# Khachaturian Symphony No.2 (new recording)



## techniquest (Aug 3, 2012)

Popping into the only classical music store anywhere within reasonable driving distance yesterday, I found a new Naxos release of Khachaturians' 2nd symphony. It is performed by the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra under Dmitry Yablonsky.
This was a moment of great excitement for me as I am a real fan of Khachaturian's symphonies and recordings of them are few and far between, so I was eager to hear this new disc, though it's worth mentioning that although this is a new release, the recording itself was made in 2006. It's the revised version of the symphony.
I'm not very familiar with the conductor Yablonsky; I disliked his Naxos recording of Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky, whereas I really liked his Shostakovich 7 "Leningrad" also on Naxos. Unfortunately, his Khachaturian 2 falls into the former camp; everything is fine until the change of pace in the 3rd movement (after the Dies Irae section). The first movement is pretty good although the strings sound very thin, and the second movement is very good - the best of the four in this recording. But in the third movement there are two big problems (i) the odd balance of sound means that what should be a very quiet opening is far too loud, while the climaxes lack weight and lose excitement; (ii) where the theme changes from the Dies Irae to a more rip-roaring 'Soviet' version of the main theme - after a slower than usual build up, it suddenly goes into breakneck speed which means just about everything other than blaring brass is lost, and it's such a marked change of pace that it simply can't get back to the andante tempo after this explosion and a movement which should be full of emotion 'a requiem of wrath' ends bereft of of any credibility.
The finale is where Khachaturian made most of his revisions trimming it substantially, and again in this recording the peculiar engineering makes for an episodic feel rather than a coherent movement. Towards the end it almost feels as though both the orchestra and conductor have had enough, are tired and just want to end. It's too fast, has no power (plenty of noise but no 'oomph') and loses all of the tension and emotion that's clearly there in the score.
So how does this recording fair against the competition? It's probably on a par with the 1993 Tjeknavorian / Armenian PO recording on ASV, but for the revised version of the symphony, the best is still the Vienna PO with the composer conducting (though the sound quality is not good). The very best _by far_ is the 1991 Chandos recording of the original version of the symphony by the Royal Scottish Orchestra and Neeme Jarvi.
As a post script, this new Naxos disc has as a filler 3 excerpts from Khachaturians' Lermontov Suite. It's instantly forgettable other than the far better recording balance which is immediately evident having suffered the woes of the last movement of the second symphony.
Disappointed? You bet!


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## Triplets (Sep 4, 2014)

I have to admit to not knowing the work, but I appreciate the review. I have many Yablonsky recordings and as you indicate, he can be all over the place; one time very good, the next time not so much
I envy you having a place to purchase new cDs within driving range


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