MusicWeb International One of the most grown-up review sites around 2023
Approaching 60,000 reviews
and more.. and still writing ...

Search MusicWeb Here Acte Prealable Polish CDs
 

Presto Music CD retailer
 
Founder: Len Mullenger                                    Editor in Chief:John Quinn             


CD REVIEW

Some items
to consider

new MWI
Current reviews

old MWI
pre-2023 reviews

paid for
advertisements

Acte Prealable Polish recordings

Forgotten Recordings
Forgotten Recordings
All Forgotten Records Reviews

TROUBADISC
Troubadisc Weinberg- TROCD01450

All Troubadisc reviews


FOGHORN Classics

Alexandra-Quartet
Brahms String Quartets

All Foghorn Reviews


All HDTT reviews


Songs to Harp from
the Old and New World


all Nimbus reviews



all tudor reviews


Follow us on Twitter


Editorial Board
MusicWeb International
Founding Editor
   
Rob Barnett
Editor in Chief
John Quinn
Contributing Editor
Ralph Moore
Webmaster
   David Barker
Postmaster
Jonathan Woolf
MusicWeb Founder
   Len Mullenger

alternatively
Crotchet

 

The Art of Fedor Chaliapin - Opera scenes and arias
Mikhail Ivanovich GLINKA (1804-1857)
A Life for the Tsar - Susanin 's Aria, Act 4 [4.37] (rec. 1923)
Ruslan and Ludmila - Farlaf's Rondo, Act 2 [3.00] (rec. 1931)
Alexander DARGOMYZHSKY (1813-1869)
Mermaid - The Miller's Aria. Act 1 [3.55]; The Miller and the Prince's Scene. Act 3 [9.10] (Prince, G.Pozemkovsky (tenor)) (rec. 1931)
Alexander BORODIN (1833-1887)
Prince Igor
- Prince Igor's Aria. Act 2 [4.29] (rec. 1924); Vladimir Galitsky's Recitative and Song. Act 1 [3.29] (rec. 1927); Konchak's Aria Act 2 [4.45] (rec. 1927)

Nikolai RIMSKY-KORSAKOV (1844-1908) Sadko - Song of Varyag, Guest Scene 4 [3.36] (rec. 1927)
Modest MUSSORGSKY (1839-1881)
Boris Godunov - Pimen 's Monologue. Act 1 [4.33] (rec. 1910-12); Varlaam's Song. Act 1 [2.24] (rec. 1927); Boris' Monologue. Prologue. Coronation scene [4.20] (rec. 1925); Boris's Monologue. Act 2 [8.14] (rec. 1928); Boris' Scene Act 2, Clock scene [3.57] (rec. 1928); Farewell and Death of Boris. Act 4 [8.51] (rec. 1926)
Fedor Chaliapin (bass)
No recording venues or accompaniment details given.
MELODIYA MELCD1001345 [70.21]

 

Experience Classicsonline


Ask many opera-lovers who were the greatest opera singers and a small coterie of names occur regularly. Pavarotti and Callas will be frequently named. Add the caveat of great singing actors and most will fall back on Callas, with a few remembering the likes of Tito Gobbi. Certainly Callas and Pavarotti made plenty of newspaper headlines. But the definition of ‘great singing actors’ must surely mean great as singers and equally great as actors. Both Callas and Gobbi were great actors on the operatic stage. On stage they were singers who lived the roles they were portraying. But, I would suggest that neither, in terms of absolute vocal quality, deserves the accolade of ‘great’. In her relatively brief career Callas made many recordings, some with Gobbi. In my survey of her complete studio recordings (see review). I include many caveats as to her vocal qualities whilst frequently admiring her characterisation. The same is true of Gobbi, who I was privileged to see in the theatre. A superb actor he lived the part he was singing. But in the cold light of listening to his recordings I cannot help but note the odd raw patches in his tone (see reviews of Gobbi as Rigoletto, Falstaff and Scarpia). Go back a generation to the first half of the twentieth century and two names stand out, Enrico Caruso and Fedor Chaliapin (1873-1938). Both made many recording in the 78rpm era. Without doubt Caruso was the finest tenor of his generation, in both the spinto and lyric fachs, when the species was far more proliferate than today (see review). But the name that stands out among both commentators and colleagues, as one of the real all-time great singer-actors is that of Chaliapin.

Born in 1873, Chaliapin is far and away the best remembered of a magnificent quartet of rival contemporary Russian basses. It was not just his powerful and flexible vocal quality but also the magnetic power of his personality, the acuteness of his musical interpretations and the vividness of his performances. All these factors raised him above his contemporaries and are evident in these recordings. Famous colleagues such as Rosa Ponselle said of him he was unrivalled as a singing actor in his age or any subsequent one. She also said If a colleague gave him an inch, he would steal an entire scene. He was so artful about it that one wouldn't realize what was going on until it was too late. His powerful and flexible bass voice was employed in conjunction with a mesmerizing stage presence and superb acting ability. He is generally considered one of the supreme performers in the history of opera and is often credited with establishing the tradition of naturalistic acting.

He made records from the early 1900s to his death including live occasions such as his performances of Boris at Covent Garden in 1931. Boris remains his most famous role. He first sang it in 1898 at the Private Opera in Moscow and three years later at the Bolshoi, always in the Rimsky-Korsakov edition. It was an interpretation he repeated in Milan, Paris and New York as well as London. Just why he was so famous in this role can be heard in the four major extracts that extend from the Prologue (tr.11) to the Farewell and Death of Boris (tr.14) reflecting the various moods of the guilty monarch. Perhaps the best illustration of Chaliapin’s capacity to convey in his voice the character and words he is singing can be heard in Pimen’s Monologue (tr.9) and Vaarlam’s brief roistering song from the same opera (tr.10). Pimen’s Monologue was recorded in 1910 with the other Boris excerpts from the period 1925-1928. They also show the consistency of his vocal qualities across his long career. Most importantly these extracts, and others in this collection, achieve a remarkable acoustic standard.

Another role that Chaliapin made his own was the Miller in Dargomishky’s Rusalka, a role he sang to acclaim at the Lyceum Theatre, London in 1931 at the time of the recordings here (trs. 3 and 4). His performances of Khan Konchak in Borodin’s Prince Igor were another memorable feature of that season. His singing and expression are full of detail (tr.7) as are the subtly different tonal qualities in his rendition of Galitsky’s song and Igor’s aria from the same opera (trs. 5 and 6). Like the Dargomishky arias, the second two appear to be from a London recording. They have appeared from EMI previously (References CDH 76 10092 issued in 1988). There is greater aural clarity in this collection than on the earlier EMI Classics disc. This perhaps reflects the improvements in technology in the intervening years as well as access to pristine shellac and extends to the orchestral accompaniments. The fact that no recording details are given in this collection, allied to Chaliapin’s extensive discography, makes it very difficult to relate this collection to others.

Chaliapin possessed a high-lying bass voice with an unmistakable timbre that recorded well. He cut a prolific number of discs beginning in Russia with acoustic recordings made at the dawn of the 20th Century, and continuing through the early electrical (microphone) era. This collection of his favourite Russian bass roles in good recordings is thoroughly recommendable to connoisseurs and newcomers alike. As well as the track-listing, there is a very brief biography; both are in Roman and Cyrillic alphabets.

Robert J Farr


 


 




 


Advertising on
Musicweb


Donate and keep us afloat

 

New Releases

Naxos Classical
All Naxos reviews

Hyperion recordings
All Hyperion reviews

Foghorn recordings
All Foghorn reviews

Troubadisc recordings
All Troubadisc reviews



all Bridge reviews


all cpo reviews

Divine Art recordings
Click to see New Releases
Get 10% off using code musicweb10
All Divine Art reviews


All Eloquence reviews

Lyrita recordings
All Lyrita Reviews

 

Wyastone New Releases
Obtain 10% discount

Subscribe to our free weekly review listing

 

 


EXPLORE MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

Making a Donation to MusicWeb

Writing CD reviews for MWI

About MWI
Who we are, where we have come from and how we do it.

Site Map

How to find a review

How to find articles on MusicWeb
Listed in date order

Review Indexes
   By Label
      Select a label and all reviews are listed in Catalogue order
   By Masterwork
            Links from composer names (eg Sibelius) are to resource pages with links to the review indexes for the individual works as well as other resources.

Themed Review pages

Jazz reviews

 

Discographies
   Composer
      Composer surveys
   National
      Unique to MusicWeb -
a comprehensive listing of all LP and CD recordings of given works
.
Prepared by Michael Herman

The Collector’s Guide to Gramophone Company Record Labels 1898 - 1925
Howard Friedman

Book Reviews

Complete Books
We have a number of out of print complete books on-line

Interviews
With Composers, Conductors, Singers, Instumentalists and others
Includes those on the Seen and Heard site

Nostalgia

Nostalgia CD reviews

Records Of The Year
Each reviewer is given the opportunity to select the best of the releases

Monthly Best Buys
Recordings of the Month and Bargains of the Month

Comment
Arthur Butterworth Writes

An occasional column

Phil Scowcroft's Garlands
British Light Music articles

Classical blogs
A listing of Classical Music Blogs external to MusicWeb International

Reviewers Logs
What they have been listening to for pleasure

Announcements

 

Community
Bulletin Board

Give your opinions or seek answers

Reviewers
Past and present

Helpers invited!

Resources
How Did I Miss That?

Currently suspended but there are a lot there with sound clips


Composer Resources

British Composers

British Light Music Composers

Other composers

Film Music (Archive)
Film Music on the Web (Closed in December 2006)

Programme Notes
For concert organizers

External sites
British Music Society
The BBC Proms
Orchestra Sites
Recording Companies & Retailers
Online Music
Agents & Marketing
Publishers
Other links
Newsgroups
Web News sites etc

PotPourri
A pot-pourri of articles

MW Listening Room
MW Office

Advice to Windows Vista users  
Questionnaire    
Site History  
What they say about us
What we say about us!
Where to get help on the Internet
CD orders By Special Request
Graphics archive
Currency Converter
Dictionary
Magazines
Newsfeed  
Web Ring
Translation Service

Rules for potential reviewers :-)
Do Not Go Here!
April Fools




Return to Review Index

Untitled Document


Reviews from previous months
Join the mailing list and receive a hyperlinked weekly update on the discs reviewed. details
We welcome feedback on our reviews. Please use the Bulletin Board
Please paste in the first line of your comments the URL of the review to which you refer.