Aram Khachaturian wrote his Cello Concerto in E minor in 1946 for Sviatoslav Knushevitsky.
It was the last of the three concertos he wrote for the individual members of a renowned Soviet piano trio that performed together from 1941 until 1963.
[1] The work was premiered on 30 October 1946[2][3] (or November 1946[4]), in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, with the dedicatee Sviatoslav Knushevitsky as soloist.
[10] The central Andante has been described as 'introspective and melancholy',[6] 'nocturnal and seductive',[10] 'dramatic and stern',[8] and 'menacing, oriental and melismatic'.
[7] However, its energy level decreases until just near the end, when it concludes with a fast coda.