also known as Arutunian, Arutyunyan, Arutjunjan, Harutyunian or Harutiunian
(Yerevan 23 September 1920 - 28 March 2012)
He was a Soviet and Armenian pianist known for his 1950 Trumpet Concerto. A professor at the Yerevan State Conservatory, he was awarded numerous awards for his work, including the Stalin Prize in 1949 and the People's Artist of USSR in 1970, as well as numerous awards from his homeland, Armenia.
Arutiunian was born in Yerevan, First Republic of Armenia, into the family of Grigor and Eleonora Arutiunian. His father was a military man. In 1927, Arutiunian became a member of the children's group of the Yerevan State Conservatory, then, at the age of 14, he was admitted to the Conservatory in the studios of Olga Babasyan (piano) and Sergei Barkhudaryan and Vardges Talyan (composition). He graduated from the Yerevan Music Conservatory on the eve of the Second World War. After the war, he moved to Moscow, where between 1946 and 1948, he participated in the workshops of the House of Armenian Culture, studying composition with Genrikh Litinsky. After graduation, he returned to Yerevan to teach at the local Conservatory, and in 1954 he was appointed artistic director of the Armenian State Philharmonic. He was also a member of the Council of the Union of Soviet Composers, as well as the Union of Composers of the Armenian SSR.
In 1949, Arutiunian composed the "Festive Overture" which was first performed in the Great Hall of the Leningrad Philharmonic in November 1949, with Yevgeny Mravinsky conducting. Other works of this type include The Tale of Armenian People (1960), Ode to Lenin (1967), and Hymn to the Brotherhood (1970).
Some of Arutiunian's works for wind instruments include his 1950 Trumpet Concerto, tuba concerto, and brass quintet Armenian Scenes. In 1988, inspired by the Spitak earthquake, Arutiunian composed his Concerto for Violin and String Orchestra, Armenia-88 (dedicated to Ruben Aharonyan). The first took place in Yerevan in 1989.
In 1950, Arutiunian married Irina (Tamara) Odenova. Their marriage produced two children, a daughter, Narine (born 1951), a pianist and lawyer; and a son, Suren (born 1953), an artist-designer. His extended family includes three nieces and one nephew. He died at the age of 91 in his hometown of Yerevan. Arutiunian is buried at the Komitas Pantheon which is located in the city center of Yerevan.
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Trumpet Concerto in A flat major (1950)
Andante—Allegro energico
Less choppy
Time I
Less choppy
Tempo I – (Cadence) Coda
The melodic and rhythmic characteristics of Armenian folk music have a strong influence in Arutiunian's work. As a composer, he expressed his nationality by incorporating the flavor of ashughner (folk minstrel) improvisations. At the time of writing the concert, his compositional style was similar to that of Khachaturian. However, in the 1960s he tended towards classic shapes and lighter shades.
Arutiunian's Trumpet Concerto was his sixth major composition, written in 1950. Arutiunian originally intended to write it in 1943 for Tabakov's student, Zsolak Vartasarian, who was the principal trumpet of the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra. However, Vartasarian died during the war and the concert was not completed until 1950, so Aykaz Messlayan was the first performer of the concert and Timofei Dokschitzer was the first to record this concert.
The concerto's introduction to the United States was solely due to Dokschitzer, a prominent Soviet Russian trumpeter.
