Aram Khachaturian - Spartacus; Gayaneh

Information

Composer: Aram Khachaturian; Alexander Glazunov

• Khachaturian - Spartacus
• Khachaturian - Gayaneh
• Glazunov - The Seasons, Op. 67

Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

Aram Khachaturian, conductor

Orchestre de la Suisse Romande

Ernest Ansermet, conductor

Date: 1962; 1966

Label: Decca

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Review

These are three releases from the second wave of Decca's "Legends" series. This series, which debuted last year, presents classic recordings from the Decca (and allied labels) catalogue in new 96kHz, 24-bit "super digital transfers." Although some "Legends" discs will appeal to strict audiophiles, the purpose of the series is to celebrate the label's finest performers, and to put the recordings themselves into a historical perspective by including session photographs, reproductions of the original covers, and commentaries by individuals associated with the recording sessions, whenever possible.

Khachaturian and Glazunov are a strange pair, even though both were Russian and both composed effective and attractive music for the ballet. Khachaturian recorded music from Spartacus and Gayaneh several times. The 1962 recording preserved here paired him with an unparalleled orchestra and Decca's best engineering. In the booklet notes, John Culshaw recounts how unimpressively the original records sold until a decade later, when the BBC chose an excerpt from Spartacus for their television show The Onedin Line. Within weeks, Decca recouped their losses.

Khachaturian's fame doesn't rest on his podium talents. Nevertheless, he had sufficient skill to conduct disciplined and exciting recordings of his own scores. The vulgarity that other conductors afflict them with is absent here; clearly Khachaturian believed in his own music, even when others did not. The selection of numbers is standard. Khachaturian selects four numbers from Spartacus and five from Gayaneh, including the infamous "Sabre Dance," and also "Gayaneh's Adagio," which Stanley Kubrick used to good effect in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Several other recordings omit the last number, which is a shame, because it is hypnotically beautiful.

Spartacus and Gayaneh embody the ideals of Socialist realism. The Seasons, on the other hand, comes from a completely different world, one where classical (albeit decadent) beauty was enough. The music is of the highest quality. Classical radio stations such as WQXr in New York City have used its tunes as program themes – a testimony to the music's compulsive memorability. Ansermet knew his way around Russian ballet music like Julia Child knows her way around roasts; my only reservation is the fast tempo he chooses for autumn's Bacchanale. L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, while not the most refined of orchestras, certainly was among the most distinctive in 1966, when these recordings were made. Here again, the engineering is excellent.

— Raymond Tuttle

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Aram Khachaturian (6 June 1903 – 1 May 1978) was a Soviet Armenian composer and conductor. Born in Tbilisi, Georgia, he studied at the Gnessin Musical Institute and the Moscow Conservatory with Nikolai Myaskovsky, among others. As a young composer, he was influenced by contemporary Western music, particularly that of Maurice Ravel. In his Symphony No. 1 and later works, this influence was supplanted by a growing appreciation of folk traditions. His other works include Symphonies No. 2 & No. 3, the symphonic suite Masquerade, the ballet Spartacus, concertos, as well as film scores and incidental music.

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