Aram Khachaturian; Sergei Taneyev - Violin Concerto; Suite de concert (David Oistrakh)

Information

Composer: Aram Khachaturian; Sergei Taneyev

• Khachaturian - Violin Concerto in D minor
• Taneyev - Suite de concert, Op. 28

David Oistrakh, violin

Philharmonia Orchestra

Aram Khachaturian, conductor

Nikolai Malko, conductor

Date: 1954; 1956

Label: EMI

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Review

The great Raymond Chandler once had his careworn knight errant Philip Marlowe describe Khachaturian as "imitating a tractor factory. He called it a violin concerto. I call it a broken fan belt." Anyone care to remind me which of the novels that came from. Given that I regard Chandler very highly I wish I could agree with Marlowe. As it is I think it is one of Marlowe’s less pungent and miscalculated witticisms – clever-ish but off the mark. At the time – mid-1940s wartime USA the concerto was playing with every major and minor state orchestra. The USA (stars and stripes) and USSR (stars and hammers and sickles) were for a few years locked in alliance and everything seemed possible.

The Khachaturian is an extremely attractive piece which taps into the Armenian’s usual exotically sinuous folk-roots in the Andante sostenuto. The outer movements are driven along on a blast of rhythmic energy and in the finale a hiccupping Russian dance – nothing ethnic about this dance.

This version which majors on the voluptuous was one of three works recorded at the Kingsway Hall in 1954 by the composer with the Philharmonia. The others were excerpts from Gayaneh and the Masquerade Suite. You can hear all of them if you can track down the 1993 Khachaturian instalment in the EMI Composer in Person series on CDC 555035.

This is a satisfying performance and far from being unvirtuosic but there are more hothouse performances including a fierily excellent one from Leonid Kogan on Russian Revelation if you can find it. 

The Reger-expansive suite by Taneyev was written for Leopold Auer. It is a classic performance that has been repeatedly reissued so you may have it in other couplings. I first came across it on LP But a little more recently as part of EMI’s mid-1990s Matrix series in which it formed volume 20 (EMI 5 65419 2) with the Rostropovich/Sargent Miaskovsky Cello concerto. The Suite makes for a discursive and pleasing ramble without being pungently Russian in feeling. Malko, whose superb recordings of the first and last Prokofiev symphonies should be better known, is a sure and temperamental orchestral guide. The orchestra is very nicely placed in relation to the soloist. This registers strongly in the Keel Row-reminiscent Tarantella finale in which the ripely singing solo counterpoints deliciously with the Massenet-style percussion.

The well pitched and interesting liner-notes are by Tully Potter. These are supplemented with some a couple of session photos and the cover sports a reproduction of the front sleeve of the first LP issue of the Khachaturian.

This disc offers a Khachaturian Violin Concerto not short of fireworks but with the emphasis on the voluptuous and the languid and a classic version of the rare Taneyev Suite. 

— Rob Barnett

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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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Sergey Taneyev (25 November 1856 – 19 June 1915) was a Russian composer, pianist and teacher. Educated at the Moscow Conservatory, he later succeeded Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky as professor and served as its director from 1885 to 1889. Renowned for his intellectual rigor, Taneyev devoted much of his life to the study of counterpoint, culminating in a major two-volume theoretical work completed in 1909. His compositions include the opera Oresteia, four symphonies, six string quartets, and choral works. Highly respected as a pedagogue, Taneyev was also a distinctive personality within Russian cultural life.

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David Oistrakh (30 September 1908 – 24 October 1974) was a Soviet Russian violinist, violist, and conductor, who is acclaimed for his exceptional technique and tone production. He graduated from the Odessa Conservatory in 1926 and made his Moscow debut in 1929. Oistrakh gave recitals throughout the Soviet Union and eastern Europe and in 1937 won first prize in the Eugène Ysaÿe violin competition. From 1934 he taught violin at the Moscow Conservatory. Oistrakh was first heard in western Europe and the United States through his recordings for Melodiya. From 1951 he toured extensively in Europe and the United States.

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