The Khachaturian Flute Concerto is a very interesting work. I’m currently researching it for programme notes for my concerto assessment next week. One interesting story I have read - and I am not sure how true this is yet - is that a few years after Khachaturian wrote it for violin, a flautist (Jean Pierre-Rampal) asked him to write a flute concerto for him. Khachaturian said no but that he could adapt the violin concerto for flute instead. So he did. And this is what we now have. It is one of the hardest pieces I have ever played and requires a huge amount of stamina, both because of its length but also because it was not written for the flute, making it much harder for breathing but also notes that are not in easy registers for flute.
I have just recorded all 3 movements with piano for a competition. The first movement is amazing, but hard, and is the last movement I learnt. It took 3 weeks of very intensive learning to get the notes and basics and has had a little more polishing over another week.
Here it is, enjoy!
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