Khachaturian’s involvement in film, which began in Armenia as early as 1934, was long-lived and highly distinctive. Until 1960, the date of his last film, he wrote principally for Mosfilm and his scores, not least in subsequent arrangements, earned him considerable renown. His own eight-part concert suite arrangement taken from the epic Battle of Stalingrad (1948–50), is a symphonic fresco of high tension, fully befitting its subject matter. The suite derived from the score for Othello reveals the full canvas of Khachaturian’s cinematic imagination, from glorious love music to darker scenes of despair.