Towards the end of his life there were almost 50 CDs containing works by Hovhaness. Many were all-Hovhaness CDs, a major achievement for a contemporary composer, and a testament to the communicative power of his music across different geographies. Dozens of LPs were issued in the 1950s, 60s and 70s, but are now unavailable, though some have been reissued in CD format. Apart from the USA, new CD releases have come from Britain, Germany and France. Below is a shortlist for those who wish to better acquaint themselves with his works.

Although fine CDs have been released of his piano, vocal and chamber works, this inevitably personal selection clearly favours the orchestral works. Priority went to more striking works (in a catalogue well-laden with striking works) and faithful performances. All too often, conductors have over-interpreted Hovhaness, adding drama which is simply not in the score. For this reason, transferred older recordings conducted by Hovhaness himself have been favoured over more recent digital ones.

			Mysterious Mountain (Symphony No.2) / plus works by Stravinsky and Prokofiev A legendary collector's item in its old LP format, this luxuriant 1958 interpretation by Fritz Reiner and the Chicago Symphony has made Mysterious Mountain Hovhaness's most famous work. All subsequent recordings fall by the wayside in comparison, even though Reiner takes certain liberties with the score. One Amazon.com reviewer described it as "a work of such aching beauty that once heard, it will be held in reverence forever". Another stated: "Something deep within me was enlightened and moved to tears by this all-embracing, mystically serene and ultimately ravishing and majestic music". The exotically-tinged two outer movements act as pillars to the central double fugue movement. The first fugue is serene, the second here played as a roaring tornado, and the section with superimposed fugue subjects leaves one in complete awe of Hovhaness's contrupuntal facility. Two other Reiner/Chicago classic recordings fill-up the CD: Stravinsky's ballet The Fairy's Kiss, and Prokofiev's charming Lieutenant Kijé Suite. No lover of 20th century orchestral music should be disappointed with this absolute gem of a CD.
	BMG 09026 61957 2    Buy it now! [timing 63:36]
			Saint Vartan Symphony / Horn Concerto Artik The Saint Vartan Symphony is vintage early Hovhaness at its peak, and commemorates the 1500th death anniversary of the Armenian warrior saint. Scored for modest orchestra (including piano, saxophone and vibraphone) its carefully-paced 24 short movements betray novel development of medieval and rennaisance devices, particularly several canons (some in 4-part polymodality) which virtually sow the seeds for the US Minimalists. The work's cumulative intensity and sparseness leaves one simultaneously exhilarated, intrigued and, as the symphony ends on a precipitous climax, ultimately wanting more. The horn concerto Artik is a reflective suite of slow or medium-paced short movements.
	Crystal Records CD802 Buy it now! [timing 61:54]
			Concerto No.8 / Anahid / Elibris / Alleluia and Fugue / And God Created Great Whales One of the best discs representing the composer's finest orchestral music of the 1940s and 50s. The centrepiece is Concerto No.8 for orchestra, whose long intertwined melodic tapestries evoke the vocal masters of the Renaissance. Anahid is rhapsodic, its mood swings ending in a final dance of intensifying ecstasy. Alleluia And Fugue is a beautiful early string work reminiscent of several of Vaughan Williams's pastoral outings. The famous but much later whale piece (1970) incorporates recorded songs of hump-backed whales, but is a 'dud' in this performance. Otherwise, faithful performances handled masterfully by David Amos. Recording quality is very good, even if the location is a little too reverberating.
	Crystal Records CD810 Buy it now! [timing 69:53]
			Concerto No.7 / Tzaikerk / Celestial Gate Symphony (No.6) / Prelude and Quadruple Fugue, etc. Concerto No.7 for Orchestra is one of Hovhaness's masterpieces, melding the composer's expertises in counterpoint, Indian rhythmic concepts and effective sonority. It looms as one of the finest American orchestral works of the 1950s. The Prelude And Quadruple Fugue is a whirlwind contrapuntal tour de force, orchestrated from a 1936 string quartet. In the Armenian-flavoured Tzaikerk, or 'evening song', a lively flute-driven dance eventually yields to a sombre violin meditation set against lulling pizzicati. Alleluia And Fugue is a beautiful early string work reminiscent of several of Vaughan Williams's pastoral outings. Prayer Of St. Gregory is an aria-like intermezzo for solo trumpet and strings from the 1940s. The fine Symphony No.6, whose subtitle gives the CD its moniker, is here not given as good a performance as by Hovhaness (see below).
	Telarc CD    Buy it now! [timing 79:19]
			Vishnu Symphony (No.19) / Requiem And Resurrection The Vishnu Symphony represents Hovhaness at his most avant garde. This symphonic tone poem is an "unfolding giant melody of adoration to the immensity and sublimity of limitless stellar universes". It is both beautiful in its overtly Oriental cantatory qualities, and foreboding in its dark quasi-aleatoric sections representing "explosions ... of giant galaxies of stars when millions of suns explode simultaneously". The startling sonorities and visionary grandeur of this work led, very appropriately, to extracts being used in Carl Sagan's epic 1970s TV series Cosmos. The Requiem and Resurrection is a contemplative shorter work, scored for brass orchestra and percussion.
	Crystal Records CD805 Buy it now! [timing 44:37]
			Odysseus Symphony (No.25) / Celestial Gate Symphony (No.6) / Prayer Of St. Gregory Composer-conducted definitive recordings of two very accessible symphonies, of which the earlier Celestial Gate (1958) is a masterpiece. Serene and pastoral in nature, it transports the listener to a time and place quite unearthly, eventually resting us up into beautiful high violin clusters evoking the work's apt sub-title. Although not a literal retelling of Homer's Odyssey, the Odysseus Symphony has programmatic qualities, eg, some eerie storm music. It is overtly Romantic yet somehow neo-archaic, with the rich harmonic palette typical of early 1970s Hovhaness. The Prayer Of St. Gregory is a beautiful short aria for solo trumpet and strings from the 1940s opera Etchmiadzin.
	Crystal Records CD807 Buy it now! [timing 60:01]
			Fra Angelico / Mountains And Rivers Without End / Etchmiadzin Symphony (No.21) / Armenian Rhapsody No.3 Definitive composer-conducted recordings of four diverse works. Most arresting is the haunting meditation Fra Angelico, in which a deceptively simple minor-keyed melody begins and ends the work on celestial sounding violins, and in between is given out to the orchestra in various guises. Despite its modest thematic material, the work holds the listener transfixed througout its 16 minutes. The Indian-flavoured Etchmiadzin Symphony is ceremonial, with drums and bells throughout. Mountains and Rivers Without End is an exotic free-form "chamber symphony". The recurring trombone theme is interspersed with threads of Oriental sonic beauty. Not by accident, one Japanese commentator has compared Hovhaness's music to an unfolding Japanese scroll, rather than the "photographic print" which typifies most Western music. The Armenian Rhapsody No.3 (of three) quotes, rarely for Hovhaness, actual melodies of Armenian folk music, and is scored for strings.
	Crystal Records CD804 Buy it now! [timing 63:54]

			'Khaldis' Concerto / Fantasy For Piano / Mount Katahdin Sonata One of his last Armenian-period works, 1951's Khaldis is a startlingly austere concerto for piano, 4 trumpets and percussion. Intensity is built on rhythmic and polyphonic foundations, evoking barbaric, threatening, and ultimately ecstatic energies. It is pure melody supported only by drones – a masterly work which clearly foreshadows the Minimalists. 1952's experimental Fantasy for piano is performed by Hovhaness himself (both on the keyboard and inside the piano) and prominently features Indian scales and rapid repeated-note figures. Mount Katahdin is a 1987 sonata whose piano writing shares ideas with its two bedfellows here, but includes more conventional harmonic passages. Worth purchasing on the strength of Khaldis alone.
	Crystal Records CD814 Buy it now! [timing 51:41]
			Harp Concerto / Harp Sonata / Upon Enchanted Ground / etc. A delighful CD surveying Hovhaness's music for harp (solo or chamber) over 30 years. The music is generally subdued and delicate. Spirit of Trees is a late sonata for the unlikely combination of harp and guitar. The Harp Concerto is scored with strings only. The Garden Of Adonis is a suite for flute and harp. One of Hovhanness's most delightful works is the 1951 miniature Upon Enchanted Ground in which a dancing harp figure is added to by giant tam-tam, then flute and finally cello. Harpist Yolanda Kondonassis performs impressively throughout.
	Telarc CD80530   Buy it now! [timing 73:01]