Customer Reviews

Khachaturian: Violin Concerto; Concerto-Rhapsody

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What? Two Khachaturian concerti? Didn't he just write one, the big one in D Minor, the one recorded so beautifully by Oistrakh (its dedicatee) and Kogan? Well, yes. But he also wrote a one-movement folk-inflected Concerto-Rhapsody for Violin and Orchestra that lasts almost thirty minutes. And as far as I know they have never been presented on the same CD before. [This Concerto-Rhapsody is not to be confused with the one for cello and orchestra recorded so spectacularly by Mstislav Rostropovich some years ago. There is a third Concerto-Rhapsody for piano and orchestra that I've never heard, although I notice that it, too, is recorded on Naxos and coupled with Khachaturian's once very popular piano concerto.]

There was a time when Khachaturian's violin concerto was played a lot. I suppose it's a bit vulgar and glitzy, but it's a real crowd pleaser that never fails. And I admit I love it. It seems to me I heard it just about every couple of years in concert. But it's been quite a while since I've heard it live. Probably the best-known recording is that by David Oistrakh; he recorded it several times but the one I know and love the first one, from 1944, on Pearl. The sound on that disc is pretty dated. Leonid Kogan made a dynamic version in the 1950s as did Aaron Rosand some year later. Mihaela Martin, a Romanian violinist, takes a somewhat less brash approach to the concerto, especially in the second movement, And she sticks to Khachaturian's own first-movement cadenza, not the flashier one written by Oistrakh. Her orchestral accompaniment by the National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine under American conductor Theodore Kuchar is first-rate and in sparkling sound.

The Concerto-Rhapsody was written for Leonid Kogan in 1961. As the name implies, it is more rhapsodic than the concerto and after the candenza-like violin entrance it takes on an Armenian folk coloration. The soaring main theme doesn't arrive until midway and it then pretty much dominates from then on.

It's nice to have both pieces on the same disc. And these are very good performances in modern sound. And then there's the budget price.

Scott Morrison

Well, Khachaturian wrote a bit more
music other than his now famous ballet
(Gayne,Spartacus,etc.).His Violin Concerto
recorded here, is a large scale work,
in the vein of the famous "warhorses" of
the 19th century(Tchaikovsky's Brahms's,Beethoven's).
This work is Khachaturian'only work designated
as a Violin Concerto; however, it was later
arrenged for flute and orchestra. The "so called"
Concerto-Rhapsody recorded here is one of three
compositions with that title, the other two
are for piano and for cello. The Concerto-Rhapsody
for piano and orchestra won the composer a
Stalin Prize. Both works on this recording are loaded
with Armenian and Slavic sounding melodies, at times
both works are nostalgic, meditative and contemplative.
Maestro Kuchar, violinist Martin, and the Ukranians
do a wonderful job, the sound is great too...

First a disclaimer: I am very much able to curb my enthusiasm for Khachaturian concertante works. The violin concerto is big and bold and painted in somewhat garish pastel colors; no match for the Prokofiev concertos, say, nor even for Kabalevsky. The much later Concerto-Rhapsody is more challenging - subtler and more probing, but quite some distance away from being anywhere in the vicinity of a masterpiece. Martin's approach to the solo part of the concerto is a little heavy-handed as well, though with lots of warmth in the meandering second movement of the concerto -and the same goes for the orchestral part, although Kuchar is able to whip up some appropriate intensity here. Overall, then, this decent but slightly dull playing of a decent but slightly dull work. Martin's and Kuchar's approach works better in the Concerto-Rhapsody, but the end result is not particularly memorable, neither in terms of musical content nor performances. Sound quality is good, however. This is all in all a worthwhile disc, then, although hardly a mandatory acquisition.