Khachaturian’s Exuberant Violin Concerto

Rafael Payare, conductor
Sergey Khachatryan, violin

KHACHATURIAN: Violin Concerto
BRUCKNER: Symphony No. 9 in D minor

Rafael Payare, violinist Sergey Khachatryan, and the Orchestra bring to the Jacobs Music Center stage two pieces rooted in a sense of vast mountainous landscapes.

The mid-20th century Soviet composer Khachaturian was deeply influenced by his roots in the high southern mountain range of the Caucasus. From his Armenian ancestors and from his childhood in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi he absorbed a huge love of the dazzling variety of wild folk dances of the region and the rich tradition of ancient exotic sounding folk melodies. Armenian violinist Sergey Khachatryan brings the abundantly catchy tunes and foot-tapping dance rhythms in this concerto to life.

Bruckner was also deeply shaped by the mountain landscape in which he grew up—the snow-covered Austrian Alps. He was a religious man and a brilliant organist. Bruckner’s symphonies abound in beautiful melodies that fill the hall with echoes of nature, saturated with the sounds of ancient hymns and pealing cathedral bells. Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9 was his last, and it builds astonishingly on the colossal achievements of its predecessors. If anything, it is even grander, even more gorgeous, even more splendiferously orchestral than all the other eight.