James Galway Plays Khachaturian

JAMES GALWAY (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 4, 2011)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: RCA
• ASIN: B000003EUP
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #377,421 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #11 in Music > Classical > Historical Periods > Modern, 20th, & 21st Century > Forms & Genres > Concertos

Track Listings

1. Con: Allegro Con Fermezza

2. Con: Andante Sostenuto

3. Con: Allegro Vivace

4. Spartacus: Adagio Of Spartacus And Phrygia

5. Masquerade: Waltz

6. Gayaneh: Sabre Dance

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb!, November 3, 2005

By 

JC (Somewhere) - See all my reviews

This review is from: James Galway Plays Khachaturian (Audio CD)

The Rampal transcription of the Violin Concerto is brilliantly played here by Galway, which is also one of the finest flute players around. The interpretation is smooth and vivid, with enough strenght on the needed passages, and taking care of the details. Khachaturian played in a very clever and brilliant way, highly recommended!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Could have been great, June 28, 2008

By 

Ralph Padgug (California, US) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: James Galway Plays Khachaturian (Audio CD)

I agree with the previous reviewer -- but he didn't say it strongly enough.

Both the original solo violin part -- AND the solo flute part as transcribed by Jean-Pierre Rampal -- have long passages in the lower register of the flute, which has a beautiful, dark timbre. That makes it terribly hard for a flutist to pull off a live performance of this concerto since the flute's lower register tends to be very soft.

James Galway has an amazing lower register -- one of the strongest of any flutist around, plus, since this is a recording, the flute can easily be miked up. Nevertheless, he chose to transpose much of the concerto up (TWO octaves, not one.) Instead of the rich, gutsy low tones, we get the shrill, piercing high register. Galway is a great flutist and he plays this kind of music very well, but he really missed the mark on this one. The composer's intentions are very clear as to what kind of sound he wanted, and Galway simply ignored them. A bad job -- also because whenever the part goes too high, Galway has to transpose back down one octave, sometimes jumping down right in the middle of a passage.

Good playing but poor (inexcusably so) musicianship on the flute concerto. The rest of the CD is beautiful, but the concerto is the reason I bought it.

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Galway's tone color too bright for Khachaturian!, January 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: James Galway Plays Khachaturian (Audio CD)

I was looking for a replacement of my recording of Jean-Pierre Rampal's rendition of the Flute Concerto, and decided to give Galway's version a spin. Khachaturian's Concerto is a smoldering melodic journey through the steppes of central Asia, using the flute's sonorous lower register to an unusual degree. Unfortunately, Galway's very first entrance was 8va!!! Galway's tone color is too bright throughout the performance, making this interpretation completely off the mark.

The Royal Philharmonic does an adequate job, better than the ORTF who accompanied Rampal.