Khachaturian: Masquerade Suite

The Sabre Dance and the Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia may be Khachaturian’s most familiar works, but his colourful style and orchestral flair comes out in all his music, from the virtuoso concertos with their rhapsodic oriental-flavoured slow movements, to the satirical glitter of the Masquerade Suite.

Aram Khachaturian was born in 1903 into a poor Armenian family in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, which was then part of Imperial Russia and later the USSR. After moving to Moscow he took up studies with Myaskovsky at the Conservatoire, eventually becoming a professor there. In spite of having been an enthusiastic communist he was, in 1948, severely denounced by the Soviet authorities (along with Prokofiev and Shostakovich) for writing what they termed 'formalist' music: music that did not appeal to the masses. Khachaturian's works include some of the best-known music in the 20th-Century repertoire, most notably the ballets Gayaneh (from which comes the ever-popular Sabre Dance) and Spartacus, the Adagio from which was used in Stanley Kubrick's film 2001: A Space Odyssey. Suites from both of these works are contained in this set, along with a fine recording of the Piano Concerto that is making it's first appearance on CD, and David Oistrakh's incomparable recording of the Violin Concerto conducted by the composer.

"I am firmly convinced that truly great music must in all its roots be linked with folk foundations, with the eternally youthful, inexhaustible sources of artistic folk creativeness.” With these words Khachaturian expresses more than a mere willingness (as a Soviet artist) to adhere to the communist party line and comply with the declared aesthetic requirements of the time.

All his great works reveal his being inspired by folk music, Armenian and Georgian in particular, which shaped his thinking as a composer. 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.

In a series of previously unreleased, newly remastered recordings from the 1950s, Khachaturian appears in the role of conductor, while several unique recordings capture him singing his own songs in Armenian by the piano. Soviet composer, conductor and spontaneous musician – the three faces of Aram Khachaturian.

Carnival, celebrated predominantly though by no means exclusively in Catholic countries, is the period of revelry – and excess – preceding the forty days of abstention during Lent, commemorating the privations of Jesus in the wilderness. The origin of the word is not clear, but it may come from the Latin carne vale, farewell to meat (theoretically forbidden in Lent), and the tradition goes back at least as far as the middle ages in Italy. Masked balls have figured importantly in the festivities, during which often “anything goes” and which reach a climax on the day before Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent, famously known as Mardi Gras (fat Tuesday, Shrove Tuesday in Britain). Many works of art – visual, literary and musical – have been inspired by the possibilities of the carnival; for the pianist the pinnacle is Schumann’s Carnaval, Op. 9, which is the focus of this CD. Also included on this disc are works on the same theme – and feature two première recordings This is the second is a trio of discs by Goldstone featuring piano transcriptions themed on forms of public spectacle, following “A Night at the Opera “ (DDA25067); the third “The Piano at the Ballet” is scheduled for release early in 2010.

Described by The New York Times as “a man whose nature was designed with pianos in mind”, Anthony Goldstone is one of Britain’s most respected pianists. He has enjoyed a career encompassing six continents, very many broadcasts and nearly seventy CDs. He has an adventurous approach to repertoire and has been praised by Vienna's Die Presse for “his astonishingly profound spiritual penetration”. In the last few years Goldstone has become known for his acclaimed completions and realisations of works for solo piano and piano duet by Schubert, and for two pianos and solo piano by Mozart, all of which he has recorded on Divine Art CDs. He is also one half of the acclaimed and brilliant piano duo Goldstone and Clemmow with his wife Caroline. The duo has made many CDs for Divine Art and other labels.