# Was Aram Khachaturian A Great 20th Century Composer?



## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

AK was a born melodist and a great 20th century (Soviet) composer following the traditions he inherited.

Quote Wikipedia: 
_Khachaturian's works span a broad range of musical types, including ballets, symphonies, concertos, and film scores. Music critic Edward Greenfield expresses the opinion that Khachaturian "notably outshone other Soviet contemporaries in creating a sharply identifiable style, something which his successors have found impossible to emulate". He composed a great portion of his works in a ten-year span between 1936 and 1946, preceding and following the Second World War. Despite his formal restoration after the 1948 denunciation, Khachaturian only succeeded in composing one internationally acclaimed work in the last 30 years of his life, the ballet_ Spartacus.

An example of a great work composed in the middle of the 20th century from 1950-54:


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Another example is the famous _Gayane_ Suite, composed during the late 1930's but revised in the 1950's for performances.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

I have a handful of CD's of his work (mainly symphonies, concertos and ballet suites). It is pleasant music, although not particularly interesting - nothing essential to my taste. I'm not culling CD's, but if I had to reduce my collection, they might go.

Was he great? Well, depends what you call great. He did have much of his work recorded, of which some pieces became classical music radio 'hits' (like the old music for the millions albums). If that is 'great' he was great. I'd rather keep that term myself for composers who made music that is essential to me (yes, that's a subjectivists' point of view, no need to have the 76th debate about that in this thread).


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## Skakner (Oct 8, 2020)

I don't listen to his works frequently. If the term "Great" applies to Shostakovich, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Strauss R. (and even Sibelius, Messiaen, Debussy, Ravel and a few others), Khachaturian doesn't belong to that league. I leave Mahler out because he was somewhat like a transition to 20th century music.
Anyway, Khachaturian was a good composer but by no means great.


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## Zhdanov (Feb 16, 2016)

ArtMusic said:


> AK was a born melodist and a great 20th century (Soviet) composer following the traditions he inherited.


yes, his Masquerade Suite puts him among the greats.











https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masquerade_(Khachaturian)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masquerade_(play)


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## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

He is among my favorites both for this better stuff, the wartime "Bell" symphony, Gayane and Spartacus, and for his noisier Third Symphony. His voice is unique, unmistakable. His mastery of melody is rarely discussed and he is clearly the greatest Armenian composer in history, being to that nation what Dvorak was to Czech-Slovak and Elgar to England.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

I personally would place him in company with Gliere and Glazunov at whatever level that might be. He shares a certain energy with Prokofiev, to be sure--the Piano Concerto being a great favorite of mine--but lacks the full package of gifts that Prokofiev brought to composition.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

He started his music studies so late that I've always wondered what he could have been had he started earlier. What he brought to us was beautiful, powerful and original music based on real folk song - the basis of all great music. He avoided mid-20th c modernisms and in doing so made his music agreeable to audiences generally wary of new trends. His masterpieces are first-rate: Gayane, Spartacus, Masquerade Suite, the violin concerto and perhaps the piano concerto. He was not a symphonist. Despite the guilty please of listening to the third on occasion, the first two are really pretty bad.


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## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

Khachaturian is in the shadow of Prokofiev and Shostakovich who are the twin towers of Soviet-era Russian music. Along with Dmitry Kabalevsky and Nikolai Myaskovsky, Khachaturian is tier two. Like his American counterpart and contemporary, Alan Hovhaness, Khachaturian does much to capture and incorporate the colorful musical textures of his ancestral Armenia. Even so, the majority of Khachaturian's works are not part and parcel of the standard repertoire even if selections from the _Gayne_, _Spartacus_, and _Masquerade_ suites can still be used to deliver the goods in a "pops" concert. While the _Piano Concerto_ which I once owned on a cassette in a recording by Leonard Pennario and Felix Slatkin never interested me, the _Symphony #2 "The Bells"_ that I still own on vinyl by Leopold Stokowski is fun to hear once in while, even if it is a huge, shaggy, mess of a symphony in one movement where Khachaturian throws in everything but the kitchen sink, and maybe even including the kitchen sink.

The finest work by Khachaturian is the _Violin Concerto_; and it can stand up to any _Violin Concerto_ of 20th century including the ones by Prokofiev and Shostakovich. The _Violin Concerto_ is full of Armenian flavor but such adornments also follow a musical vision that is well-measured and balanced. I like the recording of Khachaturian's _Violin Concerto_ that was made in the 1980s by Itzhak Perlman, Zubin Mehta, and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. The two most foremost names in the concert flute genre, Jean-Pierre Rampal and James Galway, each loved Khachaturian's _Violin Concerto_ enough to transcribe it for flute; hence the equally fine Khachaturian _Flute Concerto_. I mean, if someone as respected and as popular as James Galway is going to go to all the trouble to transcribe it, then it has to be pretty good. Right?


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Marginally great. I'd place Kabalevsky and Myaskovsky a step ahead.


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## BrahmsWasAGreatMelodist (Jan 13, 2019)

All of the above...


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## Heck148 (Oct 27, 2016)

I enjoy Khatchaturian's music....vigorous, flamboyant, colorful....with an attractive Middle Eastern flavor....I don't rank him with the 20th century Russian "greats" - Stravinsky, Shostakovich and Prokofieff, but he's definitely on the next tier...


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## DaveM (Jun 29, 2015)

Khatchaturian’s Violin Concerto played by David Oistrakh had a period of a moment in the sun (if memory serves, the work was written for him). As a kid, I listened to it frequently and it’s the only work of his I’m familiar with. Don’t really have any urge to return to it.


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## neofite (Feb 19, 2017)

I suggest an additional category called "Other" for future polls of this sort.

Aram Khachaturian had most of the characteristics of a great composer, although clearly not to the extent of the greatest of the previous two centuries: originality, excellent craftsmanship, variety, beauty, and popularity. By the standards of the first half of the 20th century he was among the best, like _some_ others, but not "like _many_ others." By the standards of the second half he was definitely a great composer.


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

I have a few recordings by him, but lately I find him too much a traditionalist. 

As someone above stated, he avoided mid-20th century modernisms, which to my ear, make him a bit too predictable.


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## elgar's ghost (Aug 8, 2010)

I enjoy Khachaturian's music very much. I can't understand why he of all people was namechecked in the '1948 Affair' - his music has always struck me as both accessible and colourful with no hint at all of either hidden agenda or overcomplication. Maybe that's why this unnecessary stain on his character was soon removed. How good was Khachaturian? It's probably unfair of me to measure him against Shostakovich or Prokofiev as his ambitions seemed more modest than theirs, but if he is to be deemed a composer of the second tier then he can't be too far away from the forefront of it.


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## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

Simon Moon said:


> I have a few recordings by him, but lately I find him too much a traditionalist.
> 
> As someone above stated, he avoided mid-20th century modernisms, which to my ear, make him a bit too predictable.


Lots of great 20th century composers worked more-or-less in a traditional and very tonal, and most were more popular than the movers and the shakers of the Modernist schools. In this regard, Shostakovich, Britten, and Barber were probably much more popular in their day than Schoenberg or Messiaen; and if you take out Stravinsky's Russian ballets, _Rite of Spring_, _Firebird_, and _Petroushka_; the remainder of Stravinsky's output seems to loom on the outskirts of the repertoire.

So I don't know what it is that makes Khachaturian not-so-great compared to Shostakovich, Britten, and Barber. Composing takes knowledge, skill, creativity, ambition, and hard work. A composer has to have something important to say that hasn't already been said by someone else. Maybe Khachaturian was a capable enough musician who didn't really have very much that he really wanted to say.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

Simon Moon said:


> I have a few recordings by him, but lately I find him too much a traditionalist.
> 
> As someone above stated, he avoided mid-20th century modernisms, which to my ear, make him a bit too predictable.


I fiind it's better to be predictable than irritating. Also, any piece of music becomes predictable when listened to frequently enough with full concentration.


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## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

elgars ghost said:


> I enjoy Khachaturian's music very much. I can't understand why he of all people was namechecked in the '1948 Affair' - his music has always struck me as both accessible and colourful with no hint at all of either hidden agenda or overcomplication. Maybe that's why this unnecessary stain on his character was soon removed. How good was Khachaturian? It's probably unfair of me to measure him against Shostakovich or Prokofiev as his ambitions seemed more modest than theirs, but if he is to be deemed a composer of the second tier then he can't be too far away from the forefront of it.


We can try again and again to figure out what was the method to Stalin's madness and the Soviet program of suppression and censorship that was foisted upon the composers of the USSR. In the final analysis I don't think it really had anything to do with "Formalism" or "Socialist Realism", whatever those terms are supposed to mean. I rather think that it's all part and parcel of living in a dictatorship; that people need to know who is boss; are told to tow the line even when they have to tow the line. It's a system that runs on fear and everyone has to take their turn being an enemy of the state just to test what they are willing to do prove their loyalty and become reinstated. And that way they also test your friends and colleagues to make sure that they've crushed their spirits, their willingness to stand up and help their friend, so that loyalty to the state is above all.


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## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

Besides the Sabre Dance from _Gayane_, Khachaturian became suddenly famous for the Piano Concerto in the West by its early performances during WWII when Soviet Russia was the ally against Hitler's Germany. Shortly after Moura Lympany premiered the concerto in Britain, Maro Ajemian (who also premiered Hovhaness' Piano Concerto #1, _Lousadzak_) first performed the work in 
the USA in 1942. But the concerto became, for a classical music piece, a smash hit when recorded by the young phenom William Kapell in 1946, who became closely (too closely, he felt, after a while) associated with it. Kapell's early death in a crash at age 31 in 1953 just added to the aura surrounding the concerto. I remember it as a Big Deal in my youth and it still delivers, for me, great pleasure.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Simon Moon said:


> I have a few recordings by him, but lately I find him too much a traditionalist.
> 
> As someone above stated, he avoided mid-20th century modernisms, which to my ear, make him a bit too predictable.


So he should have been an avant-garde composer then, to avoid being too predictable with his gifted melody?


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

larold said:


> He is among my favorites both for this better stuff, the wartime "Bell" symphony, Gayane and Spartacus, and for his noisier Third Symphony. His voice is unique, unmistakable. His mastery of melody is rarely discussed and he is clearly the greatest Armenian composer in history, being to that nation what Dvorak was to Czech-Slovak and Elgar to England.


I do think he is one of the most gifted melody writers of the 20th century. Why do you think his mastery of it is seldom discussed? The works posted above are marvelous, accessible 20th century music.


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## Simon Moon (Oct 10, 2013)

ArtMusic said:


> So he should have been an avant-garde composer then, to avoid being too predictable with his gifted melody?


Not saying that at all! Not sure how you got there.

I was doing nothing more than state that for _MY_ taste, he is too predictable.

I would never want someone to alter their art to fit my tastes. There are more than enough composers of the 20th and 21st century for pretty much every taste. When I find someone that doesn't fit my tastes, I move on.

I have more problems keeping up with all the great composers that already fit my tastes, that I don't have to get into composers that don't quite fit my taste.


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## ArtMusic (Jan 5, 2013)

Simon Moon said:


> Not saying that at all! Not sure how you got there.
> 
> I was doing nothing more than state that for _MY_ taste, he is too predictable.
> 
> ...


Thank you. That is all good.

AK wrote some good music and a few a well known today. I'm glad his music has helped to promote CM to the wider population of folks.


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## pianozach (May 21, 2018)

I used to play (and perform) his piano *Toccata*. It's killer: impressive, and fun to play.


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## Fabulin (Jun 10, 2019)

A 'Great' minor in volume. Does that make sense?


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## Pelleas (Mar 17, 2021)

Decades ago, I often listened to his ballet Spartacus but this major work of his did not withstand the erosion of time very well, largely because of its thematic repetitiveness to the point of redundancy. From my perspective, "great" Soviet composers had a lot to say in their music, producing a large number of symphonies and string quartets, writing large-scale operas, even drawing attention with creative instrumental music. A.K.'s opus leaves the listener with far less to explore, including major gaps in chamber music.


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## Dan Ante (May 4, 2016)

Coach G said:


> Khachaturian is in the shadow of Prokofiev and Shostakovich who are the twin towers of Soviet-era Russian music. Along with Dmitry Kabalevsky and Nikolai Myaskovsky, Khachaturian is tier two. Like his American counterpart and contemporary, Alan Hovhaness, Khachaturian does much to capture and incorporate the colorful musical textures of his ancestral Armenia. Even so, the majority of Khachaturian's works are not part and parcel of the standard repertoire even if selections from the _Gayne_, _Spartacus_, and _Masquerade_ suites can still be used to deliver the goods in a "pops" concert. While the _Piano Concerto_ which I once owned on a cassette in a recording by Leonard Pennario and Felix Slatkin never interested me, the _Symphony #2 "The Bells"_ that I still own on vinyl by Leopold Stokowski is fun to hear once in while, even if it is a huge, shaggy, mess of a symphony in one movement where Khachaturian throws in everything but the kitchen sink, and maybe even including the kitchen sink.
> 
> The finest work by Khachaturian is the _Violin Concerto_; and it can stand up to any _Violin Concerto_ of 20th century including the ones by Prokofiev and Shostakovich. The _Violin Concerto_ is full of Armenian flavor but such adornments also follow a musical vision that is well-measured and balanced. I like the recording of Khachaturian's _Violin Concerto_ that was made in the 1980s by Itzhak Perlman, Zubin Mehta, and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. The two most foremost names in the concert flute genre, Jean-Pierre Rampal and James Galway, each loved Khachaturian's _Violin Concerto_ enough to transcribe it for flute; hence the equally fine Khachaturian _Flute Concerto_. I mean, if someone as respected and as popular as James Galway is going to go to all the trouble to transcribe it, then it has to be pretty good. Right?
> 
> ...


I agree that his violin Concerto is a first rate work, I first heard it approximately 8 to 10 years ago


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## David Phillips (Jun 26, 2017)

He had the common touch: his Sabre Dance was a world-wide smash, and when the Adagio from Spartacus was used in a BBC TV adventure series, it made the UK Top Twenty in a version by the VPO conducted by the composer.


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## christomacin (Oct 21, 2017)

Khachaturian is a "great composer" in the same sense that Chabrier or Massenet or Offenbach is a "great composer". Classical music needs its Chabriers just as it needs its Beethovens. The world would be a pretty boring place if every composer was as serious as Beethoven or as light and frothy as Chabrier. At its best Khachaturian's music could be coruscating, brilliant and dance-like, even if it was never terribly profound... he did something memorable that no other composer has done... so yes, he is a great composer, albeit a decidedly lesser great composer. Let's not also forget that Khachaturian DID write this piece:


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## Emphyrio (Jan 5, 2021)

I have no doubts that Aram is a great composer and the most gifted melodist since Tchaikovsky, which is not a small accomplishment. Furthermore, even if his melodies have an Armenian flavor, they are in their vast majority original and not arranged from traditional tunes (the same way Sibelius's kalevala tunes sound traditional but are personal) 
I loved what he told to his students once: "I will always forgive a technical mistake (in composition) , but never a lack of inspiration. "
In conclusion, greatest soviet composers: 1st Shostakovich, 2nd Prokofiev, 3rd Khachaturian, 4th all the others.


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## Orfeo (Nov 14, 2013)

larold said:


> He is among my favorites both for this better stuff, the wartime "Bell" symphony, Gayane and Spartacus, and for his noisier Third Symphony. His voice is unique, unmistakable. His mastery of melody is rarely discussed and he is clearly the greatest Armenian composer in history, being to that nation what Dvorak was to Czech-Slovak and Elgar to England.


I agree with that assessment.


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## Red Terror (Dec 10, 2018)

Khachaturian was a good, capable composer. With a few exceptions, he was certainly better than the current group of hacks.


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## jkl (May 4, 2021)

I quite enjoy the Spartacus suite and a few other works. I must explore a little more.


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