One of the most popular musicians in the former Soviet Union, Aram Khachaturian was trained as a biologist. Already an amateur composer, he gradually added lessons in cello and composition, finally succumbing to his passion by entering the Moscow Conservatory for professional training. 

An Armenian – although born in Georgia – Khachaturian had a knack for driving rhythms and stirring melodies, blending the orientalism of his native folk idiom with the lush tradition of Russian Romanticism. Beginning with his Piano Concerto in 1936, the later Violin Concerto and the ballets Gayane and Spartacus, he created a series of compositions that garnered worldwide popularity. 

In spite of his leadership role in the Soviet Composer’s Union and his expressed opposition to modern experiments, Khachaturian was not spared the scrutiny and interference of the Soviet musical bureaucracy. Like Shostakovich, Prokofiev and a host of lesser composers, he was severely criticized in 1948 by the Central Committee of the Communist Party for his “formalist” transgressions. Only after Stalin’s death in 1953 did he feel free again to compose.

The ballet Spartacus was completed in 1954 and premiered in 1956. Spartacus, a shepherd who became the leader of a slave revolt against Rome, was considered by Karl Marx as a “true representative of the proletariat of antiquity.” Khachaturian’s politically correct subject matter, combined with the Ballet’s traditional tonality and lush orchestration, pleased the régime and helped restore his standing with the commissars. 

The ballet itself was not a popular success, but the four suites that Khachaturian extracted from it have met with considerable acclaim. As is usual in ballet suites, the sequence of scenes used in the suites does not necessarily follow the sequence in the ballet. Suite No.2 consists of the following scenes : 

1. The “Adagio for Spartacus and Phrygia,” is probably the best-known excerpt from the ballet. It is a love pas de deux between Spartacus and his wife Phrygia after they have just escaped from the clutches of his enemy, the Roman general Crassus. 
2. The “Entrance of the Merchants – Dance of the Courtesans” is a brilliant parade of the merchants followed by a languorous oriental dance featuring sensuous clarinet and violin solos. It leads directly to the next section.
3. “General Dance” is an energetic divertissement.
4. “The Entrance of Spartacus – Quarrel – Treachery of Harmodius” represents the dramatic scenes of a nefarious plot, in which Spartacus becomes the victim of a conspiracy among his own followers and is betrayed by Harmodius, one of his captains and rival for leadership. 
5. Finally, the “Dance of the Pirates.” was an excuse for Khachaturian to introduce a wild Armenian folk dance, an anachronistic, nationalistic indulgence that he regularly inserted into most of his compositions.