Aram Khachaturian (1903–1978) was known for drawing inspiration from the folk music of his native Armenia, with its characteristic scale progressions of Caucasian melodies, but the music in his Masquerade Suite seems almost as if it could have been drawn from Tchaikovsky.

         Which can be at least partially explained by the fact that Khachaturian composed it originally as incidental music for a play written in 1836, just four years before Tchaikovsky’s birth.  Masquerade, by Mikhail Lemontov, considered the supreme poet of Russian literature alongside Pushkin and the greatest figure in Russian Romanticism, was revived in Moscow in 1941, and Khachaturian was asked to write incidental music for it.

         The play deals with the aristocracy of Czarist Russia, and in order to get the flavor that period in Russian music, Khachaturian immersed himself in romances and waltzes from Lermontov’s time.

         In 1944, Khachaturian reworked the play’s incidental music into a five-movement symphonic suite.  It contains some of Khachaturian’s most frequently heard melodies.

         The first — “Waltz,” is probably the most familiar.   “Nocturne” — is an extended violin solo joined by passages by horn and clarinet.

         The next two — “Mazurka” and “Romance” — will be familiar even to many who seldom listen to classical music, because they have found their way so often into the soundtracks of movies:  “Mazurka” is a sprightly dance.  “Romance” is a gentle mood piece.

         The suite ends with “Galop” — a rousing can-can worthy of Orpheus.