I remember an HMV 78rpm record arriving in the immediate post-war era containing three dances from Gayaneh, including the celebrated “Sabre Dance”, which caused an immediate sensation and straight away becoming a popular classical hit. Around the same time Max Rostal premiered the Violin Concerto (Khachaturian’s finest work) in London and I thought a major new Russian composer had arrived. But it was not to be. Much of his music is disappointing. Robert Layton wrote of the Second Symphony: “Its musical value is roughly in reverse proportion to the amount of noise made (and it is a very loud and very long score indeed)”. It was obvious from a complete RCA recording of the original score of Gayaneh, by the National Symphony Orchestra under Tjeknavorian, that Gayaneh was his finest extended work. Alas, later the composer rescored its music, not always to advantage. However, Khachaturian came to the West in 1962 and recorded superbly for Decca five items from Gayaneh and four from its successor, Spartacus, with the Vienna Philharmonic. Subsequently the BBC used the spectacularly beautiful “Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia” (truly worthy of Tchaikovsky) as theme music for their TV production of The Onedin Line. But my later visit to a Russian production of Spartacus itself in London revealed that it was very long, its music uneven and its choreography often spectacularly vulgar. All this is a preamble to the present disc, so outstandingly played by the excellent Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra under Kirill Karabits.

He is totally sympathetic to Khachaturian’s music and includes most of the best numbers from both ballets, including, from Gayaneh, the “Lezginka”, “Dance of the Girls”, an engaging “Scene and Dance”, the deliciously sinuous pas de deux for “Aysha and Gayaneh” and “Aysha’s Monologue”.The playing truly catches the eastern Armenian flavour which makes Khachaturian’s music so seductive. The selection from Spartacus includes six highlights including the Introduction to Act 2 and “Dance of the Nymphs”, the delicate “Adagio of Aegina and Harmodius”, the contrasting, sprightly “Variation of Aegenia and Bacchanalia”, the “Scene and Dance with Crotala” and a superbly passionate account of the justly famous “Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia”. This is now easily the best disc of Khachaturian’s ballet music in the catalogue, full of vibrant life and seductive lyricism, and the recording (made this year in the Lighthouse, Poole) is first class in every respect. Not to be missed.