Khachaturian! A great name, for a start, that I recall seeing written on the back of one of those compilation albums of classical music, owned by my parents. That album was actually a great introduction to the classics; it’s where I first heard The Flight of the Bumblebee, The Ride of the Valkyries, The Blue Danube, The Hall of the Mountain King, and, in the case of Khachaturian, the frenzied Sabre Dance.
Aram Khachaturian was born in 1903 in Tblisi, Georgia, of Armenian extraction (I think it was that patronymic suffix, –ian, common to Armenian surnames – such as Kardashian – that added a certain something). Following the Sovietization of the Caucasus in 1921, Khachaturian moved to Moscow, where he enrolled at the Gnessin Musical Institute and subsequently studied at the Moscow Conservatory. He wrote several significant concertos and symphonies, but he is best known for his ballets Gayane (from which comes the Sabre Dance) and Spartacus (from which comes the focus of this blog, the captivating Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia).
Spartacus follows the trials and tribulations of the famous gladiator-general, Spartacus, the leader of the slave uprising against the Romans in 73 BC (which actually happened, incidentally, and was exhaustively chronicled by Plutarch, but that – as I so often have to say – is another story!).
The Roman consul Crassus has returned to Rome from his latest conquests in a triumphal procession. Among his captives are the Thracian king Spartacus and his wife Phrygia. To entertain Crassus and his cronies, Spartacus is sent into the gladiatorial ring and is forced to kill a close friend. Horrified at his deed, Spartacus incites his fellow captives to rebellion, and ends up freeing the slave women, including Phrygia. The Adagio marks their celebration.
It open with a delicate syncopated rhythm from the strings, and a series of trills on the flute. A slow ascending scale is played by the cellos, and the oboe eases the music into the famous ‘love theme’ for the first time. It’s tremendous stuff and readers of a certain age will almost certainly remember its use as the theme music to the TV programme, The Onedin Line.
Below, I present a version of the ballet performed by Anna Nikulina and Mikhail Lobukhin of the Bolshoi Ballet. In addition, below that, I have chosen another version: a piano-only rendering of the music, and I include it because it is just too exquisite to omit. The pianist is Matthew Cameron, who, as well as being a virtuoso concert pianist, appears to be good-looking and, according to his website, collects antique historic swords, with a collection dating back to the 9th century. Hat tip!
