Most of the one-movement concerto-rhapsodies Aram Khachaturian manufactured in the 1960s are less familiar than the concertos he composed for the same instruments earlier in his career, although none is without merit. Malcolm MacDonald, in his booklet-note for the present issue, goes so far as to suggest that the Concerto-Rhapsody in B flat minor, written to showcase the talents of the great Leonid Kogan, is ‘probably a finer work than the better-known 1940 Violin Concerto’. I’m not sure I can agree. While Khachaturian’s self-consciously Armenian harmonic language has developed, his structural thinking remains loose. According to the composer himself, ‘A concerto is music with chandeliers burning bright; a rhapsody is music with chandeliers dimmed, and the concerto-rhapsodies are both’. More practically, MacDonald suggests a family resemblance to the rhapsodies of Liszt, Bartók and Enescu. You can look forwards to some intriguingly dark, cinematic sonorities and plentiful opportunities for soloistic display – you might also notice a dearth of truly memorable melody!

On CD the Concerto-Rhapsody is usually attached to the Violin Concerto. Hideko Udagawa, who some years ago recorded other Khachaturian alongside Boris Berezovsky for the Koch label, prefers to explore relatively uncharted waters. In the event, the Sonata-Monologue proves disappointingly cautious in idiom. And the exceedingly well-wrought, ‘academic’ Lyapunov Concerto, placed between, risks coming across as a non sequitur. Written to the Glazunov formula in 1915 and revised in 1921, it is markedly less individual than, say, the epic Second Symphony championed, long after Lyapunov’s death, by Evgeni Svetlanov (Naïve, 10/04). It might yet catch on in today’s backwards-looking musical climate but needs a Shaham or a Vengerov.

In the 25 years since she first appeared on disc Hideko Udagawa has lost none of her old-school commitment and fire. Sadly her intonation, never a strong point, here sounds distinctly fallible, so unless you warm to the idiosyncratic programme I’m afraid I must refer you to existing alternatives. Her collaborators sound merely dutiful.