Who knows what Khachaturian
thought of these recordings. However
they were made during his lifetime and
surely have some claim to authenticity
- to reflect the sound the composer
intended.
While I confess that
it may be a purely sentimental attachment
it's pleasing to hear a Soviet orchestra
in full flight. Yes, even in recordings
between forty and fifty years old. There's
a snarling vitality to the playing and
to the recording. The piano is recorded
with forbidding stony directness. If
the violins can sometimes sound wiry
it's nothing to worry about. The confidently
forward woodwind and brass more than
compensate. The Piano Concerto lacks
the memorable content of the Violin
Concerto yet its folk-oriental dynamism,
quiet poetry and Stravinskian rhythmic
attack make it a pleasure to hear. Parts
of it surely recall the later populist-realism
piano concertos of Krennikhov, Kabalevsky
and Shostakovich; never mind such decorative-poetic
non-Soviet masterpieces as Joseph Marx's
Castelli Romana and de Falla's
Nights in the Gardens of Spain -
the latter memorably recorded by Russian
pianist Alexander Iokheles.
The transfers have
been lovingly done although there is
some rare shatter in the ultra-treble
of the violins. Listen however to the
hushed tear-drop fidelity of the Concerto's
andante middle movement with
its hints of Nights in the Gardens
of … Yerevan. It rises to an indomitable
climax at 7:30. The famous flexatone
is very discreetly balanced. If the
whirlingly excitable and headlong finale
does not match the quality of the other
two movements it is sold by the eager
and furious Flier and Kondrashin for
all it's worth. No half-measures here.
The single movement
Third Symphony was written, according
to the composer, to express a feeling
of happiness and pride of the Soviet
People for their great Motherland. It's
certainly imposing and we are left in
no doubt of that from the tension-filled
first few bars through to the colossal
fanfares and the furiously sustained
flying organ solo. Ossa is piled forbiddingly
high on Pelion and it's a credit to
Andrei Grosman and the quality of the
analogue tape stock that the recording
carries it so well. The central section
of this 25 minute piece uses a melody
close to the middle movement of the
Violin Concerto and the Phrygia Adagio
from Spartacus. After these
pensive moments the tension and climactic-heroic
material is mechanistically built like
some massive engine (16:00 onwards)
with a dynamic that vies with Shostakovich's
Leningrad Symphony. Make no mistake
this a work of thunderous bombast -
a sort of echo of the Hollywood score
spectacular. The Symphony was premiered
in Leningrad on 13 December 1947 and
had its Moscow first on 25 December.
In both cases the conductor was Yevgeny
Mravinsky.
Authentic and gripping
accounts of two of Khachaturian’s second
rank works.
Rob Barnett
for details
Yakov Flier (pno)
