MARBECKS COLLECTABLE: Terterian: Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4

In his homeland, Avet Terterian is regarded, alongside Aram Khachaturian, as the other giant of twentieth-century Armenian music, and as the founder of his nation's progressive school of composers.

The backbone of Terterian's achievement is enshrined in his eight symphonies. In summing them up he wrote: 'We are all living on the threshold of a terrible apocalyptic judgement. It has always seemed to me that my symphonies are a cry of the soul for salvation and for the forgiveness of sins.'