Uploaded September 2026 | Updated September 2026, 4 days ago
00:07 I. Largo (All movements attacca)
05:24 II. Allegro vivo
09:26 III. Andante
18:00 IV. Andante abbandonamente
27:51 V. Epilogue; Andante con amore, fresco
Armenian State Symphony Orchestra (live performance)
Sergey Smbatyan, conductor; Erik Manukyan, concertmaster
Original recording from youtube.com/watch?v=DnwE2Powhug
Alternate recording with organ (original version?): youtube.com/watch?v=RrupmHnTEEg
From 29:55 to 30:26, there is some material not in my score, which may indicate that this recording is of a revised version (as does the replacement of the organ with brass instruments in the final movement.) However, it has much better sound quality - which I have tweaked a bit to provide a better balance - than the alternative above.
John Ter-Tatevosian (1926-1988, also spelled Dzhon or Jivan Ter-Tadevosyan) was an Armenian composer and teacher. Ter-Tatevosian studied violin at the Yerevan Conservatory under Vitold Portugalov and composition under Eduard Mirzoyan, one of Armenia's most prominent composers of the early 20th century, graduating in 1952 and subsequently teaching at the Yerevan Music School. In 1959, the year his second symphony was composed, Ter-Tatevosian moved to Moscow, where he became well-known primarily for his scores to popular films, although he continued to write concert music until the last years of his life.
The composer's page on Armenian Wikipedia describes his symphonies - apparently five in number, though just two are listed there - as "a significant contribution to Armenian symphonic music", and it's hard to disagree. With its heavy percussive sections, juxtaposition of harsh blocks of sound and longer lyrical lines, and lingering, expressive violin solos, this symphony shares some qualities with the works of Shostakovich as well as with Avet Terterian and Giya Kancheli, Ter-Tatevosian's near-contemporaries from the Caucasus, but very much carves out a place of its own. It was inspired by the titular short story, a dark tale of a truck driver in a German concentration camp during World War II, by the author Mikhail Sholokov, better known for the novel "And Quiet Flows the Don".
Although it attracted some attention when the Armenian State Symphony, who play on this recording, brought it to venues across Europe in early 2020, Ter-Tatevosian's second symphony still seems to be little-performed outside of the Armenian classical music scene; I do hope more conductors will take up this stirring, one-of-a-kind masterwork.
00:07 I. Largo (All movements attacca)
05:24 II. Allegro vivo
09:26 III. Andante
18:00 IV. Andante abbandonamente
27:51 V. Epilogue; Andante con amore, fresco
Armenian State Symphony Orchestra (live performance)
Sergey Smbatyan, conductor; Erik Manukyan, concertmaster
Original recording from youtube.com/watch?v=DnwE2Powhug
Alternate recording with organ (original version?): youtube.com/watch?v=RrupmHnTEEg
From 29:55 to 30:26, there is some material not in my score, which may indicate that this recording is of a revised version (as does the replacement of the organ with brass instruments in the final movement.) However, it has much better sound quality - which I have tweaked a bit to provide a better balance - than the alternative above.
John Ter-Tatevosian (1926-1988, also spelled Dzhon or Jivan Ter-Tadevosyan) was an Armenian composer and teacher. Ter-Tatevosian studied violin at the Yerevan Conservatory under Vitold Portugalov and composition under Eduard Mirzoyan, one of Armenia's most prominent composers of the early 20th century, graduating in 1952 and subsequently teaching at the Yerevan Music School. In 1959, the year his second symphony was composed, Ter-Tatevosian moved to Moscow, where he became well-known primarily for his scores to popular films, although he continued to write concert music until the last years of his life.
The composer's page on Armenian Wikipedia describes his symphonies - apparently five in number, though just two are listed there - as "a significant contribution to Armenian symphonic music", and it's hard to disagree. With its heavy percussive sections, juxtaposition of harsh blocks of sound and longer lyrical lines, and lingering, expressive violin solos, this symphony shares some qualities with the works of Shostakovich as well as with Avet Terterian and Giya Kancheli, Ter-Tatevosian's near-contemporaries from the Caucasus, but very much carves out a place of its own. It was inspired by the titular short story, a dark tale of a truck driver in a German concentration camp during World War II, by the author Mikhail Sholokov, better known for the novel "And Quiet Flows the Don".
Although it attracted some attention when the Armenian State Symphony, who play on this recording, brought it to venues across Europe in early 2020, Ter-Tatevosian's second symphony still seems to be little-performed outside of the Armenian classical music scene; I do hope more conductors will take up this stirring, one-of-a-kind masterwork.
