In this latest in Guild’s
The Russian Legacy series
Larry Friedman extols the virtues
of the tenor Ivan Kozlovsky (1900-1993).
He further suggests that he is young-sounding
for his age suggesting uncertainty as
to whether the recording was made in
1947 or 1954 (p.5 of the booklet). Incongruously,
a few lines later, he notes that the
conductor, Alexander Orlov, originally
a White Russian prince, died in 1948!
Given the normal exemplary standards
of accuracy of the Guild booklets, I
hope my reading of that is correct and
not a sign of old age on my part.
Certainly, Ivan Kozlovsky
has an agreeable light, slightly nasal,
tenor voice. His careful phrasing in
Un di felice (CD 1 tr. 5), soft
singing and even tone are welcome virtues
in any tenor. However, his reedy tone
and tendency to near parlando the odd
phrase are more questionable. So too
is his tendency to abbreviate the ends
of phrases (CD 1 tr. 12). The high note
of Oh mio rimorso! is squeezed
rather than ringing. As his Violetta,
Yelizaveta Shumskaya (1905-1908) is
a lightish lyric voice with some coloratura
skills and with the virtue of dramatic
vibrancy. In Violetta’s great act 1
scene (CD 1 trs. 6-8) there is not enough
colour in her voice in É strano!
Whilst she also tends to swell on the
note, spoiling any smooth legato. Her
diction is good.
As Germont pére
Pavel Lisitsian (b.1911) doesn’t show
much variation of tone but uses his
voice expressively. His confrontation
with Violetta (CD 1 tr. 14) brings out
some of Yelizaveta Shumskaya’s best
singing. Lisitsian’s Di Provenza
(CD 1 tr. 20) is not impressive. He
reaches for the high notes and his tone
is rough. His singing of four Verdi
baritone arias, (CD 2 trs. 20-23) also
shows his rawness of tone and lack of
legato, at least to my ears. It may
be that he is not helped by singing
in Russian whose glottal nature can
be inimical to those virtues when transferred
from their own genre to translations,
particularly of the Italian and French
repertoire. Although Eri tu (CD
2 tr. 21) appears to have been recorded
at the same session as the previous
Alla vita, the sound is distinctly
thinner with the voice more recessed.
The overall recording
quality is fair for its vintage. Given
that listening to La Traviata in
Russian is several steps beyond listening
to it in English, in terms of how the
voice sits on the music, this issue
is only for collectors interested in
the vocal traditions of Russia. Others
can pass by, assured that they are missing
no fantastic vocal or interpretative
revelations.
Robert J Farr
USSR State Symphony Orcestra/Alexander Orlov.
