Khachaturian: Spartacus

When Khachaturian died in 1978, at the age of 74, he was ranked with Prokofiev and Shostakovich as the leading composers of their generation in Soviet Russia. A professor at the Moscow Conservatory, and a People's Artist of the USSR, Khachaturian held the Order of Lenin from 1939 and later won both a Stalin Prize and a Lenin Prize for his music.

Although his music was never without a popular folk-style basis, and although it demonstrated an expressive commitment to the tenets of 'socialist realism', Khachaturian (like Prokofiev, who was 12 years older, and Shostakovich. 3 years younger) - was targeted for for censure during the Soviet cultural purges of the 1940s,

The son of an Armenian bookbinder, Aram llyich Khachaturian was born in the Georgian capital of Tiflis (now Tbilisi) on 6 June 1903, . He was 19 years old before he started any serious study of music - first entering the Gnesin School in Moscow and then the Conservatory, where he studied with Miaskovsky.

He graduated in 1934, and within 2 years had already gained an international reputation with his Piano Concerto. His Violin Concerto was premiered by David Oistrakh in 1940, and he wrote three symphonies,- but it was as a composer of film and theatre music, including 2 ballets that he was most widely successful.

In Khachaturian's own words:

I grew up in an atmosphere rich in folk music - 'festivities, rituals, joyful and tragic events in the life of the people, always accompanied by music. The vivid tunes of Armenian, Azerbaijan and Georgian songs and dances, performed by folk- singers and itinerant musicians, were the impressions that became engraved on my memory and determined my musical thinking . . . The original substance of these impressions, formed in an early childhood in close communion with the people, has always remained the natural soil nourishing my work.'

The art of dance should 'embody high humanistic ideals and themes of social significance', reflecting 'the life and struggle of nations, and the spiritual suffering of the human soul'.

Spartacus

The ballet takes its subject from the historical revolt of slaves captured by the Romans. In 73 BCE, under the leaderhip of Spartacus, a Thracian
warrior, the captives seized Mount Vesuvius as a stronghold.

Two years later the revolt was finally and cruelly put down two years later by Licinius Crassus and Pompey. Some 6000 surviving rebels were crucified along the Appian Way - Spartacus being the last to die.

A scenario for the ballet was first sketched as far back as 1933 by Nikolai Volkov for lgor Moiseyev, who was then choreographer at Moscow's Bolshoy Theatre - but no ballet was produced until 1956, when Leonid Jacobsen staged it on the same scenario for the Kirov Ballet at Leningrad. It was for this that K haturian first composed his four-act score, but it had little success in the theatre, as did Moiseyev's production for the Bolshoi Ballet in 1958.

A second Jacobsen version for the Bolshoi company n 1962 (also seen in New York) found even less favour. The definitive version of Spartacus as a ballet was choreographed in 1968 by the Bolshoi Ballet director. Yuri Grigorovich. and first performed that year. It discarded the Volkov scenario in favour of a new narrative sequence, and had Khachaturian's collaboration in revising the music, shortening the ballet from four acts to three.

In this form it was an immediate success in Moscow and again in London, when the Bolshoy Ballet brought it to Covent Garden in 1969, the first time it had been seen outside the USSR.

Khachatunan compiled more than one concert suite from the music, and the certain excerpts have become very will popular all over the world.

Variation of Aegina - Final Bacchanalian Scene

At a feast and orgy in the home of Crassus. the Roman commander, the beautiful and ambitious Aegina, eager to advance her favour with Crassus, dances a flamboyant solo (a quick waltz tempo). Its theme is transformed into the start of a Bacchanalian revel in which all the guests take part.

Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia.

The principal love of the ballet takes place between Spartacus and his wife, after they have been separated as slaves and reunited in rebellion. The romantically eloquent music, expressive of tenderness and passion, has achieved widespread independent popularity as the title music for The Onedin Line , .a 1970s television serial

Scene and Dance.

Originally composed for the confrontation between Spartacus and a fellow-slave, who are compelled to fight to the death as gladiators for the entertainment of the Romans.

Dance of the Gaditanian Maidens - Victory of Spartacus.

Crassus is being entertained by dancers. Spartacus, having killed his friend, determines on rebellion against the Roman tyrants. He incites the other gladiators and slaves to support him - and the rebels attack Crassius in his home.