Composer: Aram Khatchaturian
Performer: Stepan Simonian
Orchestra: Staatsorchester Rheinische Philharmonie
Conductor: Daniel Raiskin
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: CPO
Catalogue: 7779182
Release: 2018
Size: 286 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Piano Concerto in D flat major
01. I. Allegro ma non troppo e maestoso
02. II. Andante con anima
03. III. Allegro brillante
04. Concerto-Rhapsody in D flat major for piano and orchestra
Aram Khachaturian conquered the world with the boundless delight he took in composing. His Sabre Dance found its place in advertising, his Adagio from the ballet Spartacus accompanied a cult series, and prominent ice skating pairs danced their way into the hearts of their spectators to the Waltz from his stage music to Lermontov’s Masquerade. On the other side, his symphonic music and concertante works even today continue to attract the greatest conductors and soloists. A unique, often imitated, but never reproduced synthesis consisting of fascinating instrumental virtuosity, exotic melodies, highly imaginative harmonies, and irresistible rhythmic spirit distinguishes the three concertos and three concert rhapsodies written by Aram Khachaturian during 1936-46 and 1961-67, and this double trilogy begins its cpo journey with the earliest and latest of these works. The Armenian pianist Stepan Simonian, who resides in Hamburg, the Russian conductor Daniel Raiskin, and the Rhine State Philharmonic, which Aram Khachaturian himself accompanied a good forty-five years ago during his visit to Germany, get things going on this quasi-authentic recording of these two concertante works for piano and orchestra timelessly reflecting each other like a mirror in a mirror.
Although the first performance of Khatchaturian’s Piano Concerto took place in the open air (!) in a bandstand in a Moscow park (!) on a broken-down piano (!), played by none other than Lev Oborine (!), after a single rehearsal (!), triumph came only a few months later, when the composer was given the keys to the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory. In less than five years, the Concerto would be played in New York and Boston, by stars like William Kapell or Oscar Levant; and eventually it would achieve a global fame which persists to this day. The work spills over with accents (real or imagined) of the writer’s native Armenia. Rather later, once he was famous, Khatchaturian would compose three “concerto-rhapsodies” of one movement: one for Kogan’s violin, another for Rostropovich’s cello, and the third in 1968 for Nikolai Petrov’s piano, with Roshdestvensky conducting. This is no longer a work of early maturity: rather, it is very much in the composer’s definitive style, which “absorbed” his great contemporaries, Prokofiev and Shostakovich, while retaining the Caucasian borrowings and the orchestral language which was then in vogue in the Soviet Union. A powerfully original work, it hides neither its desire to please the crowds nor its aim to satisfy the more demanding listeners in terms of virtuosity, complex harmony, counterpoint, and rich orchestration. For this album, Stepan Simonian takes to the piano, a winner of competitions like Iturbi, the Yerevan Khatchaturian Competition and the Bach Competition in Leipzig.