Black/London Symphony Orch. -"Virtuoso: Khachaturian: Spartacus" Decca presents six new titles in the VIRTUOSO series. With stellar recordings, famous artists, strong visuals, innovative booklet notes and best-selling composers, all offered at an excellent price, the Virtuoso series makes serious classical music approachable without compromise. This album includes Khachaturian's ballet Spartacus, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Stanley Black.

Classical Music

A meeting between violinist David Haroutunian and Karen Khachaturian, son of the legendary composer Aram Khachaturian, inspired this new recording. Following their encounter in Paris at a concert marking the 40th anniversary of Aram Khachaturian's passing, Karen entrusted David with the score of an unpublished sonata for violin and piano, written by his father in the early 1930s. Avant-garde in style and structured in two unique movements, the sonata stands as a remarkable masterpiece, both profound and accessible to a wide audience. "My discovery of this sonata sparked an intense desire to record all of Khachaturian's works for violin, as no such comprehensive recording, to my knowledge, exists," David explains. Together with pianist Xenia Maliarevitch, he set out to capture not only Khachaturian's original compositions for solo violin and violin-piano duo but also selected arrangements of his most iconic works, including excerpts from Gayaneh and the Sabre Dance arranged by Jascha Heifetz. This album also features a previously unrecorded Dance from 1925, adding to the rich legacy of Khachaturian's music.

We come now to more modern fare, and firstly to a very colourful, immediately enjoyable work in Castelnuovo-Tedesco's Second Violin Concerto, written for Heifetz in 1933. This work is sub-titled I profeti (''The Prophets'') and the names of Isaiah, Jeremiah and Elijah head its three movements. Heifetz clearly relishes the score's attractive lyricism, and Wallenstein's conducting is full of personality too. The 1954 stereo recording is more than adequate. Howard Ferguson wrote his First Violin Sonata in 1931, when he was 23. This is a gently flowing, somewhat reflective piece, apart from a brief central Allegro furioso movement, to which Heifetz responds with alacrity. Elsewhere his rather sharp-toned, virtuoso approach tends to be somewhat at odds with the work's nature, and a rather close 1966 recording does not help. He is more suited to the early Sonata of Karen Khachaturian, who is Aram Khachaturian's nephew. On the evidence of this work, like his uncle, Karen writes in an outgoing, vigorous, uncomplicated style, which Heifetz plays in a cheerful, extrovert fashion. The recording was made at the same sessions as the Ferguson sonata. Francaix's String Trio is a typically brief, slight, but cleverly written piece, and here Heifetz and his two colleagues relax to give a delightfully spry, pithy performance, which is matched with a good 1964 recording. . . .

Heifetz was without doubt a uniquely gifted artist. It has been a very rich experience for me to explore these five discs, and I can do no more than give them the highest possible recommendation.

-- Gramophone [from a review of five titles featuring Jascha Heifetz]

BALLET GREATEST HITS I ORMAND

This celebrated recording of the almost-complete Gayne finally makes it to CD, and it's as fresh and exciting as you may remember. About 75 percent of the total score is here, as much as anyone really needs, arranged in optimal sequence for home listening. This makes perfect sense in a ballet whose plot hinges on the heroine ratting out her drunkard husband for sabotage of the collective farming effort (as if it needed any help to fail). There's also a thrilling sub-plot about a blind hunter who miraculously regains his sight in time to participate once again in the creation of the people's utopia.


Of course, the nicest thing about Khachaturian's music is that none of it pays the slightest heed to the above scenario: it's straight Romantic nationalism, and all of your favorite numbers, including the Saber Dance and the Lezghinka, come off brilliantly in impactful but somewhat glassy sonics. Loris Tjeknavorian and the National Philharmonic pick-up orchestra clearly are having a terrific time. The excerpts from Spartacus (Danse with Crotales, Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia, Bacchanale, Spartacus' Victory) and the Masquerade Suite have just as much oomph, and are even better engineered. Major league fun!
--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Classical Music

Ninety years ago, with the score of his first symphony, Aram Khachaturian achieved not only a brilliant graduation piece but also a major concert hall success. Although it was not his first orchestral work - the Dance Suite was composed during his studies with Nikolai Myaskovsky - it demonstrated to the Soviet world that he was not just a fantastic miniaturist. The dimensions of the symphony and his handling of Caucasian folklore, unique colors, and irresistible rhythms of the music fulfilled a promise that was quickly realized. Under Frank Beermann's direction, the Robert-Schumann-Philharmonie Chemnitz concludes their symphonic cycle, complementing the three concert CDs by the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz to form an impressive portrait of an extraordinary figure.

Sitkovetsky, Yulian: Art of Yulian Sitkovetsky (The), Vol. 5

Gayane, Masquerade and the Violin Concerto (here featuring a bravura performance by Leonid Kogan) need no introduction. Noteworthy too is the sterling delivery of the young pianist Antonín Jemelík in the recording of the Piano Concerto with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra.

KHACHATURIAN, A.I.: Symphony No. 2 / Gayane Suite No. 1

Classical Music

Classical Music

Khachaturian's ballets contain some of the most famous classical music in the repertoire - from the exciting Sabre Dance to the romantically charged music from Spartacus, which was made famous by its use in the TV series 'The Onedin Line'. Neeme Järvi's performances are sonic spectaculars, bringing out all the vibrant colour and sumptuous tunes of this striking music. 'Chandos has released a knockout, state of the art digital recording.' - American Record Guide

Armenia' greatest composer Aram Khachaturian received both acclaim and criticism from the Soviet regime, including the USSR State Prize for his three Concerto-Rhapsodies. "A concerto is music with chandeliers burning bright; a rhapsody is music with.