his attention on the vital 2 September 1920 in Yerevan, where he aspect of music. Vitalism interests him as a received his education (he later completed his manifestation of the elemental principle of the training under Genrikh Litinsky in Moscow in art, as a method of recreating the nature of the period 1946–48). During the fifty years of folklore melodies and rhythms, and as a his composing career Arutiunian has written a reflection of the art of interplay. No less large number of instrumental concertos, important for Arutiunian is the emotional rhapsodies, poems for piano, violin and cello, aspect of music. The various gradations of flute, oboe, female voice and orchestra, and lyricism – expression, sentimentalism, also the first Armenian concertos for brass nostalgia, irony – all give his music an instruments: the trumpet, horn, trombone and inimitable novelty. This can be felt above all in tuba. As a result of his interest in brass his slow music with its long, linear melodies. instruments, he wrote his Armenian Sketches Arutiunian’s stylistic direction developed in quintet that became a repertory piece. the mainstream of romanticism and classicism His vocal and orchestral works has adapted to the conditions of contemporary strengthened the international acclaim composition. The effect of striving to perfect accorded to him. Arutiunian holds titles stylistic preferences is to preserve the basic including Professor of Composition of the principles of composition. One of them is the Conservatoire of Yerevan, People’s Artist of concerto-style principle that develops both 1ashug: a Caucasian folk singer and poet. 4 CHAN 9566 Book.qxd 25/4/07 14:49 Page 5 Armenia and of the USSR, Laureate of the energy of motion and contrast, and finally, the State Prize of Armenia and the USSR, and the combination of the general logic of classical Orpheus Award (Kentucky, USA). forms with unexpected departures in the The Concertino for Piano and Orchestra shape of episodes of idyllic romanticism. (1951) is characteristic of the early work of From the thematic point of view, varying the Alexander Arutiunian. The composer’s choice motifs is the guiding principal throughout all of title (underlining the fact that the material three movements of the Concertino. has been simplified) is not accidental. Without The first movement, a sonata-allegro, is making the performer push virtuosity to the interpreted in the spirit of an elegant fore, the Concertino demands from the soloist humoresque. The expressive melodic material, inventiveness, tonal colouring and articulation. frequently derived from humorous Armenian Even in the semantic sense the music of the songs, is shaped by an economically handled Concertino is devoid of dramatic tension – orchestra. The brief replies and exchanges rather it veers towards lucid states, reflecting between the woodwind against the the harmony and the joy of the composer’s background of rapid harmonic changes in the world perception. Of course, this life-affirming strings frequently acquire the character of a spirit in music was typical of the Soviet school toccata. However, the basic impulses of this of composition in the post-war period. character derive from the solo keyboard part. However, Arutiunian avoided ‘bill board’ As distinct from the rhythms of the first optimism that was defined, to a large extent, movement, the second movement (Andante) by the lyrical character of his art. On the presents us with a strict chordal texture with strength of this, the style of the Concertino, gradually branching strains. The finale (Allegro although cultivated according to the models of vivace) serves to summarize the entire cycle. national tradition, was individualized. Using Here, the full palette of orchestral colours is the thematic, tonal, harmonic, and textural used for the first time, and with it the variety features of Armenian music during the 1940s which is inherent to the methods of giving and 1950s, Arutiunian, nevertheless polished orchestral life to the texture. those facets that were the idiomatic aspects of The Sinfonietta for string orchestra his musical language. These include constantly (dedicated to the Armenian Chamber altering the texture (orchestral and piano Orchestra) was written in 1966 whilst writing), the use of dance rhythms taken from Arutiunian was working on his opera Sayat- Armenian folk music in order to reinforce the Nova. Despite this, the music of these two 5 CHAN 9566 Book.qxd 25/4/07 14:49 Page 6 works differs radically in terms of material and most grand-scale movement in the Sinfonietta. stylistic orientation. The Sinfonietta can be The character of its development is slightly described as characteristic of Armenian music ‘symphonized’; this is assisted not only by the of the 1960s written in the neo-classical style, suitability of the material for development, but and being an organic reflection of Arutiunian’s also by the fact that the entire orchestra is individual position as a composer. Within brought into play. the terms of a string orchestra, the composer The Concerto for Violin and Orchestra creates various arrangements in the way ‘Armenia-88’ is dedicated to Ruben he sets out and develops his material, Agaronyan, the first exponent of Arutiunian’s and, as a rule, attributes great importance concerto in Armenia and in Europe. It was to the combinatorial analysis of the textural after the Spitak earthquake, although the layers. composer does not resort to illustrative The structure and the content of each of devices. The musical imagery impresses us by the four movements – Prelude; Arioso; the nobility of its grief, whilst its rhetorical Intermezzo pizzicato; Finale – and also the pathos is saturated in the symbolism of the treatment of the cycle as a whole associates it baroque. The Andante sostenuto sounds like with an early classical suite. The first the intrada of old music, where the dotted movement demonstrates the neo-classical rhythms of Armenian monody from the Middle frame of the work; the exposition of the Ages become the pivot in a baroque texture. A theme follows the concertante model. repetition of the same material played After the lively Prelude, in which can be accelerando in the finale gives the Concerto heard strains of Prokofiev, the second and the arc-like construction of art found in the third movements create two sides of the same pre-classical period. image – a device of cyclic dramatic art which The main component in the form of the is common in the works of Arutiunian. The first movement is the harmony. It is as if it Arioso-nocturne and the pizzicato-scherzo are focuses on Arutiunian’s characteristic duality of watercolour landscapes of the inner state of classical and romantic thinking. The classical the soul. The use of national melodies and features of the harmony are expressed in the syncopated rhythms in constructing the use of triads representing the tonality (the so- phrases give this landscape a purely Armenian called ‘harmonic tonality’). The colourfulness of expressiveness. the harmonic colours, the modal harmony of The Finale with its motor rhythms is the various structures, including chords 6 CHAN 9566 Book.qxd 25/4/07 14:49 Page 7 constructed on fourths, and also the functional of tension, harmonic surprises, and the emancipation of the harmony testify to the paradoxical abandoning of a model, stylistic neo-romantic qualities of the music. development which combines neo-classical The second movement (Allegretto) can be and neo-romantic features in an original way. classified as a toccata: pulsating quavers permeate all the orchestral strands. According © 1997 Svetlana Sarkisyan to folk music traditions, the thematic material of toccatas originates in men’s dances from Ilya Grubert first received international the East, where the dynamism is defined by acclaim when he won the Silver Medal at the the small movements of the feet. The dance Jean Sibelius Competition in Helsinki in 1975. projection does not hinder the enrichment of He then went on to receive the Grand Prize at the texture with a little chain of scales in the the International Paganini Compeition in folk spirit — a device of which the neo- Genoa, Italy.