Violinist Sergey Khachatryan, born on 5 April 1985 in Yerevan, Armenia, moved to Germany with his family in 1993. His international breakthrough came remarkably early. He became the youngest winner of the “International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition” at the age of 15.
He followed up with another major competition victory, winning First Prize in the 2005 Queen Elisabeth Competition. In 2014, he received the Credit Suisse Young Artist Award.
This special ARTE Concert was recorded by Hessischer Rundfunk in 2026, and features Sergey Khachatryan with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra (hr-Sinfonieorchester) conducted by Alain Altinoglu. The programme brings together music by Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian and Igor Stravinsky.
Sergey Khachatryan Performs Khachaturian
Available until 16/04/2027
Armenian Roots
Sergey Khachatryan
Sergey Khachatryan was brought up in a deeply musical Armenian environment, but the economic situation in his homeland had become intolerable after the collapse of the Soviet Union. His father received an invitation to take part in the Bach Competition in Saarbrücken, and subsequently found work as a piano teacher in Frankfurt.
Hoping for a better future in Germany, the family moved to Frankfurt in 1993, when Sergey was eight. Khachatryan started piano lessons, but since there were already too many pianists in the family, he took up the violin about a year before the family moved to Germany.
His exceptional aptitude for the instrument was quickly recognised, and he soon furthered his studies in Würzburg and later with Josef Rissin in Karlsruhe. Although he had studied with Grigor Zhislin in Würzburg for two years, he credits Rissin as the teacher who made him a real violinist.
Living and studying in Germany made Khachatryan particularly conscious of his Armenian roots. Armenia wasn’t simply the place where he was born; it is something embedded in the way he hears and feels music. It is part of his musical identity, an aspect he shares with Aram Khachaturian. “He really is my composer,” he once explained, “as his music, with its Armenian folk elements, is very near to me and in my blood.”
The Sounds of Childhood
Aram Khachaturian
One of the most popular composers of the Soviet period in Russian history, Aram Khachaturian combined the folk music of his native Armenia with the more formal aspects of the Russian musical tradition.
“I grew up in an atmosphere rich in folk music,” explains Khachaturian, “popular festivities, rites, joyous and sad events in the life of the people always accompanied by music, the vivid tunes of Armenian, Azerbaijani and Georgian songs and dances performed by folk bards and musicians.”
“These impressions shaped my musical consciousness and lay at the foundations of my artistic personality. Whatever the changes and improvements that took place in my musical taste in later years, their original substance, formed in early childhood in close communion with the people, has always remained the natural soil nourishing all my work.”
From Oistrakh to Khachatryan
Alain Altinoglu (© Ben Knabe)
Between 1936 and 1946, Khachaturian wrote a set of three concertos for Lev Oborin (piano), David Oistrakh (violin), and Sviatoslav Knushevitsky (cello). It was the violin concerto, composed in 1940 and first performed by its dedicatee that same year, which helped seal Khachaturian’s reputation as the leading Armenian composer of his generation.
Continuing the lineage of large-scale Romantic violin concertos, soloists from both East and West quickly took up the work, and it has retained much of its popularity to this day. Perhaps the “Andante sostenuto” is the real heart of this concerto, as the Armenian character moves beyond folkloric elements to become something deeply expressive. The violin emerges from the texture almost as a human voice, and this performance builds on an established musical partnership between Khachatryan and Altinoglu.
Sergey Khachatryan
Also featured on the programme is the “Adagio” from Khachaturian’s ballet Spartacus, first staged in Leningrad in 1956. Khachaturian subsequently extracted orchestral suites from the ballet, with the “Adagio” becoming one of his most popular compositions. Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring needs little introduction, with its explosive rhythms and primal energy providing a striking counterpart to Khachaturian’s richly coloured music.
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