Although Khachaturian is today renowned for his great ballet scores, his piano works have been relatively neglected. Performed by the award-winning Armenian pianist Kariné Poghosyan, this programme features arrangements of excerpts from two of Khachaturian’s most popular works, Spartacus and Masquerade, alongside the technically demanding Toccata and Poem from the earlier part of his career and the impressive 1961 Piano Sonata, one of the most formally classical of the composer’s larger works.

Listen to an excerpt of Khachaturian’s Poem

1 TOCCATA (1932) (04:37)

    2 PIECES (1926)
2 No. 1. Waltz-Caprice (02:23)
3 No. 2. Dance (01:39)

SPARTACUS – SUITE NO. 2: ADAGIO
(ARR. MATTHEW CAMERON)* (09:07)

5 POEM (1927) (07:00)

PIANO SONATA (1961)
6 I. Allegro vivace (07:29)
7 II. Andante tranquillo (10:35)
8 III. Allegro assai (08:06)

MASQUERADE – SUITE (ARR. ALEXANDER DOLUKHANIAN) (EXCERPTS) (1944/1952) *
9 II. Nocturne (03:27)
10 IV. Romance (03:27)
11 I. Waltz (04:12)

TOTAL TIME: 61:57

The Armenian pianist Kariné Poghosyan made her orchestral début at fourteen playing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.1, and her solo Carnegie Hall début at 23, and has since gone on to win numerous awards as well as performing in some of the world’s most prestigious concert halls. Her music studies began in her native Yerevan in Armenia at the School of the Arts No. 1, continuing at Romanos Melikian College and the Komitas State Conservatory. Her teachers in Armenia included Irina Gazarian, Vatche Umr-Shat, and Svetlana Dadyan. After moving to the United States in 1998, she received her BM, summa cum laude, from California State University in Northridge under Françoise Regnat, and her MM and D.M.A. degrees at the Manhattan School of Music under Arkady Aronov, completing her D.M.A. in a record-breaking two years with a thesis on Aram Khachaturian’s works for piano. She is currently based in New York, where she teaches at the Manhattan School of Music.