Aram Khachaturian: Symphony No. 3 Symphony-Poem (1947)

Russian National Orchestra
Conductor Mikhail Pletnev.
22 April 2017, Great Hall of the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory

[@georgtrakl8319]

Браво Плетнёву, это удивительное сочинение заблистало вновь всеми своими красотами.

[@paulusrex321]

Good lord, wonderful work, it's a shame it's hardly ever recorded.

[@raulescobar4496]

Ein wunderschönes Werk, Kachaturian wurde eine unglaubliche Mischung zwischen Symphonie, Simphonische Dichtung und ein Alte Kirchenmusik Stil.

[@grigorgrigor7363]

Fantastic

[@sergeip2002]

Я был на этом концерте. Было потрясающе

[@claudiachartres4454]

Simplesmente fantástica. Uma viagem vigorosa e triunfante. Bravo 👏👏.👏👏.👏👏.

[@AbdulazizShabakouh]

Incredible and impeccable!

[@thejerbil555]

I wore my Stokowski LP recording of this out in 1968. Bought a new copy in 2001. A great lush and typically Khatchaturian work. Pletnev does well.

[@mendax1773]

Strange, I played my Stokowski LP a lot too but it didn't wear out! But I didn't buy it in 1968 but in the early 1980's. Anyway, I dubbed it, cleaned up the pops and crackle, and it sounds great in my MP3 collection today. BTW, I found the Stokowski version on CD on Amazon last year. Didn't buy it thought because my LP dub is perfectly good and mostly clean.

[@mendax1773]

I've always loved the solo organ part of this piece. It's the reason why I bought the Stokowski LP when I first heard it on the radio well over 40 years ago. It's something right out of a haunted house! Utterly fascinating. And I like this performance. It's quite exciting but at least one of the trumpets was rather out of tune near the end and there are trumpet flubs all over the place, a real bummer! I'm wondering where the orchestra dredged up the extra trumpet players.

[@enriquemartincabrera6116]

Awsome performance

[@user-uk3fp7vz5v]

Japan Philharmonic performed at Suntory Hall under the direction of Pletnev a couple of years ago. The Japanese music media that doesn't report such a big performance is a waste.

[@CodexSan]

hah yes... Soviets killed a lot of Nippon-Nazis listening to this. a majestic work to lift the spirits in such dark times.

[@ClassicalRaritiesChannel]

Спасибо!

[@deleted_why]

This piece got Aram Katchaturian denounced as not Russian enough, not accessible to the people. Stalin walked out on it's first performance, presumably before the 7 minute mark! Later, he was reinstated... (presumably after Stalin heard the rest of the piece?)

[@michaelfischer5800]

Not russian enough? What else? Typical mexican? Swiss?

[@mendax1773]

Well, this is not a very Russian piece. After all, Khachaturian was from Armenia and was Armenian to his core.

[@deleted_why]

@@mendax1773 you are absolutely and historically correct… so I guess we agree that Stalin was rather foolish to denounce someone who was not a Russian, for having written something that was not Russian!

[@deleted_why]

More importantly… it is a spectacular piece of music… giving a pipe organ such a brilliant secular voice! I am pleased I was introduced to it at a young age!

[@dougmiles7124]

Compare the list of Stalin Prize winners until 1948 with the list of denounced composers.

[@Queeen7q]

Коллеги тогда раскритиковали эту симфонию: мол, Хачатурян "выбрал грандиозные оркестровые средства не по своему таланту"...

[@user-kh8tf1dp2q]

Завистники просто)

[@Armando1735]

Hino comunista em homenagem a URSS escrita em 1.947

[@r.i.p.volodya]

A very difficult score to pull off as it can simply come across as 'fortissimo for ever'; twenty mins of hammering the same two tunes ad nauseam.

[@dennisschwartzentruber3204]

At least Russia has a great classical music tradition ; you can't take that away !

[@radioeye1]

It's an Armenian composer!

[@michaelfischer5800]

Measured by the extraordinary wealth of his wonderful second, this is a rather poor symphonie.

[@mendax1773]

Actually, I'm rather partial to his First! Of the three, I think it's the best. Usually it's the other way around.

[@kalado153]

Legaliza 🌞🌿

[@jgesselberty]

A curiosity, at best. Some interesting ideas, but some works are best left in the drawer.

[@DavidMannMD]

I’d hate to be that poor organist.

[@mariaamaral9637]

Занимайтесь! Занимайтесь! And you'll can be a great organist.

[@libelle176]

Shostakovich never, never went as low and shallow as this.

[@peterwhyte-zl1kv]

If you know nothing, say nothing. It may not be noticed.

[@libelle176]

Well,the piece is absolute trash....Incredibly empty,bombastic,,banal .But the performance is fabulous.

[@mendax1773]

There is just trash... and there is wonderful trash... and this piece is of the latter variety. Khachaturian wanted to write a bombastic piece and that's what you have. But sure is exciting! And keep in mind that Shostakovich, who was a far better composer, also wrote a lot of patriotic, propagandistic garbage in his time.

[@user-td4yx7dp1d]

​@@mendax1773learn Armenian history and you will understand this music. And will never call it "propagandistic trash"

[@mendax1773]

@@user-td4yx7dp1d Khachaturian intended the piece to have a political meaning within the context of the Soviet Union's history, not the long history of Armenia or the Armenian people. That it wasn't perceived as being political, "non-formalist" music by Zhdanov, Khrennikov, and their cronies which is a factor is why he got caught up in the "formalist" composers' purge in 1948 doesn't change my opinion of the work. Don't get me wrong. I like it... a lot. In fact, it's one of my favorite pieces and I have Stokowski's Chicago Symphony performance on my phone so I can listen to it in my car. But as a piece of music it remains Soviet propagandist trash and I feel no reading of Armenian history will change my view on that.

[@user-td4yx7dp1d]

@@mendax1773 That's not the case. The symphony is about the protest of Armenian soul against violence and occupation, that's why this music was denounced by Stalin as "anti-soviet", along with the pieces of Shostakovich and Prokofiev, and all 3 composers were punished by exile and oblivion.