The Toccata

Toccata

Toccata is a virtuoso piece of music typically for a keyboard or plucked string instrument featuring fast-moving, lightly fingered or otherwise virtuosic passages or sections, with or without imitative or fugal interludes, generally emphasizing the dexterity of the performer's fingers...

 in E-flat minor is a piece for solo piano written in 1932 by Aram Khachaturian

Aram Khachaturian

Aram Ilyich Khachaturian was a prominent Soviet composer. Khachaturian's works were often influenced by classical Russian music and Armenian folk music...

. It is a favourite of piano students, and has been recorded many times.

Khachaturian wrote this work as the first movement of a three-movement suite

Suite

In music, a suite is an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral pieces normally performed in a concert setting rather than as accompaniment; they may be extracts from an opera, ballet , or incidental music to a play or film , or they may be entirely original movements .In the...

 for piano:

• Toccata
• Waltz-Capriccio
• Dance.

He wrote the suite in 1932 while studing at the Moscow Conservatory

Moscow Conservatory

The Moscow Conservatory is a higher musical education institution in Moscow, and the second oldest conservatory in Russia after St. Petersburg Conservatory. Along with the St...

 under Nikolai Myaskovsky

Nikolai Myaskovsky

Nikolai Yakovlevich Myaskovsky was a Russian and Soviet composer. He is sometimes referred to as the "father of the Soviet symphony".-Early years and first important works:...

. However, the Toccata became so well-known so quickly that it is now considered a separate piece; the suite from which it came is little known.

The Toccata utilises some Armenian folk melodies and rhythms, as well as baroque and contemporary 20th Century techniques. It begins Allegro marcatissimo. A central section Andante espressivo leads to a reprise of the opening motifs. The coda is based on the central section's theme. It lasts around 5 minutes.

Those who have recorded the Toccata include Benno Moiseiwitsch

Benno Moiseiwitsch

Benno Moiseiwitsch CBE was a Ukrainian-born British pianist.-Biography:Born in Odessa, Ukraine, Moiseiwitsch began his studies at age seven at the Odessa Music Academy. He won the Anton Rubinstein Prize when he was just nine years old. He later took lessons from Theodor Leschetizky in Vienna...

, Shura Cherkassky

Shura Cherkassky

Shura Cherkassky was an American classical pianist known for his performances of the romantic repertoire. His playing was characterized by a virtuoso technique and singing piano tone...

, Felicja Blumental

Felicja Blumental

Felicja Blumental was a Polish--Brazilian pianist.Felicja Blumental was born in Warsaw, Poland, into a musical family, daughter of a violinist. She began piano lessons at the age of five, and made her debut at the age of ten...

, Mindru Katz

Mindru Katz

Mindru Katz was a Romanian-Israeli classical pianist.Mindru Katz was born in Bucharest in 1925. He was discovered as a child prodigy by George Enescu, and taught by Florica Musicescu. He graduated from the Royal Academy of Music in Bucharest in 1947, in which year he also made his debut with the...

, Ruth Laredo

Ruth Laredo

Ruth Laredo was an American classical pianist.She became known in the 1970s in particular for her premiere recordings of the 10 sonatas of Scriabin and the complete solo piano works of Rachmaninoff, for her Ravel recordings and in the last 16½ years before her death for her series in the...

, Roland Pöntinen

Roland Pöntinen

Roland Peter Pöntinen is a Swedish pianist and composer.He is the son of a Finnish-speaking father, a native of the Russian district of Ingria who emigrated from the Soviet Union to Sweden in 1945...

 and Murray McLachlan

Murray McLachlan

Murray McLachlan, OStJ , is a British concert pianist.His repertoire includes over 40 concertos and he has appeared as concerto soloist with many leading UK orchestras...

.