Aram Khachaturian, the composer, was born in Tiflis (Tbilisi), the capital of Georgia, a city he remembered as full of songs and music.
Recording & Production
The Concert Rhapsody for Violin and Orchestra, completed in 1961, was premiered by its dedicatee Leonid Kogan in 1962, and a live recording of the Moscow premiere was released on LP by Melodiya.
Composer's Artistic Vision
Khachaturian's music is deeply rooted in Caucasian folk art, which nourished his linguistic lexicon and semiotic trove.
Compositional Technique
Khachaturian often reuses motifs and themes across his works, transferring them between different art forms like film scores and concert pieces.
Performer Biography
Daniel Raiskin, the conductor, grew up in St. Petersburg as the son of a prominent musicologist and studied violin and viola before taking up conducting.
Performer Biography
Antje Weithaas, the violinist on this recording, began playing at age four and has won prestigious competitions including the Kreisler, Bach, and Joseph Joachim Violin Competitions.
Composition History
Khachaturian's Violin Concerto features a melancholy cantilena that was originally used in the 1938 film Zangezur, a heroic film about partisans and revolutionaries.
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