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Notes and Editorial Reviews
KHACHATURIAN
Spartacus:
Suite.
Gayaneh:
Suite.
Masquerade:
Suite
•
Yuri Simonov, cond; Royal PO
•
RPM 28640 (58:33)
Much vaunted, and as often critically derided, the Royal Philharmonic’s Masterworks Collection trundles ever onward with this release. Rather like the origins of the universe, the recording details of this disc seem shrouded in complex mystery. An
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innocent eye would interpret the two jewel case dates as an original recording date of 2007, and a reissue date of 2011—or at least that’s how my eye interprets it. But this is a pre-millennial project, recorded during the 1990s and originally out on Collins Classics. It was relatively soon taken up by Regis (RC 1041) and now reappears in the “Audiophile Collection.”
These machinations are interesting, but the music, and its performance, more so. Yuri Simonov is an individualist, unafraid of a fair degree of tempo extremes, but often as not alighting on one that seems just right. The “highlights” selections from
Gayaneh
and
Spartacus
, augmented by three movements from
Masquerade
, allow him to work with the ripest material. He tends, in the main, toward slower, more luxuriant tempi. His “Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia” is, by some way, slower than the composer in his 1962 recording in Vienna, and Alexander Gauk in his Bolshoi traversal in 1957, recorded when the work was still relatively hot off the press. He’s even slower in the panel celebrating the “Dance of the Maidens” and “Victory of Spartacus,” where his succulent rooting out of every musical crevice might well be thought too much of a good thing. I doubt it could easily be danced at this tempo, though it does suggest the Ravelian influence. But just when one complacently thinks Simonov too laid- back, he responds with a tautly pointed and drivingly exultant “Scene and Dance with Crotalums.”
Gayaneh
is perhaps more conventionally realized but equally characterful. He is pawkily insistent in the “Dance of the Rose Maidens,” much more so than Kirill Karabits in his new recording on Onyx, but less so than Tjeknavorian in his older version on RCA. His Hopak (here spelled Gopak) is good, though perhaps could be more incisive, while his “Sabre Dance” is driven, powerful, and tinged with manic drama. After which the three pieces from
Masquerade
offer warmly textured pleasures.
Simonov is helped by the vivid recording. There’s a role for the RPO’s concertmaster in the Nocturne from
Masquerade
and he is duly accorded up-front “Heifetz West Coast” seniority for his solo. The wind solos are strikingly present in
Spartacus,
the Adagio scene in particular. The percussion really have their heads in the “Crotalums” episode, but these are merely a few examples of a sound spectrum that offers blunt, even heroic melodrama. It is indeed something of a polar opposite to the new Karabits with its more diffuse spread. For music such as this, my own enthusiasm is for Simonov’s type of spectacular sound, and, where their selections match, strongly for Simonov’s performances, too, though not in preference to Khachaturian’s and Gauk’s selections in their own recordings of
Spartacus.
FANFARE: Jonathan Woolf
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Works on This Recording
1.
Gayaneh: Sabre Dance by Aram Khachaturian
Conductor:
Yuri Simonov
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1942/1957; USSR
Length: 2 Minutes 21 Secs.
2.
Gayaneh: Dance of the Rose Maidens by Aram Khachaturian
Conductor:
Yuri Simonov
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1942/1957; USSR
Length: 2 Minutes 46 Secs.
3.
Gayaneh: Lullaby by Aram Khachaturian
Conductor:
Yuri Simonov
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1942/1957; USSR
Length: 4 Minutes 44 Secs.
4.
Gayaneh: Lezghinka by Aram Khachaturian
Conductor:
Yuri Simonov
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1942/1957; USSR
Length: 2 Minutes 36 Secs.
5.
Gayaneh: Ayesha's Dance by Aram Khachaturian
Conductor:
Yuri Simonov
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Written: 1942 rev 1952 new ve
Length: 2 Minutes 50 Secs.
6.
Gayaneh: Gopak by Aram Khachaturian
Conductor:
Yuri Simonov
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1942/1957; USSR
Length: 3 Minutes 27 Secs.
11.
Masquerade: Romance by Aram Khachaturian
Conductor:
Yuri Simonov
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1941; USSR
Length: 4 Minutes 50 Secs.
12.
Masquerade: Nocturne by Aram Khachaturian
Conductor:
Yuri Simonov
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Period: Romantic
Written: 1941; USSR
Length: 4 Minutes 55 Secs.
13.
Masquerade: Waltz by Aram Khachaturian
Conductor:
Yuri Simonov
Orchestra/Ensemble:
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Period: 20th Century
Written: 1941; USSR
Length: 4 Minutes 6 Secs.
Sound Samples
Highlights from "Gayane": Sabre Dance
Highlights from "Gayane": Dance of the Rose Maidens
Highlights from "Gayane": Lullaby
Highlights from "Gayane": Lesghinka
Highlights from "Gayane": Ayesha's Dance
Highlights from "Gayane": Gopak
Highlights from "Spartacus": Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia
Highlights from "Spartacus": Dance of the Maidens and Victory of Spartacus
Highlights from "Spartacus": Scene and Dance with Crotalums
Highlights from "Spartacus": Variations of Aegina and Bacchanalia
Highlights from "Masquerade": Romance
Highlights from "Masquerade": Nocturne
Highlights from "Masquerade": Waltz
Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review: 
( 2 Customer Reviews )
Outstanding September 7, 2014
By Henry S. (Springfield, VA) See All My Reviews
"You have undoubtedly previously heard these well-known excerpts from 2 of Aram Khachaturian's ballet scores ('Gayane' and 'Spartacus'), plus music from a stage play ('Masquerade'). The question is, have you heard them performed like the royal Philharmonic Orchestra does on this exuberant recording? Answer- unlikely! Here is music with the distinctive fire, passion, and color of the Transcaucasus (Georgia and Armenia)played brilliantly by the RPO under Yuri Simonov's direction. The disks that I have listened to from the RPO's Masterworks series (the RPM label) are uniformly in the audiophile class, and so it is with this disk. Exciting musical scores, interpreted with panache by one of the really great world-class orchestras- that sums it up. Highly recommended."
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Sensitive January 19, 2014
By Alan B. (Bowie, MD) See All My Reviews
"A great collection of Khachaturian, especially the Spartacus work."
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