Arno
Babajanian was one of the most important composers of Soviet Armenia,
but also was very well-known in the Soviet Union, especially as a
brilliant pianist.
He
was born in Yerevan on January 22, 1921. His childhood friend, composer
Alexander Harutiunian, recalled that at the age of five or six, the
future musician attempted to play the old piano of the kindergarten.
Babajanian himself used to tell about his first meeting with Aram
Khachatourian: “When I was a kindergartener, a man once visited us and
asked us to sing to get to know who had music ear among us. I was
singing and kicking the floor at the same time. Listening to me, that
man said that I should be engaged in music. In the future, I would learn
that he was Aram Khachatourian.”
Afterwards,
in 1929 Babajanian entered the musical school attached to the
Conservatory of Yerevan (now called after Gomidas). In 1930 he wrote his
first composition, the “March of the Pioneers,” which poet Yeghishe
Charents helped publish. In 1947 he graduated from the Gomidas State
Conservatory and the next year he also graduated from the class of piano
of the Tchaikovsky State Conservatory of Moscow. Meanwhile, from
1946-1948 he perfected his studies at the studio attached to the House
of Culture of Armenia in Moscow. He became a remarkable pianist, who was
famous for the interpretations of his own works. Returning to Armenia,
Babajanian taught at the Gomidas State Conservatory from 1950 to 1956.
Afterwards, he settled in Moscow, where he would live and work until the
end of his life.
His
natural talent and his vivid musical images turned him into a
well-known representative of Soviet music. Babajanian’s style in his
formative years was influenced by Aram Khachaturian and Sergei
Rachmaninoff, as reflected in his early compositions, the concerts for
piano (1944) and violin with orchestra (1949). His monumental “Heroic
Ballad” for piano and orchestra (1950) earned him the State Prize of the
Soviet Union in 1951, when he was just thirty, showing the main lines
of his creative personality along his trio for piano (1952). In 1950 he
composed with A. Harutiunian the widely popular “Armenian
Rhapsody.” Dramatic contrasts and dynamic musical language characterized
his sonata for violin and piano (1959) and the concerto for cello
(1962). Many of his piano compositions, such as “Elegy” and “Dance of
Vagharshapat,” are frequently chosen by Armenian pianists throughout the
world. In 1960 Babajanian received the title of People’s Artist of
Armenia and eleven years later he became People’s Artist of the USSR. He
won the State Prize of Armenia in 1966 for his innovative composition
“Six Images” (1965).
The
composer was a very eclectic artist, as he worked in various genres:
classical, pop, and jazz. He collaborated with some of the most
celebrated Russian poets at the time, like Evgeny Yevdushenko, Andrei
Voznesensky, and Robert Rozhdestvensky, but he also composed pop and
jazz songs in Armenian, which were very popular at the time. He wrote
the music for William Saroyan’s play “My Heart is in the Highlands,” as
well as for many celebrated Armenian films: “By the Path of the Storm”
(1956), “I Know You Personally” (1957), “The Song of the First Love”
(1958, with Ghazaros Sarian as coauthor), “The Bride from the North”
(1975), “The Mechanics of Happiness” (1982, State Prize of Armenia in
1983), and others.
Arno
Babajanian passed away in Moscow on November 11, 1983. A street in the
Armenian capital remembers him, and his statue has been placed near Swan
Lake, in central Yerevan.
