ARAM KHACHATURIAN  PIANO CONCERTO
in D♭ major, Op 38 (1936)

The Khachaturian piano concerto is a masterpiece of the concerto literature.  I've loved it all my life but have never heard it performed in concert.  It was composed for Lev Oborin, a member of a glorious piano trio of the Soviet era and is the work that made the composer famous in the west.  Khachaturian also wrote concerti for David Oistrakh (in 1940) and Sviatoslav Knushevitsky (in 1946), the violinist and cellist of the celebrated trio.

There are several excellent performances here. The world premier recording by William Kapell accompanied by Koussevitsky is phenomenal and is probably my favorite (now removed, alas).  I also adore Oscar Levant's reading and Jakov Flier's.  And the one by Moura Lympany who premiered the work in Great Britain has long been a favorite of mine.

Please also note the extraordinary performance by Pnina Salzman, the slow movement of which is the most deliciously and languidly seductive of any I have heard.

My latest discoveries are two recordings by the Lebanese-born, Eastman trained pianist Dora Serviarian Kuhn whose phrasing, most especially in the 2014 recording with an Armenian orchestra equal to the task, reveals details of the Khachaturian piano concerto, a great and under appreciated  chef-d'oeuvre.

OSCAR LEVANT
American pianist (1906 - 1972)
Dimitri Mitropoulos conducting the New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra

i Allegro ma non troppo e maestoso
14:59 ➢ ii Andante con anima
25:49 ➢ iii Allegro brillante

recorded in 1950