Pianist
Jean-Yves Thibaudet
has championed
Khachaturian
's
Piano Concerto in D flat major, Op. 38
, and he writes in a booklet note for this 2025 release that he had wanted to record it for two decades. He finally got this chance to do so when conductor
Gustavo Dudamel
programmed the work at Walt Disney Hall in November of 2023. This worked out all for the best; the performances, recorded over two nights, retain the energy of live performance, and what energy it is! This concerto was recorded quite a bit in the third quarter of the 20th century but seldom since then, perhaps because
, despite his inclusion on the notorious 1948 denunciation list of the Stalinists, has been perceived as a "Soviet" composer. It is time to reevaluate his status in general, and never more so than with this concerto. It brims with excitement and rhythmic tension akin to that in the famed Sabre Dance from the ballet
Gayane
(which is also included here in
Oscar Levant
's transcription for piano), interspersed with folkish slower episodes. Credit must go to
Thibaudet
for the work's rediscovery, but it also fits
Dudamel
's extroverted style beautifully. There are also some pieces for solo piano, some of them transcribed along with a Tchaikovskian set of programmatic
Pictures of Childhood
for piano originally. These, too, could be added to many a program, but the
Piano Concerto
performance here is nothing less than a demand to reform the piano concerto repertory. It is going to be heard again after this release, but one wonders whether it will be a while before anyone eclipses
's slashing work. ~ James Manheim