Khachaturian: 7 Recitatives & Fugues & Children's Albums Nos. 1 & 2

Featuring

Charlene Farrugia
Aram Khachaturian

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Recording & Production

This recording was made possible through support from the BOV Joseph Calleja Foundation, which supports talented young artists from Malta and Gozo.

Performer Biography

Charlene Farrugia, the pianist on this album, made her concerto debut with the Malta Philharmonic Orchestra at age 13, becoming their youngest-ever soloist.

Historical Context

In Soviet education, music was considered a powerful tool, with over 4,800 schools in 1968 following the manifesto that music education should primarily educate a human being, not just a musician.

Composer Biography

Aram Khachaturian, an Eastern Armenian composer, came to classical music relatively late, at the age of 19, after being exposed to folk environments and new communist songs.

Composition History

Khachaturian's Recitatives and Fugues were composed as early as 1928-29, but he revised them in the late 1960s, viewing them with the eyes of a mature musician.

Interpretation

Pianist Charlene Farrugia discovered Aram Khachaturian's largely unknown Seven Recitatives and Fugues and recorded them to fill a gap in commercial recordings.

Composer's Artistic Vision

Khachaturian's unique style was forged by his desire to reconcile Western musical practice with Eastern idioms, drawing inspiration from Caucasian folk instruments.