Aram Khachaturian

2006
Georgy Frangulyan with architects
I. Voskresenskij and N. Sarkisian
Bronze, 5 m (16.5 ft.)
Moscow
Commissioned by the administration of Republic of Armenia

The monument to Aram Khachaturian (1903-1978), the great Armenian composer who lived most of his life in Russia is a two-part ensemble, consisting of a bronze sculpture by Frangulyan and an architectural design by Igor Voskresensky. Nearly encircled by streets, the square is near the House of Composers off Moscow’s Bryusov Lane, where Khachaturian lived from 1962 onward.

The bronze sculpture of Khachaturian sits atop a red granite slab, which is the landing for three steps emerging from the square’s sidewalk. Seemingly seated in a sloping position on a piano stool with his back turned to a trio of instruments—organ, cello, and piano—Khachaturian is cupping his ear, as if listening. The sculpture is among Frangulyan’s most inventive sculptural solutions. The viewer is left with a holistic image characteristic of Khachaturian’s works—the high degree of expressiveness, the complexity of musical pairings, and a distinct polyphonic quality—which corresponds to the composer's bearing.