Two Dances from Gayaneh

Aram Khachaturian (1903 - 1978)

Two Dances from Gayaneh

Dance of the Young Maidens

Sabre Dance

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 completely changed the scenario while leaving much of the music just as it was before. What is important is the immense vitality and exotic colouring of the dances. By no means all of it is as violent, however, as the famous Sabre Dance. The Dance of the Young Maidens, for example, is not only tuneful but also quite charming - until, that is, the intrusion of a peculiarly vicious dissonance and an assertive recall of the main theme towards the end. As for the short but exhilarating Sabre Dance, it sustains its hyper-activity from its rhythmically thrilling beginning, by way of aggressively derisive trombone interventions and an apparently friendlier middle section, to an even fiercer conclusion.