Daniel Raiskin

In the 1960s Aram Khachaturian engaged in a number of experiments in which he covered terrain situated at an astonishing distance from the immediately appealing tone of the works that he had composed prior to those years. These experiments included the first of his three concert rhapsodies, in which he completely emancipated himself from the established forms that he had filled out in his concertos for piano, violin, and violoncello, which already then were world famous. While the virtuosic ambitions of the rhapsodies are in no way inferior to the technical demands of their older sister works, he now requires what is perhaps an even higher measure of expressive shared experiencing and solo messaging.

"The main attraction on this disc is the Berio orchestral arrangement of the Clarinet Sonata op.120/1. Like Schoenberg, it’s a harmonically and melodically “straight” transcription, not a modern re-imagining of the work. Berio, no stranger to orchestrations and adaptations - Puccini’s Turandot, works by Schubert, Mahler, and Verdi - tackled this last major work of Brahms’ for reasons we don’t know. Iosif Raiskin speculates that the tinges of Mahler in late Brahms may have been a reason for the Mahler-loving Berio. Be that as it may, the result is a wonderfully graceful Brahms Clarinet Concerto.

Written when Busoni was an only 12, the concerto may be reminiscent of Mendessohn, with shades of Hummel and Beethoven too - but even if it doesn't sound like mature Busoni, it is still a fascinating document of the youthful composer's uncannily advanced technique.

It did not take long before symphonic music had taken a central role in Louis Glass’ compositional career. He was thirty when he completed his first symphony in 1894 and by the end of 1899, his second was already finished. Two more years went by before he composed his third, the Forest Symphony. However, it was seven years before he wrote his next symphony. In 1905, Glass began work on his fourth symphony while he was finishing up his String Quartet in F-sharp Minor Op. 35, one of his main chamber music works. The symphony was completed in 1908; however, it was only premiered on 20 March 1911, when it was performed in Copenhagen by the Danish Concert Society. The conductor was the later Royal Conductor Georg Høeberg, who had never conducted a symphony by Glass before, although he had performed the chamber music of his friend several times. Among other pieces, he participated in the premiere of the Second Violin Sonata, which Louis Glass had completed in 1904 and had dedicated to the Høeberg, who also an outstanding violinist. The fourth symphony immediately attracted attention and was not only performed in Copenhagen many times from 1912 to 1933 but also abroad: 1912 in St. Petersburg, 1918 in Christiania (Oslo), 1919 in Stockholm, 1920 and 1926 in Helsinki, 1928 in Wiesbaden and 1930 in Warsaw. In the first four years after the composer’s death (1936), it was played three more times; afterwards, there have been no other public performances.

Aram Khachaturian conquered the world with the boundless delight he took in composing. His Sabre Dance found its place in advertising, his Adagio from the ballet Spartacus accompanied a cult series, and prominent ice skating pairs danced their way into the hearts of their spectators to the Waltz from his stage music to Lermontov's Masquerade. On the other side, his symphonic music and concertante works even today continue to attract the greatest conductors and soloists. A unique, often imitated, but never reproduced synthesis consisting of fascinating instrumental virtuosity, exotic melodies, highly imaginative harmonies, and irresistible rhythmic spirit distinguishes the three concertos and three concert rhapsodies written by Aram Khachaturian during 1936-46 and 1961-67, and this double trilogy begins its cpo journey with the earliest and latest of these works.

This is a repackaging in a budget priced twofer of previously released singles, both Read more Legends for cello and piano, received two reviews, one by William Zagorski and another by Martin Anderson, both in 24:4. By now it is well known that Heinrich von Herzogenberg (1843–1900) practically worshipped Brahms. But it wasn’t enough for him to try to imitate the elder composer’s style; he ended up marrying the woman that Brahms had proposed marriage to and then reneged on.