Trumpet Concerto
Alexander Arutunian (1920-2012)
Andante – Allegro energico; Meno mosso; Tempo I; Meno mosso; Tempo I - (Cadenza) Coda
The Armenian alphabet emerged in 405 A.D. With additions over the years, it now boasts 38 letters, lying uneasily alongside the 26-letter Latin alphabet when it comes to transliteration. It is no surprise that Alexander Arutunian’s surname can be spelled in at least six ways. He died recently at the age of 91, having won many honours in his native Armenia and its better-known neighbour, Russia. Indeed, he was regarded as a musical hero in Soviet days, winning the ‘State Stalin Prize’ in 1948. Something of a polymath, Arutunian was an author, an actor and a concert pianist besides being a composer. He held top positions in national academies, and his musical legacy is still highly regarded by compatriots. An extensive catalogue includes many works for wind instruments and numerous film scores. In the West, and particularly in the USA, his claim to fame rests almost solely upon this concerto.
Comprising three linked movements, the work has an attractive quasi-oriental character, not quite major or minor in mode, and not quite regular rhythmically. Most of the music is catchy in two senses: the melodies and motifs have a strong adhesive quality. Once heard they are easily recognised when they recur. It’s also catchy because it catches you out! You start tapping your foot and the beat changes just as you are getting the feel of it. The first movement is built on one of these tunes after a dramatic and arresting opening statement from the soloist. A slower interlude, deriving from a plaintive clarinet solo, is taken up by the trumpet and thereafter the two contrasting musical ideas are cunningly interwoven. An impassioned tutti over an insistent pedal note heralds the haunting slow movement in which the solo trumpet is muted throughout. The style is folksy and a bit smoochy as well. The linked finale uses the musical material from the first movement, soon followed by a spectacular cadenza for the soloist with a triumphant orchestral flourish to finish.
Trumpeters love this concerto for various reasons, above all for its ‘trumpetiness’. The best concertos are so closely identified with their solo instrument, it is difficult to imagine them being played on any other. Think of the Clarinet Concerto by W.A. Mozart or the Violin Concerto by Johannes Brahms. Arutunian’s Trumpet Concerto is comparable in that it exploits the facility and timbre of the trumpet so convincingly. We hear hints of fanfares, of jazz, of seamy night-clubs and we witness virtuosic moments that are entirely appropriate within the overall character of the work.
Alexander Arutunian (1920-2012)
Andante – Allegro energico; Meno mosso; Tempo I; Meno mosso; Tempo I - (Cadenza) Coda
The Armenian alphabet emerged in 405 A.D. With additions over the years, it now boasts 38 letters, lying uneasily alongside the 26-letter Latin alphabet when it comes to transliteration. It is no surprise that Alexander Arutunian’s surname can be spelled in at least six ways. He died recently at the age of 91, having won many honours in his native Armenia and its better-known neighbour, Russia. Indeed, he was regarded as a musical hero in Soviet days, winning the ‘State Stalin Prize’ in 1948. Something of a polymath, Arutunian was an author, an actor and a concert pianist besides being a composer. He held top positions in national academies, and his musical legacy is still highly regarded by compatriots. An extensive catalogue includes many works for wind instruments and numerous film scores. In the West, and particularly in the USA, his claim to fame rests almost solely upon this concerto.
Comprising three linked movements, the work has an attractive quasi-oriental character, not quite major or minor in mode, and not quite regular rhythmically. Most of the music is catchy in two senses: the melodies and motifs have a strong adhesive quality. Once heard they are easily recognised when they recur. It’s also catchy because it catches you out! You start tapping your foot and the beat changes just as you are getting the feel of it. The first movement is built on one of these tunes after a dramatic and arresting opening statement from the soloist. A slower interlude, deriving from a plaintive clarinet solo, is taken up by the trumpet and thereafter the two contrasting musical ideas are cunningly interwoven. An impassioned tutti over an insistent pedal note heralds the haunting slow movement in which the solo trumpet is muted throughout. The style is folksy and a bit smoochy as well. The linked finale uses the musical material from the first movement, soon followed by a spectacular cadenza for the soloist with a triumphant orchestral flourish to finish.
Trumpeters love this concerto for various reasons, above all for its ‘trumpetiness’. The best concertos are so closely identified with their solo instrument, it is difficult to imagine them being played on any other. Think of the Clarinet Concerto by W.A. Mozart or the Violin Concerto by Johannes Brahms. Arutunian’s Trumpet Concerto is comparable in that it exploits the facility and timbre of the trumpet so convincingly. We hear hints of fanfares, of jazz, of seamy night-clubs and we witness virtuosic moments that are entirely appropriate within the overall character of the work.