Khachaturian revived

It is fair to say that the music of Aram Khachaturian has fallen off the radar rather on disc in recent years. That doesn't necessarily mean its popularity overall has diminished, for a lot of this music remains popular due to exposure in films and on television, but there is a genuine space in the catalogue for a modern digital recording that can give these scores the colourful interpretations they need.

That space can now be considered closed, thanks to the second recording in partnership from the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and their new principal conductor Kirill Karabits, who has made his own selections from Spartacus and Gayaneh to comfortably fill a single disc. Karabits is a charismatic Ukranian, relatively young for a conductor at 34, but one who has the measure of these stage works and their potential.

You only have to head straight to the Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia to see what I mean, with some lovely, opulent textures, perhaps not hitting the full intensity of the composer's red blooded recording with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, but swooning gracefully nonetheless.

It is actually in the less familiar music that these recordings fully prove their worth. During Spartacus the violins are beautifully poised, nowhere more so than in the Adagio of Aegina and Harmodius, and the charming Variation that follows. In the Dance of the Gadiatnian Maidens it is easier to trace Khachaturian's musical heritage to Mussorgsky as the orchestra responds to a mellow clarinet solo, before Karabits revs the orchestra's engine to a thrilling climax. The Scene and Dance with Crotala, meanwhile, trips along attractively, the melodies always to the fore but with a glassy clarity in the recording that suits the music well. Any more clarity and it would be spotlit, but the engineers seem to have got this one just right.

Gayaneh proves every bit as enjoyable, the raucous Lezginka shaking a leg, while the inflections of the violins' melodies in the Carpet embroidery scene are brilliantly turned. Aysha's Monologue swings nicely, the violins enjoying their melodic freedom. Just occasionally there is too much reverb in numbers such as the Scene and Dance, where the brass sound as if they are up the other end of a large room. Definition in the Sword Dance, which most people know as the Sabre Dance, is very fine, the excitement levels high throughout.

These are just the sort of recordings scores like Spartacus and Gayaneh need, with vivid orchestral colours and interpretations that are packed with charm, wit and rhythmic bounce. As such they are hugely rewarding.

Spending time with Mozart

For the last 12 days, my musical New Year diet has consisted of little more than Mozart. It was never going to be possible to donate 100% of my time to his music over this period, but other than necessary diversions (British Sea Power, Hindemith, Fujiya & Miyagi and Anna Calvi) the vast majority has been spent in the company of Wolfgang Amadeus.

The reason for this intensive study is BBC Radio 3's Genius of Mozart season, a 12 day project playing every note the composer penned on the radio. Previously the Beeb have subjected the likes of Bach, Beethoven, Webern and a memorable double act of Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky to this intensive treatment, yet the chance to hear this applied to Mozart didn’t grab me initially.

The problem – with me, at any rate – seems one borne of respect rather than love. It is easy to appreciate Mozart's genius, either through wide-eyed wonder that he had written more than 20 symphonies by the end of his teens, or through his mastery of form, instrumentation, harmony and above all melody.

Yet if you asked me who I liked more, Haydn or Mozart, Haydn would win almost every time. Finding reasons for this is difficult, but in the end I prefer his wit, his profusion of melody and above all the sense that his really is music for the people.

That said Radio 3's festival has reaffirmed some Mozart works in my mind. Few late night treats can equal listening to the Gran Partita, the serenade for 13 wind instruments. None of the piano concertos, especially no.9 and upwards of the teens, are found wanting, and the symphonies remain incredibly involving too. For me the performance of no.39 from the ever capable Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment was easily the best performance of the week.

Some Mozart I can take or leave, which isn't meant to sound dismissive and arrogant, but to say that it functions as intended – as background music - or doesn't always move me. Some of the Divertimenti (save the String Trio masterpiece) and the serenades fall into this category, while some early works do feel as if they are going through the motions. The piano sonatas, too, I find largely functional, though they retain the capability to surprise when you least expect them to.

The real winners, for me, have been found within the chamber music, which can totally absorb the mind. Each of the 'Haydn' quartets is a delight, as are the four mature String Quintets, one of the forms that Mozart truly pioneered. Also proving unexpectedly magnetic were shorter works for piano, including the Rondo in A minor K511 and the Fantasy in D minor K397. Both seem to generate the extra intensity Mozart found when working in a minor key, which can also be said of the Adagio and Fugue in C minor K546, for string quartet.

As yet Mozart's operas remain beyond my reach - the problem most certainly my end rather than the composer's, as I continue to strip away at my previous indifference to classical opera. But for now, the chamber music will do just fine.

I have grouped together some of my favourite Mozart from this intriguing series, in the form of a Spotify playlist:
The Genius of Mozart