Romance: Western Poets in Russian Music, Vol, 2

Following the successful release of Volume One, Sergej Larin continues his survey of music from some of the world’s best-known Russian composers.

This unique recital features songs by Russian composers to texts in either French, German or Italian. It is widely forgotten that figures of Russian literature and art in the nineteenth century were invariably conversant in several European languages, and this series aims to bring a particular corner of Russian music to a wider audience.

Composers featured include Bortnyanksy, Glinka, Tchaikovsky and Medtner.

This is Sergej Larin’s sixth recital disc on Chando – the ealier releases, including songs by Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky and a disc dedicated to Rssian arias, were all very successful.

Sergej Larin is accompanied by pianist Eleonora Bekova, who has also built a large and successful catalgoue of recordings on Chandos.

Russian scholars of the Soviet period tended to ignore or underplay the fact that the great figures of Russian Literature and art in the nineteenth century were invariably conversant in several European languages, and that the education they received was broadly based, and almost every well-to-do Russian family had its French governesses, English nannies and German tutors. The use of French – traditionally the language of the Russian court – was widespread among the middle classes, and especially in intellectual circles, from the 1820s onwards. Mussorgsky, for example, spoke impeccable French as a young guardsman during the 1850s. Some composers had foreign ancestry: Rubinstein and Medtner (German), Cui and even Tchaikovsky, whose mother’s maiden name was d’Assier (French). It is hardly surprising, therefore, that they were comfortable in setting texts not just in Russian but in other languages, too.

After the Bolshevik revolution there was a violent reaction against so-called ‘cosmopolitanism’, and using foreign languages was somehow viewed as inherently bourgeois and even decadent. Some of the foreign settings by great national figures like Tchaikovsky survived in Russian translations, but the tradition of singing them in original languages virtually died out. Like so many things in the new Russia, this long-forgotten tradition is being rediscovered, and for this reason the present recital and its predecessor Dream (CHAN 9794) are unique.

‘This is the first of what I hope will be several volumes… the recording is well worth having… All are beautifully performed.’

American Record Guide on CHAN 9794 (Volume One)

‘Eleonora Bekova is imaginative here, and shares with Sergej Larin a keen sense for all this music. The tenor’s linguistic skills are put to good use in finding the detail in each song, and he uses his easy tone to produce excellent, loving performances.

BBC Music Magazine on CHAN 9794 (Volume One)

‘Eleonora Bekova accompanies sensitively… well sung and recorded.’

Gramophone on CHAN 9794 (Volume One)

‘This is a fascinating collection, a worthy successor to the first volume [CHAN 9794] in a series exploring the offbeat repertoire of German, French and Italian settings by Russian composers’.

BBC Music Magazine

‘Sergej Larin has just the right quality of voice and of manner, and is sensitively supported by Eleonora Bekova… he has a true feeling for the songs, and sings them with an intelligent appreciation of their nature’.

International Record Review

*****

R Young

*****

J James

Romance: Western Poets in Russian Music, Vol, 2

Eleonora Bekova

Sergej Larin

Potton Hall Studio, Westleton, Suffolk

Rachel Smith

Jonathan Cooper

Vocal & Song

Romance: Western Poets in Russian Music, Vol. 2

REINHOLD GLIERE

Du schönes Fischermädchen, Op. 58 No. 6

NIKOLAI MEDTNER

Liebliches Kind, Op. 6 No. 5

VASILY SERGEYEVICH KALINNIKOV

An Liebchens schneeweisse Schulter

ALEXANDER SERGEYEVICH DARGOMYZHSKY

Balade du drame 'Catherine Howard'

PETER IL'YICH TCHAIKOVSKY

Sérénade: J'aime dans le rayon de la limpide aurore, Op. 65 No. 3

MIKHAIL GLINKA

Due canzonette italiane

CESAR CUI

Ici bas, Op. 54 No. 5

DMITRY STEPANOVICH BORTNYANSKY

Ismène croit à mes promesses

ALEXANDER SERGEYEVICH DARGOMYZHSKY

Vanne, o rosa fortunata

ANTON RUBINSTEIN

Ein Traum, Op. 83 No. 10

PETER IL'YICH TCHAIKOVSKY

Qu'importe que l'hiver, Op. 65 No. 4

MIKHAIL GLINKA

Mio ben ricordati

DMITRY STEPANOVICH BORTNYANSKY

Il faut moins dire

ANTON RUBINSTEIN

Nacht, Op. 76 No. 2

ALEXANDER SERGEYEVICH DARGOMYZHSKY

O ma charmante!

DMITRY STEPANOVICH BORTNYANSKY

Romance: Le Berger Lucas

ALEXANDER SERGEYEVICH DARGOMYZHSKY

Jamais!

CESAR CUI

Je n'en ai jamais aimé qu'une, Op. 54 No. 4

DMITRY STEPANOVICH BORTNYANSKY

Adieu, adieu