Arutunian Trumpet concerto - Tine Thing Helseth

Alexander Arutiunian’s Trumpet Concerto in A-flat major (1950), also known as the Arutiunian Trumpet Concerto, is the Armenian composer’s sixth major composition, a "virtuoso showpiece" composed in 1949-1950. It was not written for the trumpet player Timofei Dokschitzer (just before the 29-year-old Arutiunian was awarded the State Prize of the USSR for his "Motherland" cantata), but he was the first to record it and make it famous. The concerto's introduction to the USA is solely due to Dokschitzer, a Soviet trumpeter, who immigrated to the States and premiered the concerto there. According to J. Sundram, "it is an energetic powerhouse of Eastern European lyricism and harmonic textures".^[1] The concerto was "quickly assimilated into the standard trumpet repertoire worldwide, earning highest international praise from audiences, critics and performers".^[2]

Allan Kozinn of The New York Times, interviewing Philip Smith, the principal trumpet of the New York Philharmonic, wrote that "Arutunian's Trumpet Concerto is now so entrenched in the instrument's repertory that, Mr. Smith says, students use it frequently as an audition piece at Juilliard. 'One of the reasons this piece has become so popular among trumpet players,' Mr. Smith said of the concerto, 'is just that it's a flashy piece. It has a very Gypsyish, Russian, Armenian kind of sound, with very soulful, beautiful melodies and plenty of exciting rapid-tonguing kind of things.'"^[3]

While not divided into formal movements, Arutiunian's Trumpet Concerto consists of five major sections which are all performed attacca (without pause or interruption of the music):

• Andante—Allegro energico
• Meno mosso
• Tempo I
• Meno mosso
• Tempo I - (Cadenza) Coda

The melodic and rhythmic characteristics of Armenian folk music are a strong influence in Arutiunian’s work. As a composer, he expresses his nationality by incorporating the flavor of ashughner (folk minstrel) improvisations.