KABALEVSKY : Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2 (Dmitry Yablonsky, In-Ju Bang) (2006) APE (image+.cue), lossless

Kabalevsky was born two years before Shostakovich and likewise studied with Myaskovsky among others, but he was the Good Boy, the Rollo, among Soviet composers: not once publicly reprimanded for deserting the party line, not even in Zhdanov’s denunciation of Shostakovich and Prokofiev among others in 1948. He composed solo works, concertos and symphonies during his lifespan of 83 years, and was celebrated as a teacher in later decades. His two best-known works in the west are the Overture to Colas Breugnon (a favorite of Toscanini and Reiner) and The Comedians, a lightweight suite of which Arthur Fiedler and his Boston “Pops” audiences were especially fond. The piano concertos were more conventional stuff for their time – No 1, written when Kabalevsky was 24, echoes Rachmaninov without comparable tunes, while No. 2 (1935, revised in 1972) is a virtual homage to Prokofiev’s Soviet-style sauciness (meaning easy on the hot sauce). In-Ju Bang, a prodigiously gifted Korean who was just 14 when she recorded these in 2004 – the year she won the gold medal in conductor Yablonsky’s Puigcerda Festival on the French-Spanish border, founded in 1998. Her program bio says that Bang (who doesn’t, although she can produce a formidable sonority) is studying this year at The Juilliard School. Yablonsky, whose mother (Oxana Yablonskaya) was a widely-praised pianist, and whose father was the Moscow Radio-TV Orchestra’s principal oboist, began his musical career as a cellist but started conducting in 1990, and by 1999 was appointed principal guest conductor of the Moscow Symphony. Three years later he was named Principal Conductor of the Russian Philharmonic (which raided several Russian orchestras for their best players), and obviously knows his business. At age 44, he deserves the kind of podium career other former-cellists have enjoyed, and Naxos has been making the most of him. The Russian State recording studio handles both dynamics and tonal extremes from top to bottom creditably. ClassicalCD

Dmitry Kabalevsky (1904-1987)

1-3    Piano Concerto No. 1 In A Minor, Op. 9 (1928)    (31:35)
4-6    Piano Concerto No. 2 In G Minor, Op. 23 (1935, Rev. 1973)    (24:26)

Conductor – Dmitry Yablonsky
Orchestra – Russian Philharmonic Orchestra
Piano – In-Ju Bang

KHACHATURIAN : Spartacus, Suite No. 4 • Masquerade • Circus (André Anichanov) (1996) FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

This 1994 Naxos release offers a sampling of Aram Khachaturian's ballet music. Colorful and exciting on the surface, yet banal, predictable, and ultimately shallow, these works are characteristic of Khachaturian's acquiescence to conservative Soviet taste and represent nothing so much as a surrender of personality. The Spartacus Suite No. 4 is full of exotic and martial moods that give a flavor of the ballet's ancient setting and heroic struggle. Even so, this epic score seems as generic and forced as a bad Hollywood soundtrack, especially in its hackneyed fanfares, tiresome climaxes, and overly lush writing for the strings. Khachaturian's incidental music for Lermontov's Masquerade hearkens back to romantic models, ostensibly with an ironic purpose. While the music is inoffensive, it is nonetheless as faceless as any pastiche must be. "Circus," a gaudy suite without a trace of inspiration or even one memorable melody, is the program's low point. The St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra, led by André Anichanov, performs the first three selections with vigor and sincere involvement, yet that is not enough to make these works captivating. The Moscow Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Dmitry Yablonsky, gives Khachaturian's innocuous Dance Suite an effective reading, oddly making this slight student work the most interesting item on the disc. by Blair Sanderson  

Aram Khatchaturian (1903-1978)

Spartacus Suite No. 4    
Conductor – André Anichanov
Orchestra – St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra

Masquerade (Suite From The Drama)
Conductor – André Anichanov
Orchestra – St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra

Circus (Music From The Ballet)    
Conductor – André Anichanov
Orchestra – St. Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra

Dance Suite
Conductor – Dmitry Yablonsky
Orchestra – Moscow Symphony Orchestra