Music of the Caucasus [Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia etc.]

[Jim Faston]

...and the third. Apologies for the file being giant (if somebody wants to fix this, please do...):

Vasif ADIGEZALOV
Piano Concerto no. 3 (1990)

http://www.mediafire.com/view/?m33aa8j77rgfth9

I've reworked the file a bit--I hope the resolution is acceptable:

Adigezalov_Piano Concerto No3.pdf

[Jim Faston]

Here are a couple of scans of Arno Babajanyan's piano music.

First, I finally located a scan of the Reflection that I had been seeking--not the greatest quality, but semi-readable. It obviously (per the pagination) came from a collection--perhaps someone can identify same. (Not even a plate number!)

Babajanian_Reflection.pdf

Second, a collection of most of his other solo piano music that I scanned a few years ago. Alfor posted a similar volume (an older publication which does not include a few pieces presented here) a while back.
Arno Babajanyan - Works for Piano
1) Prelude
2) Melody
3) Humoresque
4) Impromptu
5) Vagharshapati Dance
6) Capriccio
7) Poem
8) Six Paintings
1. Improvisation
2. Folk Song
3. Toccatina
4. Intermezzo
5. Choral
6. Sassunkian Dance
9) Elegy (In Memory of Khachaturian)

Babajanian_Works for Piano.pdf

I believe that these two files, along with Alfor's upload of the Polyphonic Sonata comprise all of AB's solo piano music. If you know of any other pieces please advise.

Recordings of all of these (and more of AB's works) are available here:
http://babadzanyan.narod.ru/instr.htm

[zeniyama]

Thank you for all this Babajanian! He's one of my favourite composers.

[caostotale]

I don't know much about this composer, though his works have a very cosmopolitan quality. In addition to writing and performing a great deal of jazz music, he's also composed an 'American' trio for strings and a 'French' piano quintet that reminds me a lot of the jazz-inspired works by Tansman and Gershwin (this can be heard at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnED_sSApac ).

Stepan Grigorevich SHAKARYAN (SHAKARIAN)
Piano Sonata no. 1 (1964)

Shakarian - Piano Sonata no. 1 (1964).pdf

[Richard0428]

Thanks heaps for all this Babajanian! I only knew the lovely Elegie before, and this collection has really opened my eyes to some amazing music. I've long been at a loss to understood why Khachaturian (no disrespect meant!) has been considered Armenia's national composer. Sure Spartacus and Gayane both contain some wonderful music, and the piano and violin concertos are fun with some memorable material, but he's a composer of such limited breadth, and the piano music (apart from the attractive Two Pieces perhaps) is often just plain embarrassing. The Piano Sonata in my view is the worst offender - an outrageously prolix (25 minutes!) piece of dosh; shame, because it might have worked OK if it was cut by about two-thirds.
Babajinian's piano music, on the other hand has some extraordinary finds. Babajinian's 'serious' music seems to divide strikingly into two quite different styles - the Armenian folk-inspired works like the lovely Elegie, the Prelude and the Melody, and the strikingly brittle, chromatic, often percussive works like the Six Pictures and the Poem. The last work is an instant classic in my view - with a haunting, poetic opening giving way to a breathtaking presto moto perpetuo which sounds horrendously difficult to play but actually lays extremely well under the fingers. This piece should surely be a staple in the pianist's repertoire like Khachaturian's over-played Toccata!
Almost the complete piano music of both Khachaturian and Babajinian is up on YouTube, by the way, and comparing their output is am eye-opening experience. Thanks Jim and Alfor for the opportunity to discover more of an amazingly effective composer of whom I knew little until yesterday!

[Jim Faston]

Thanks for the kind words on the Babajanian--music with a soul.

[Timtin]

I read the above comparison between Khachaturian and Babajanian with
a great deal of interest. However, I do feel that it was a bit harsh on poor
old Aram! The comparison seemed to be based to some extent on their
respective piano writings, rather than on their entire outputs.

Although I've never heard any of Babajanian's orchestral works, the three
symphonies of Khachaturian are all the work of a masterful composer,
and one who, at the end of the day, must have deserved his place at
the high table of Soviet music alongside Prokofiev and Shostakovich,
all things considered.

[Richard0428]

You may be right Timtim! I've also only heard Babajinian's piano music so far, so I'll happily change my mind if I discover a Khachaturian masterpiece that I've never heard. Unfortunately, nice as some of it is, none of his music that I've heard (the piano music, the three symphonies, two of the concertos (piano and violin), the ballet and incidental music), strikes me as more than attractive. Khachaturian's first two symphonies have some very nice music in them (although are they fit to be placed alongside Prokofiev and Shostakovich? Personally I don't think they come close to the best of those two masters' symphonic works). Khachaturian's Third Symphony is really not my cup of tea at all: in my humble opinion it should never have seen the light of day in the wider world. I suppose it's the kind of piece you either love or detest; for me it's a worthless piece of inflated, pretentious, ugly note-spinning (a bit like the piano sonata, then!), and I find myself wondering more and more that Khachaturian was perhaps sometimes a rather poor judge of musical quality. This is of course just a personal opinion; I'd love to hear others!

[Timtin]

Perhaps Khachaturian's trump card was his ability to write more
memorable melodies (Khachy tunes?!), although in comparison to
Prokofiev (the greatest of the 3 Soviet Titans imo) and Shostakovich,
I reckon Khachaturian was definitely the weakest.

[caostotale]

In light of the countless musical discoveries that have shown up recent years, I find myself hoping that the whole 'Soviet titans' dialogue would just fade down and that people would spend more time digging into composers like Lyatoshinsky, Vainberg, Abeliovich, and others who were composing bold and fantastic music that just happened to not became as heavily known to the West during their lifetimes. The same might be said for the music from the Caucasus countries, and to be honest, what small amount of music I've heard from composers like Adigezalov (through old LP recordings and that new Naxos disc of Azerbaijani works) and Amirov is pretty much in exactly the same league as Khachaturian. This is not to say that Khachaturian is lacking as a composer in any way, just that the classical music establishment has, by the mechanisms and vicissitudes of a very jaunty history, put him in a historical position of being 'required listening.' I feel like the same thing has been happening with Avro Part vis-a-vis the Baltic states and Henryk Gorecki vis-a-vis Poland, two post-communist composers whose successes only tell me that the key to penetrating the Western market is to make people feel like they are at the movies.