CD 1
Piotr Ilyich TCHAIKOVSKY
(1840-1893)
Eugene Onegin, ‘Faint
echo of my youth’; ‘Net, tol’ka tot’
(‘None but the lonely heart’ arr. Riley)
Romeo and Juliet, ‘duet’,
(Valeria Vladimirovna Barsova, soprano)
‘The mild stars shone for us’. (Op.
60, No.12)
Songs (16) For Children, Op. 54:
No. 3: ‘The grass grows green’;
No. 4: ‘My little garden Orentlikher’;
No. 9: ‘Spring’ (the snow is already
melting); No. 10: ‘Lullaby in a storm’;
No. 13: ‘Spring song’
Modest MUSSORGSKY
(1839-1881)
Sorochintsy Fair, ‘Why,
my sad heart?’
Anton RUBINSTEIN
(1830-1894)
The Demon, ‘On desire's
soft, fleeting wing’.
The Azra, ‘Op. 32, No.
6’
Volkslied, (Op. 48, No.
12), 'The Sun is shining`, (Andrei Alexeievich
Ivanov, baritone)
Mikhail IPPOLITOV-IVANOV
(1859-1935) Ole The Norseman,
‘In the Wonderful Night’
Sergei RACHMANINOV
(1873-1943) ‘The night is sad’.
‘Beloved, let us fly’
Nikolai RIMSKY-KORSAKOV
(1844-1908) ‘Beauty’
Mikhail Ivanovich
GLINKA (1804-1857)‘O say,
why did you come? ‘Tell me why’. ‘How
sweet to be with you Alexander’. ‘I
am here, Inezilla’ (Spanish Serenade).‘Do
not say your heart aches’. ‘Poor singer’;
‘You will never come again’
Alexander DARGOMYZHSKY
(1813-1869)‘Vanka-tanka’, (Andrei
Alexcievich Ivanov, baritone)
CD 2
Gioachino ROSSINI
(1792-1868) Il barbiere di Siviglia,
‘Ecco ridente il cielo’. ‘Se il mio
nome’
Carl MILLÖCKER
(1842-1889) Der Bettelstudent,
‘Ich knüpfte manche zarte Bande’
(Simon's couplets)
Georges Charles
GOUNOD (1818-1893) Romeo et
Juliette, ‘Ange adorable’, (Valeria
Vladimirovna Barsova, soprano)
Ambroise THOMAS
(1811-1896) Mignon excerpts:
Act I ‘Eh quoi! Mon cher Laërte,
en vidant votre verre’; Act II, ‘Wilhelm:
‘Adieu, Mignon! Courage!’. ‘Ah! Vous
voilà! Déjà vous
vous faites attendre!’ Act III ‘Cette
chambre est fermée depuis quinze
ans’. ‘Elle ne croyait pas dans sa candeur
naïve’. ‘Où suis-je?; ‘Mignon!
Wilhelm! Salut à vous!’ (Nadezhda
Kazantseva, soprano; N. Alexandriskaya,
mezzo-soprano; G. Titz, baritone; Georgi
Andreievich Abramov, bass; Vsevolod
Tyutyunnik, bass)
Russian Traditional - Folk
Matvey BLANTER
(1903-90): ‘In the Forest
by the Front Line’ (Red Army Chorus
and Ensemble)
Vasily SOLOVYEV-SEDOY
(1907-79): ‘Golden lights’
TRADITIONAL
(Russian): ‘The grass in
the meadow’. (Red Army Chorus and Ensemble)
‘By the river, in the meadow’. (Red
Army Chorus and Ensemble)
‘The steppe all around’. (Red Army Chorus
and Ensemble)
‘The grass withers on the steppe’ (M.
D. Mikhailov, bass)
Anatoly NOVIKOV
(born 1896). ‘Roads’. (Red Army
Chorus and Ensemble)
The Earliest Vinogradov Recordings
Sergey VASSILENKO
(1872-1956). Armenian Serenade’,
‘Malayan Serenade’ (1938)
Nikita BOGOSLOVSKY
(born 1913). ‘Dark night’, (Red
Army Chorus and Ensemble. 1944)
CD 3
Robert SCHUMANN
(1810-56). ‘Meine Rose’. ‘Myrthen’.
‘Der Nussbaum’. ‘Mit Myrthen und Rosen’
Franz SCHUBERT
(1797-1828). Die Schöne
Müllerin, Op. 25, D. 795
CD 4
B. BARON,
‘The weeping willows slumber’
Piotr BULAKHOV
(1822-85). ‘Glitter, my star’.
‘Little lips that pout’. ‘On parting
she spoke’. ‘Do not awaken memories’
Grigori DEMIDOV
(1838-1871). ‘It was only a dream’
Alexander DUBUQUE
(1812-98). ‘Do kiss me, my darling’.
‘Do not repeat those words’
M. CUBKIN.
‘When you look at him’
Alexander GURILYOV
(1803-59). ‘The little bird flew
away’
M. NISNEVICH.
‘My guitar’
Yakov PRIGOZHI
(1840-1920). ‘Darling’
N. SHIRYAIEV.
‘Moonlit night’
M. SHISHKIN.
‘Always and everywhere I follow you’
Vladimir SOKOLOV
(1830-1890). ‘The sea and my heart’,
Alexander TITOV.
‘I knew her as a child’
TRADITIONAL
(Rom). ‘Black eyes’
TRADITIONAL
(Russia). ‘You never loved me’
M. VOLOSHIN.
‘A twig of lilac’
V.V. ABAZA
(1861-1918). ‘Hazy morning’
Mikhail YAKOVIEV.
(1798-1868). ‘Elegy’. (Andrei Alexievich
Ivanov, baritone)
TRADITIONAL
(Rom): ‘Look at me’ (I Medvedev,
bass-baritone)
TRADITIONAL
(Albania): ‘The Black-eyed girl’
Sergey
TANEYEV
(1865-1915). ‘How you caress, silvery
night’, (Zara Alexandrovna Dolukhanova,
m.soprano)
Alexander VARLAMOV
(1801- 1848). ‘Oh, do not kiss me’.
‘Grass’
Note. All contents sung in Russian
Recorded 1938-1954. No recording venues
given but all derived from radio broadcasts
or issued on 78s and LPs. Various orchestral,
piano and guitar accompaniments.
The name of Georgi
Vinogradov (1908-1964) is not one that
will ‘grab’ the passing browser, or
even the opera buff. Nonetheless, his
recordings on 78s and LPs command a
hefty price in the market place and
vocal cognoscenti eagerly seek copies
in good condition. But, is the scarcity
of recorded material of this singer,
at least outside Russia, allied to his
vocal qualities, enough to justify a
4CD set? Certainly Richard Caniell,
guiding light of Guild’s ‘Historical
Series’ thinks so, and in the usual
detailed booklet makes a convincing
argument, including an account of his
own introduction to the singer’s art.
Vinogradov’s singing
is an art in the best sense. His voice
is that of a very light lyric tenor
which might be better described as ‘tenore
di grazia’, but with a touch, a very
slight touch, of metal softened with
honey. Heft doesn’t come into it, as
the singer never sang on the operatic
stage so his voice never needed to fill
a theatre. All his recordings derive
from radio broadcasts often with piano
or guitar accompaniment. These recording
conditions make it impossible to make
comments about the size of Vinogradov’s
voice. The lighter accompaniments do
allow the singer to exhibit the full
range of his soft singing from a honeyed
chest register, evenly through the passaggio
into an ethereal head tone. This is
often supported, on the breath, by a
thread of tone. These qualities are
heard throughout but particularly in
the Russian songs on CD 4, albeit that
many are not particularly demanding
or of great musical interest. However,
in the greater vocal and interpretive
demands of Glinka and Tchaikovsky on
CD1 the listener can really begin to
hear what the enthusiasts rave about.
In the poetic expressive imperatives
of Die Schöne Müllerin,
(CD 2. trs. 4-23) the use of Russian
inhibited my enjoyment of his interpretation,
although I was able to sense, through
the quality of the vocal nuance and
variation of inflection and tone, something
of what the singer was striving to convey.
The extracts from ‘Mignon’
(CD 2. trs.5-11, recorded for a radio
broadcast in 1947) allow the best opportunity
for analysis of the singer although
his ‘Elle ne croyant’ (tr.9) is in a
different acoustic, a point explained
by Caniell on p.32 of the booklet. In
these extracts, even more than in the
songs, I can hear why enthusiasts breathe
Vinogradov’s name alongside the likes
of Schipa, Gigli, Thill and the young
Björling. Even in Russian Vinogradov
is able to express the sense of the
aria and the character.
The sound on these
discs is generally good. Whilst there
are some admittedly noisy surfaces particularly
on some of the songs on CD 1 this limitation
didn’t inhibit my own voyage of discovery
or enjoyment. It is that last word that
it is important to stress, for this
singing is highly enjoyable. The voice
has those qualities exhibited by the
greatest of singers: individuality and
character. Has it enough to hold the
listener through 4 CDs? The buyer must
decide. For me I would have preferred
a 2 CD introduction to the considerable
vocal qualities of a singer known to
far too few people. However, given the
modest cost, vocal enthusiasts in particular
will welcome the availability, for the
first time on CD, of so much of Vinogradov’s
recorded legacy.
Robert J Farr
GUILD
- THE RUSSIAN LEGACY SERIES - GMCD 2250-53
[4CDs:77.08+74.11+64.18+73.33]