In Soviet times, his songs were heard from all windows, and famous singers were proud of their friendship with this composer. He wrote symphonic works, contemporary music, and music for films.
Arno was born in 1921 in Yerevan, his parents were teachers. They arrived in the capital of Armenia from the territory occupied by Turkey, so they knew well what grief and war are.
From childhood, Arno showed a love for music: at the age of three, he already confidently played the harmonica. At the age of five, the talented boy was shown to the famous composer Aram Khachaturian, who advised him to send him to a music school. Since then, Arno has never parted with music.
While still in elementary school, Babjanyan began composing small plays, played the piano perfectly, and at the age of 12 he became the winner of the Republican Competition for Young Performers.
After school, Arno enters the conservatory, but he lacks scope, and he goes to Moscow, enters the music school under Professor E. F. Gnesina, and at the same time studies in the composition class.
Two years later, the Great Patriotic War broke out, and Arno returns to Yerevan, continues to study there. He studies and collaborates with such celebrities as Dmitry Shostakovich and Aram Khachaturyan - they create a kind of "mighty handful" in Armenia. After the war, the young composer returned to Moscow again. He travels to his homeland, but very rarely, and misses her very much. And on each visit he creates a new work, an extremely successful one.
He writes symphonies, concertos for piano, violin, string quartets. His "Heroic Ballad" and "Armenian Rhapsody" were especially fond of the audience. And in honor of Khachaturian, who blessed him to study music, he wrote the famous "Elegy".
Babajanyan's Nocturne has always evoked special love among the public. Musicians loved to perform it, the audience constantly asked to perform it as an encore. And the singer Joseph Kobzon for a long time persuaded Arno to remake "Nocturne" for the song. And only after the death of the composer, the poet Robert Rozhdestvensky created wonderful poems that formed the basis for this music, and the song "Nocturne" sounded in concert halls - it was a resounding success.
Popular music
In addition to symphonic music, Babajanyan wrote music for cinema and stage. He collaborated with poets Andrei Voznesensky, Robert Rozhdestvensky, Leonid Derbenev and Yevgeny Yevtushenko. This collaboration resulted in the creation of such hits as "The Queen of Beauty", "Be with Me", "Blue Taiga", "Ferris Wheel", "The Best City of the Earth", "Give Me Back the Music", "Song of the First Love". All songs were undeniable hits, performed by the most famous singers of the time.
Personal life
Arno Babadzhanyan met his wife at the Moscow Conservatory - it was the pianist Teresa Hovhannisyan. After the wedding, she decided to quit her career as a pianist and devote herself to her family.
In 1953, their son Ara was born. He inherited the musical talents of his parents, became a singer, and was very fond of theater - he played on stage.
In the same year, Arno was diagnosed with blood cancer - leukemia, which was not treated in the USSR at that time. Fortunately, at that time in Russia there was a famous blood specialist from France, and Babadzhanyan managed to get to him for a consultation. Thanks to the prescribed treatment, the composer lived for another 30 years - death overtook him only in 1983.
The famous Soviet composer was buried in Yerevan.
