About Classical Music

by Tamer Salama

Khachaturian lovely melodies, beautiful orchestration and rich textures got me by the hook. Over the past few days I found myself rediscovery his violin concerto. Listening and re-listening to different performances and interpretations.

The concerto is a great amalgamation of some of Khachaturian’s most memorable melodies, themes, and orchestrations. It still doesn’t beat his Spartacus ballet for me, but it’s close.

I couldn’t stop bopping my head as I’m listening to this part in particular. Goosebumps on repeat.

https://youtu.be/YuN7P0w5qWI?t=34m18s

The performance of the Amaury Coeytaux and the Spanish Radio and Television Orchestra directed by Michael Francis is magnificent (but perhaps a bit too fast).

Here’s another exceptional performance starting at the same measure (point) in the third movement. This time by Yoonshin Song with Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) directed by Fabien Gabel. Yoonshin is the concertmaster (primary violin) for the DSO, lucky them.

I feel that the sound producers might’ve missed a great opportunity to shine some light at the great musical picture being painted at that particular part by the orchestra. The violin is taking more of an accompanying role – virtuoso accompanying. There are great melodies and orchestration in the background that I would love to listen to without the violin.

The syncopated base is so wondrous – makes your brain go wild trying to fit all of the musical colors together. I scratched my head a bit to identify the base instrument, turned out to be the harp, alongside the cellos (The great Khachaturian orchestrations had a prominent role for the harp).

Here’s another pompous performance where the harp is shown handling the base (again starting at the same point). This production accents the sound of the orchestra a bit so you can listen the great dialog between the violin and the different instruments. Make sure you listen the great syncopated base.

As I was writing this article, I found out that Khachaturian wrote the concerto for the talented David Oistrakh.

We are lucky to have an excellent recording available with Khachaturian conducting the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra and Oistrakh as the soloist (Thank you YouTube!). I couldn’t believe that this excellent sound production was made in the fifties. Here it is starting at the same point – but I encourage you to listen to the whole recording.

Wonderful interpretation by Andrea Bacchetti. I wanted to share, almost a note by note, Andrea’s interpretation. Each and every one of them is a masterpiece. I could spend hours going through the hows and whys of Bach, Andrea, Massimilano and the Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto.

Another wonderful creator in this interpretation is the record and sound producer(s) – excellent work. The clarity is just incredible and it’s especially true for a live concert. Together with Andrea, they created almost a harpsichord-like clarity, with the depth and warmth of a piano. Listen to how Andrea lays out the notes and how each is clearly heard in both its individual glory and its majestic flow (the video is linked to the third movement).

It remains a mystery why one can appreciate this kind of music while others don’t.

Now, do yourself a favor and listen to the full concerto.