This is still the only recording in the catalogues
containing all four of these cantatas by Rimsky-Korsakov. As such the
disc is
hors concours. It has been extracted from Brilliant Classic’s
compendious box of the complete works of Rimsky-Korsakov issued last
year, but has formerly been available as an independent release on Chant
du Monde, at which time the booklet included complete translations of
the texts in French and English. These have now vanished (a review by
James Altena in
Fanfare of the complete box complains bitterly
about this). In the absence of the words this reissue can only be recommended
to Russian speakers or those who can obtain the information elsewhere;
neither the texts nor the scores - with the exception of a vocal score
of
A page from Homer with German translation - appear to be available
online. The booklet gives a brief outline of the plot of three of the
cantatas (nothing about
Aleksey) but this is certainly insufficient
to enable those unfamiliar with language to appreciate Rimsky-Korsakov’s
detailed setting of the texts.
This is a crying shame, because the performances themselves are very
good and the music deserves to be much better known. Only one of these
cantatas,
The Song of Oleg the Wise, has ever been available
before, as a filler for Boris Khaikin’s recording of the Rimsky-Korsakov
First Symphony on a Melodiya LP from the 1970s but which has long disappeared
from the catalogues. I cannot imagine that the old performance, presumably
in fairly execrable sound, could have bettered this one to any great
extent. There is also now a historical live performance conducted by
Alexander Gauk, but that is only available as part of ten CD set
reviewed
on this site by Rob Barnett. There is also now a version of
From
Homer included in Svetlanov’s six-CD box of Rimsky-Korsakov
(reviewed
here
by Jonathan Woolf) but that seems to have only emerged in 2007, so again
it post-dates the original release of this issue. The other two works
here have only ever been available in these performances.
The
Poem about Alexey, the Man of God is drawn from a passage
excised by Rimsky from his opera
The maid of Pskov during his
revision of the score, and it gets the disc off to a rousing start with
some superb singing from the chorus. In
The Song of Oleg the Wise
Nikolai Didenko is a splendid soloist, although Dmitri Korchak shows
some regrettable signs of strain on his higher notes. There are some
superbly dramatic effects in the orchestra, and one regrets once again
the lack of any information which would explain the motivation for these.
In this cantata the chorus (men’s voices only) takes on the role
of the narrator, and their singing and the expressive playing of the
orchestra are again excellent.
From Homer is a more straightforward setting of the scene in
the
Odyssey when the hero is shipwrecked and found stranded on
the beach by Nausicaa and her maidens. It begins with an extended orchestral
prelude describing the tempest which takes up 16 pages in a vocal score
which extends only to 29 pages in total. The work is scored for women’s
voices only, three soloists and chorus. The orchestra have the lion’s
share of the music, and their stormy playing points up the Wagnerian
influences - both Donner and the Valkyries have left their stamp on
the writing. When the voices enter the Wagnerian tone continues, although
it now the Flower maidens whose sound is evoked in the gently drooping
chromatic lines. The singing is very good indeed - although we do not
get the indicated trill from Mitrakova in the unaccompanied passage
at 9.40 - and there is no evidence of Slavonic wobble from any of the
sweetly blended soloists. By the way, the title in French is given in
the score as
A page from Homer, although no French translation
is provided; in Russian and German it is simply
From Homer.
The Mermaid of Lake Switez reunites the male and female voices
of the chorus, but we are not given any indication about the plot of
this dramatic cantata other than that it is a version of the story familiar
from
Rusalka which had been set by Dargomizhky in Russian before
Dvořák got his hands on the legend. Again there is plenty
of dramatic writing for the orchestra, which is clearly closely allied
to the text, but no clue as to what these relationships might be. Dmitri
Korchak is no better here than he was in
Oleg, but Mitrakova
is fine - at least I presume it is her, since the details of who actually
performs what in each cantata is ambiguously given, and some of the
singers are credited for appearing on tracks where they clearly have
no part. The choral singing with its dramatic impetus reminded me somewhat
of Elgar in
King Olaf - yes, the music is that good.
The lack of texts or translations seriously cripples these recordings
except for Russian linguists. I would imagine the diction is clear,
and it certainly sounds it. Potential purchasers may like to look around
for a second-hand copy of the original Chant du Monde issue, were it
not for the fact that it only appears to be obtainable on Amazon at
a cost of over £120 (for one copy) or £230 (for others).
Does anybody really buy these exorbitantly priced offerings? So if you
want these works - and they are all very good - you really have no choice
but to buy these recordings, either as a single disc or as part of the
complete Rimsky-Korsakov Edition - which the review in
Fanfare
regarded as a decidedly mixed bag including a number of “deplorable”
performances. Then try and find elsewhere the material which you need
to enjoy this music properly. The vocal score for
A page from Homer
is on the invaluable ISMLP
site;
for the rest, I wish you luck.
Paul Corfield Godfrey 
