Aram Khachatryan is the pride and adoration of the Armenian people. His passionate, vivid music is so melodious and harmonious that it is able to “lift one’s spirits”. He has written in one of his letters: “I want to create something new but at the same time I don’t want to lose the old.” There is melody and a heroic pathos in all his compositions.
Aram Khachatryan reached world fame, was loved by the people and top deputy officials of the former Soviet Union. He has traveled all over the world, has met with people such as Hemingway, Roman Rolan, Charlie Chaplin and Salvador Dali. He was presenting Soviet music to the world. There were regulations to follow during the Soviet Union and Aram Khachatryan followed them. This photo features the Armenian “pioneers” of the Soviet Union who are congratulating the composer.
The ceremony for tying the red collar used to take place in the Pioneer palace in Yerevan.
Photographer Melik Baghdasaryan remembers that his film had finished during that ceremony, but since that moment had to be remembered for all time, Aram Khachatryan was asked to repeat that part of the ceremony. Aram Khachatryan was not against it. However, he did not like to be photographed during concerts. Any extra person on stage bothered him from doing his job and the camera lights and even small sounds could disturb the orchestra, especially when Aram Khachatryan had the composing stick in his hand. The photographers were trying to photograph him only when the music was loud and so they could not be seen.
Photographer for “Soviet Armenia” newspaper edition Avet Yesayan met with the great composer rather strangely. It was Arno Babajanyan’s concert and the photographer was doing his job there. He decided to definitely be there at the concert. Avet was sitting next to Aram Khachatryan in the Moscow Philharmonic hall. “Arno’s wife was on my one side and Khachatryan was on the other,” says A. Yesayan. “After the concert, when the audience was going down the stairs, Aram Khachatryan suddenly slipped, tried to balance himself and grabbed on to me. That’s how we met.” After a while, the photographer met Aram Khachatryan in Yerevan and reminded him of that accident and asked Aram to let him take photos of him from the stage. The composer could not let the photographer down and said: “How can I let you down? If it weren’t for you, I would have been handicapped.” According to A. Yesayan, after he got the permission to photograph, he has still tried his best to take photos of Khachatryan backstage. The photographer then gave the impressive photograph to Aram Khachatryan and kept the picture of the red collar ceremony in his archives.