Sabre Dance from “Gayaneh”

Aram Khachaturian (1903 - 1978)

Sabre Dance from “Gayaneh”

Like much of Khachaturian’s music, the score of his ballet Gayaneh is based for the most part on the songs and dances of his native Armenia. The story behind it is so unimportant that, twenty five years after its first performance in 1942, Khachaturian changed the scenario completely while leaving much of the music just as it was before. What is important is the immense vitality and exotic colouring of the dances. One of the most inspired examples is the short but exhilarating Sabre Dance, which sustains its hyper-activity from its rhythmically thrilling beginning, by way of its aggressively derisive trombone interventions and an apparently friendlier middle section, to an even fiercer conclusion.