Aram Khachaturian Cello Concerto in E minor

 

Aram Khachaturian

 

 

Cello Concerto in E minor

Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra, conductor Vladimir Fedoseyev,
Denis Shapovalov, cello. Moscow Conservatory Great Hall, 2003

Aram Khachaturian wrote his Cello Concerto in E minor in 1946 for Sviatoslav Knushevitsky. It was the last of the three concertos he wrote for the individual members of a renowned Soviet piano trio that performed together from 1941 until 1963. The others were: the Piano Concerto for Lev Oborin (1936); and the Violin Concerto for David Oistrakh (1940).

 

Although the last written of the three, the Cello Concerto was the first one Khachaturian had considered writing, when he was a cello student at the Gnessin Institute.^[1]

 

The work was premiered on 30 October 1946^[2][3] (or November 1946^[4]), in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, with the dedicatee Sviatoslav Knushevitsky as soloist. The conductor was Aleksandr Gauk.^[5]

The Cello Concerto is the least known of the three concertos,^[6][7] and has not entered the core repertoire of cellists in the way the other two have for pianists and violinists. It has received relatively few recordings.^[8]

 

The work is said to echo Khachaturian's painful experiences of war-time.^[4] It contains many allusions to folk material and dance rhythms such as the ashoug.^[1] It has been described as more of a symphony with

cello than a cello concerto.

 

The three movements are:

• 1. Allegro moderato
• 2. Andante sostenuto - attaca
• 3. Allegro (a battuta).^[9]

The opening movement contains sections of a brooding quality, and even quotes the Dies Irae.^[6] It is rhapsodic and changeable in its moods.^[7] It contains a lengthy cadenza but has little by way of thematic development.^[10]

The central Andante has been described as 'introspective and melancholy',^[6] 'nocturnal and seductive',^[10] 'dramatic and stern',^[8] and 'menacing, oriental and melismatic'.^[5]

The third movement is full of bustle and tension.^[7] However, its energy level decreases until just near the end, when it concludes with a fast coda.^[8]

The work was one of the reasons Khachaturian was ousted from the Composers Union,^[7] and he and other Soviet composers were denounced for formalism in the Zhdanov Decree of 1948.^[6]