Igor Ruhadze - Babajanian Violin Sonata, Piano Trio (2025) [Official Digital Download]

A portrait of the Soviet-era Armenian composer Arno Babajanian through a trio of his most significant chamber works.
The Russian piano-trio repertoire is dominated by Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff and Shostakovich. Yet anyone encountering Babajanian’s Trio in F sharp minor will be struck by its central place within that tradition. The melodies are opulent, the expression direct and intense, the style essentially post-Romantic yet recognisably of its postwar era. Babajanian was 31 when he composed it in 1951, having by then won recognition as the most accomplished of Armenian composers in the generation following his compatriot Aram Khachaturian. Indeed, it was Khachaturian who had recognised Babajanian’s creative promise at a very early age and smoothed the path for his admission to the conservatoire in Yerevan at the tender age of seven.
Thereafter, Babajanian studied in Moscow with star teachers such as the pianist Konstantin Igumnov and the composer Vissarion Shebalin. Well-received premieres during the 1940s led to the first performance of the Violin Concerto in 1949, given by Leonid Kogan, the Leningrad Philharmonic and Yeygeny Mravinsky.
At the same time, Babajanian did not fit a pre-conceived mould of a ‘Soviet composer’. Shostakovich recognised and admired this independence of mind, and proved instrumental in the wider acceptance of the Violin Sonata which Babajanian wrote in 1958. By then, Babajanian had embraced modernist principles including 12-tone writing within an idiom always accented by the folk music of his Armenian heritage. Though the Sonata was initially vilified for its ‘formalist’ style, Shostakovich advised the composer not to alter it, and accepted the dedication of the score to him.

TRACKLIST

1. Igor Ruhadze, Jeroen den Herder, Vital Stahievitch - Babajanian: Sonata for Violin and Piano in B-Flat Minor: I. Grave - Allegro Energico - Andante
2. Igor Ruhadze, Jeroen den Herder, Vital Stahievitch - Babajanian: Sonata for Violin and Piano in B-Flat Minor: II. Andante Sostenuto - Presto
3. Igor Ruhadze, Jeroen den Herder, Vital Stahievitch - Babajanian: Sonata for Violin and Piano in B-Flat Minor: III. Allegro Risoluto - Largo - Andante Sostenuto
4. Igor Ruhadze, Jeroen den Herder, Vital Stahievitch - Babajanian: Elegy for Piano Solo
5. Igor Ruhadze, Jeroen den Herder, Vital Stahievitch - Babajanian: Piano Trio in F-Sharp Minor: I. Largo - Allegro Moderato
6. Igor Ruhadze, Jeroen den Herder, Vital Stahievitch - Babajanian: Piano Trio in F-Sharp Minor: II. Andante
7. Igor Ruhadze, Jeroen den Herder, Vital Stahievitch - Babajanian: Piano Trio in F-Sharp Minor: III. Allegro Vivace



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