January 6, 2014

  • Ballets from Azerbaijan: Music of Kara Karayev

     

    Karayev: The Seven Beauties; The Path of Thunder
    Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Dmitry Yablonsky
    Naxos 8.573122
    Total Time:  69:22
    Recording:   ****/****
    Performance: ****/****

    Nearly three decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall and shift in the political world of the Soviet Union, most of the West is still discovering the music from, composers active in the 20th Century behind the Iron Curtain.  Sometimes, the life and music of Shostakovich and Prokofiev has firmly found a place in modern classical music in the West, while it is slowly becoming reintroduced to its homeland in some instances.  In the case of Kara Karayev (1918-1982), we get a chance to experience work from one of Shostakovich’s pupils.  Karayev is a native Azerbaijanian and his music does take folk and nationalist tendencies as one of its many components.  He also managed to latch on to some of the harmonic ideas of his teacher coupled with unique approaches to orchestration.   All of this is on display here in this new release of ballet music, the second disc featuring music by this composer from Naxos..

    The first of these is a suite from the ballet The Seven Beauties. The music first took form as a suite in 1949, but then was reshaped into the first full-length Azerbaijani ballet a few years later and which is the source for the present recording.  The thirty-minute work opens with a truly delightful grand waltz that feels more like Khachaturian and has a rather filmic quality.  A slow adagio features a gorgeous horn solo that is quite out of the latter 19th Century but with modern string harmonics often moving in unique ways underneath in its opening bars.  “The Dance of the Clowns” follows.  The bulk of the suite then shifts to nine smaller ethnic dance pieces depicting “The Seven Portraits.”  These are essentially the sort of folk characteristic dances that populate ballet music and provide interesting folk inflections.  The sinuous introduction gives way a host of “beauties” from exotic locales.  The music here is mostly traditional tonally with some interesting dissonant chords to indicate its somewhat 20th-century edge that some may find have parallels in Miklos Rozsa’s film scores of the period (with a wonderful climax in “The Most Beautiful of The Beauties”).  Some unique percussion work appears in the final section of the suite with additionally interesting dance rhythms and orchestral writing.  It is an overall engaging work.

    The second work, The Paths of Thunder (1958), bears a dedication to Prokofiev and is another ballet here inspired by Peter Abrahams novel of the same title.  Issues of biracial love are explored in this rather edgy work set in Cape Town, South Africa.  This second ballet suite is cast in seven movements.  Here, Karayev explores African and African-American musics in the way he approached the exotic dances in the previous work.  The music here is perhaps a bit more modern in places.  “The Dance of the Black Community” seems like something out of a John Barry score at times.  Whereas “Night in Stilleveld” (and the subsequent “Scene and Duet” with a darker romantic quality) moves into a sort of Impressionistic flow that one hears mimicked in American film music of the period.  The repeated melodic material and interesting accents are equally interesting to hear unfold with some almost Stravinsky-like orchestral writing as well.  The ballet received the Lenin Prize in 1967 and was an important repertoire piece for the Kirov.  Again, fascinating orchestration along with accessible harmony and interesting thematic ideas make this an easily recommendable work.

    Many will find that Karayev’s work is like a combination of Khachaturian with Alfred Newman and Miklos Rozsa.  That is not necessarily a bad thing in these engaging works.  Prior to this release, there was a Russian Disc performance of these works that was reissued by Delos (and maybe Olympia) at one point.  This modern RPO version allows for a new and budget-priced way to introduce oneself to this music.  These works have that film-like scope that should make it equally attractive to many listeners.  The RPO’s performances are committed and allow for some interesting detail to be heard.  It shows off various sections of the orchestra quite well making it a great way to lift up the musicians of the orchestra.  The sound is also quite good.  Overall this is an interesting set of modern ballets that some will find quite fascinating.  They are closer to 1950s Hollywood oddly than one might expect recalling epic scoring especially.