Extracts from Symphony No. 3
Aram Ilich Khachaturian (1903 – 1978) started his career playing the tuba, before turning to the ‘cello and later to composition. Inspired by Miaskowsky and Tchaikovsky, he produced music of a nationalist flavour which earned him the coveted Stalin Prize three times, and the Order of Lenin in 1939. In 1948, with Prokofiev and Shostakovich, he was hauled up before the Central Committee of the Communist Party for writing the wrong sort of music and accused of ‘decadent formalism’. The music for which he is most famous came later in the form of his ballet, Spartacus (used as the theme for the 1970’s BBC drama, The Onedin Line).
This ‘tour de force’ arrangement, using extracts from Khachaturian’s 3rd Symphony is full of powerful and stirring music, demonstrating why the composer was one of the Soviet Union’s most eminent musical representatives.
As recorded by Eikanger-Bjorsvik Musikklag on CD 21966 Best by Farr.