Search - Mily Balakirev, Alexander Borodin, Aram Khachaturian :: Islamey

Rare excerpts from "Gayane"

aestheticallypleasing | 04/22/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Most recordings of the "Gayane" ballet suites, and even of the complete ballet, omit the two excerpts that are my favorites: "Cotton Picking" and "Rug Weavers".

These dances ooze with exotic flavoring, repetitive motifs that urge those inclined to dance -like myself - to get up and dance, in slow, graceful, rhythmic patterns and swirls. I love the incorporation of Armenian folk melodies in Khachaturian's music. The "Cotton Picking" and "Rug Weavers" themes seem to me Middle Eastern in a cinematic way. I imagine them being used in a film as background music to scenes of caravans in the desert, or of dancing girls swaying while throwing rose petals in a sardar's procession. I also like the other Gayane music in this CD, and Borodin's symphoney, but already have the same pieces on other recordings. I'm not a fan of Shostakovich, but I love Balakirev's "Islamey", here played by orchestra, not piano. "Islamey" is another Orientalist piece that makes me imagine a scene on Cleopatra's barge in which she seduces Marc Anthony, in the old Claudette Colbert "Cleopatra" from the 1930s, with servants waving huge feather fans to the sinuous melodies in "Islamey." All pieces in this CD are well performed to my non-musician's ears. The CD is worth gold to me for the "Cotton Picking" and "Rug Weavers" alone."