Arno Babajanian

Arno Babajanian was an Armenian and Soviet composer, pianist, and teacher. He was born in Yerevan on 21 January 1921, although his passport listed 22 January after his father changed the recorded date in 1924, when 21 January became an annual day of mourning following Vladimir Lenin's death. He was named People's Artist of the USSR in 1971 and received the Stalin Prize, third class, in 1951.

He grew up in a family of teachers. His father, a mathematics teacher, played many Armenian folk instruments, and his mother taught Russian language at the Maxim Gorky school. Babajanian showed musical gifts from early childhood and began playing an old home harmonium at the age of three. In 1926 his talent was noticed by Aram Khachaturian. In 1928 he entered the Gorky secondary school and at the same time joined the group of gifted children attached to the Yerevan Conservatory. By the age of nine he had written his "Pioneer March," and at twelve he won his first prize in a young musicians' competition, performing Beethoven's Fourth Sonata and Mendelssohn's "Rondo Capriccioso."

After finishing the music school of the Yerevan Conservatory in 1935, he entered the conservatory as both a piano and composition student, studying with Sergey Barkhudaryan and Vagharshak Talyan. In 1938 he moved to Moscow and entered the final course of the Gnessin Musical College, graduating in piano under Elena Gnessina and in composition under Vissarion Shebalin. He then continued at the Moscow Conservatory in the piano class of Boris Berlin. During the early years of the Second World War he was mobilized for defensive work near Smolensk, and at the end of 1941 he evacuated with the Moscow Conservatory to Saratov. From 1942 he studied at the Yerevan Conservatory with Konstantin Igumnov in piano and again with Talyan in composition, later returning to Moscow and resuming his studies at the conservatory there. He became a member of the Union of Soviet Composers in 1943.

In 1946 he was sent to Moscow with a group of young composers for further artistic development. He continued his advanced studies at the House of Culture of the Armenian SSR in Moscow from 1946 to 1948. In 1947 he completed the composition faculty of the Yerevan Conservatory externally, and in 1948 he graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in piano under Igumnov. His artistic aims were linked with those of Alexander Arutiunian, Edward Mirzoyan, and Lazar Saryan, and he was regarded as one of the members of the so-called "Armenian Mighty Handful." From 1950 to 1956 he taught piano at the Yerevan Conservatory, and in 1956 he received the title of associate professor. From that year onward he lived and worked in Moscow.

Babajanian achieved enormous popularity as a songwriter. He collaborated successfully with the poet Robert Rozhdestvensky and the singer Muslim Magomayev on songs including "Blue Taiga," "Smile," "At an Unexpected Hour," "Meeting," "Remembrance," "Call Me," "Make a Wish," "Thank You," and "Wedding." Other highly successful songs were written with Anatoly Gorokhov, Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Andrei Voznesensky, and Leonid Derbenyov, including "Queen of Beauty," "Be with Me," "Do Not Hurry," "Ferris Wheel," "Your Footprints," "Year of Love," "Moscow River," "Give Me Back My Music," and "The Best City on Earth." His songs "Song of First Love" and "Yerevan" were perceived as hymns to his native city, while "Nocturne" won especially broad recognition.

He also worked extensively in instrumental jazz and musical theater. Among his stage works were the musicals "Uncle Baghdasar," "Bride from the North," and "My Heart Is in the Mountains." His concert and chamber music included the vividly characterized and expressive "Heroic Ballad" for piano and orchestra, the Piano Trio, the Sonata for Violin and Piano, and the piano suite "Six Pictures," in which folk elements were combined innovatively with serial technique. His "Poem" was chosen as a compulsory work for the second round of the Third International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1966. His brilliant and virtuoso compositions for two pianos, written together with Alexander Arutiunian, such as "Armenian Rhapsody" and "Festive," also gained worldwide popularity. In his final years he strove for greater rationalism in his creative work.

His academic music was performed by such leading musicians as Mstislav Rostropovich, Emil Gilels, David Oistrakh, Lev Vlassenko, Svetlana Navasardyan, Zareh Ter-Merkeryan, David Khanjyan, the Riga piano duo, and the Firenze piano duo. Babajanian himself frequently appeared as a pianist in many cities, giving brilliant performances of his own works; these interpretations were recorded and later issued on audio discs. He lived in Moscow at 13 Ogaryov Street, in a building popularly known as the "House of One Hundred Pianos," which also housed the Moscow House of Composers.

Babajanian died on 11 November 1983 from complications caused by leukemia. He was buried in Yerevan at the Tokhmak city cemetery. His memory has been preserved through monuments, memorial plaques, a street in Yerevan named after him, and the Arno Babajanian Memory Foundation, which supports young talent and organizes annual festivals of his music.

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