The music world has known the outstanding artist Menahem Pressler for more than half a century. He was the heart of the famous Beaux Arts Trio, and in 2008, when the trio decided to separate, a memorable solo career restarted. At the age of 90, the grand master of the piano gave his long overdue debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker.

James Galway plays Khachaturian es una muestra más del gran virtuosismo de este excelente flautista que con su sonido extraordinario y peculiar, demuestra porque es uno de los mas sobresalientes musicos del siglo XX y cuya carrera de solista es arrolladora desde comienzos de los 70. El concierto de Khachaturian es un concierto exigentísimo, compuesto originalmente para violín, se escucha con una originalidad y frescura desbordante.

Yuri Temirkanov's Royal Philharmonic recording has been around for a long time; it was recorded in 1986 and has been in the catalog ever since – for good reason. Temirkanov is always sensitive to the exotic nature of these scores, particularly Spartacus, and he brings excitement to the varied colorful dances of both ballets. His recording is more full-bodied than the Bolshoi CD; no under-staffed orchestra here, and their rich sounds have been superbly captured by EMI's engineers.

The flute playing of Patrick Gallois epitomizes several of the prime virtues of the French flute tradition; fine-spun liquidity of tone, delectable phrasing and exemplary breath control, and, when required, the ability to project and capture the attention of the listener, even across full blown orchestral tuttis. But these qualities aside, Gallois is an artist of evident distinction and innate musicality, and I have no hesitation in commending this new recording of works by Rodrigo and Khachaturian to any collector, who, like myself, may have only a limited appetite for the flute!

Gayane was conceived as a ballet in four acts and six scenes. Based, in its original version, on a libretto by Konstantin Derzhavin, it was first staged in December 1942 in Perm, where the Kirov Ballet had been evacuated. Choreography was by Anasimova and decor by Natan Altman. It was restaged in Leningrad in 1945 by the Kirov and in 1957 in another version by the Moscow Bolshoy.

The world's greatest male dancer, Carlos Acosta, dances the greatest male ballet lead Spartacus, in Grigorovich's famous Soviet ballet, created for the Bolshoi to Khachaturian's famous score. Following sensational performances in Moscow and London in 2007, the Bolshoi's production was re-staged and filmed in January 2008 in the Paris Opera's Palais Garnier, especially for Carlos.