Mvsy O6opuny KOHIJEPT . aaa @optenuaHo Cc opkecTpoM 1936COCTAB OPKECTPA ‘ORCHESTRA 2 Flauti (I=Piccolo) Tamburo 2 Oboi Pi 2 Clarinetti (B) Cassa Clarinetto basso (B) wee 2 Fagotti ane Flessatone * 4 Comi (F) 2 Trombe (B) 3 Tromboni Tuba - Contrabassi Timpani * aexcaton sonyexars K McnomMeHMe ToABKO np yerOsRH gpncramero, a we sneuautero rexOpa. — Mpunee. asropa. The Flessatone to be used only if it has a whistling and not ringing tone (Composer's note)EDITOR'S NOTE In Aram Khachaturyan’s extensive legacy con- certo occupies a prominent place along with symphony and ballet. This is what he wrote: “I am particularly fond of the colourful virtuosic style of music, with improvisation and free contest between a virtuoso soloist and symphony orchestra. That is why at one time I worked with such interest on three instrumental concertos —the ones for piano, for violin and for cello [written in the thirties’ and fortes — Ed} They, were dedicated to their first performers ‘Lev Oborin, David Oistrakh and Svyatoslay Knushevitsky.— A few years ago I decid- ed once more to write a triad of concertos, choosing this time the form of one-movement concerto-rhapso- dy and dedicating them to a new generation of virtuosos [the concerto-rhapsodies were written in the sixties— Ed]. As you know, the first two con- certos have already been performed and a third has just been finished”. ' In Volume Sixteen of Aram Khachaturyan’s Col- lected Works are published the two-piano scores of his Piano Concerto and Concerto-Rhapsody for Piano and Orchestra, and also Three Pieces (Suite) for two pianos. Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in D-flat Major was written in the autumn of 1936 when the com- poser was completing his post-graduate studies at the Moscow Conservatoire under the guidance of Nikolai Myaskovsky. The work was performed on the open-air stage at the Sokolniki Park in Moscow on July 12, 1937; it was repeated at the Large Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire on November 14, 1937, within the framework of the First Ten-Day Festival of Soviet Music. ‘And Tikhon Khrennikov expressed his apprecia- tion of it in the following words: “I regard Aram Ilyich's Piano Concerto as a kind of artistic program- me not merely for his own work bul for the whole of Soviet music”.* “I am at a loss to mention a pianist of any standing whose repertoire does not include Aram Khachaturyan’s concerto. It is beloved by pianists of the older generation as well as by the youth”, wrote Lev Oborin. “What is it about this music that has been captivating me for many years? It is its tem- pestuous temperament, originality and the dazzling virtuosity of both the ‘solo and the orchestra parts. I make bold to say that Aram Khachaturyan’s con- certo is one of the few modern works in this form that can trly be defined as ‘concerto’ and not merely iece for piano and orchestra. It is cast on a grand scale, is rich in vivid contrasts and affords room for a strenuous contest between the soloist and the ensemble"# rounded off his article the eminent Soviet Pianist. TRhachaturyan A, {About the Concertos’) in: Ar Ataqctarga Meter dnd Reminiscences, Moscow, 1980, * "Tighrenstkov, T,, “The Poet of Socialist Reality", Sooet- stoag Mung No.6 stp T Oborin.'L, “Congratulations to the Hero of the Day”, Sovetshaya Huzyba, No, 6, 196, p. 33. : While working on his Piano Concerto Aram Khachaturyan had a chance to show his sketches to Sergei Prokofiev who gave him some valuable advice, of which the younger composer spoke with gratitude in after years.* He consulted also the pianists A. Klumoy, a pupil of Heinrich Neuhaus, and, later, Lev Oborin. ‘Aram Khachaturyan’s Piano Concerto is a major work in three movements where exalted emotionality, the organic synthesis of Oriental monody and improvisatory principles of its development with European forms, genres and symphonic thinking found theit consummate expression for the first time. Its second movement provides a example of Khachaturyan’s approach to material. According to the composer, the main theme ‘of the Andante was evolved through “a drastic modi- fication of the tune of a light Oriental urban song [*Meh avara" — Ed.) very popular in its time, which Thad once heard in Tbilisi and which any inhabitant of the Transcaucasus knows very well. raphic folklore Allegretto By changing it radically, by considerably developing it | have come to my theme. Piano Orchestra wachaturyan, A. “A Few Thoughts shout Prokofiev" Probate,” AuoHography, “Alices, "Remon, eign Languages Publishing House, Moscow, Without date in: For pi