Glinka is still known, with justice, as
the father of Russian music. Before him music in Russia was largely
shouldered by imports such as Galuppi, Paisiello, Hassler and
Cimarosa. While building on bel canto styles borrowed
from Italy Glinka added a very strong infusion of Russian folksong.
This can be heard in the operas A Life for the Tsar and
Ruslan and Ludmilla. Balakirev revered Glinka and was fully
signed up to his belief that: “The People produce music, composers
only arrange it”. He became the core of a group of new wave composers
which included Cui, Rimsky, Borodin and Mussorgsky - not a professional
musician amongst them although Rimsky attained fully professional
standards through his own studies. In the early 1860s Balakirev
made journeys down the Volga and collected and published forty
folksongs. In 1900 there was a further set which he arranged and
published but this time it comprised songs collected by others.
The extended two pianist versions recorded here were in fact published
two years earlier in 1898.
This disc is fully loaded to just a mite
short of 80 minutes with an 18 minute work for piano and orchestra
and just over an hour of alternated solo-sung folksongs and the
same folksong arranged for piano four hands.
The Grand Fantasia was written
by the 14 year old Balakirev. Not surprisingly the influence of
bel canto, of Chopin and of Field can be heard. However
amid the pearl and dazzle there are themes and treatments of an
unmistakably Russian character alongside the folksongs Ah,
it's not the sun that is eclipsed and Amid the spreading
vale. The innocently pleasing effect is similar to that of
the Chopin Variations on La cidarem la mano. The work ends
in feline understatement. The folksongs, sung unaccompanied and
shared between the three singers, are placed before their counterpart
Balakirev arrangement. They are sung with earthy resonance by
fresh voices without an undue operatic patina. The duet singing
by Kalugina and Nikolayeva is especially memorable in Nikita
Romanovich (tr.16) and I went into the garden (tr.
46) prompting a quick return to those tracks. The italianate decorative
manner found its way into Balakirev's arrangement of Vasily
Okulyevic and Birds and Animals but otherwise one can
hear Balakirev staying within the confines of the new nationalist
language and helping establish its conventions. Listening to some
of these unaffected and unadorned folksongs one can only lament
that they have not attracted a composer of Canteloube's skills
to make of them something for the concert hall. They would need
delicate handling to avoid suffocating these blooms with concert-operatic
conventions. There were no winds and Rowanberry and
Raspberry seem to place us within hailing distance of the
puys of the Auvergne. This disc includes some lovely pure singing
and world music folk fans need to hear this as well as Balakirev
and Russian music enthusiasts. Congratulations to Martin Anderson
and his collaborators in Russia for showing us that there are
singers in Russia who can sustain a note without undue vibrato.
Nicholas Walker provides the booklet notes.
As is customary with Toccata these are full and detailed. Walker
seems to have taken a special interest in Balakirev and subject
to the recent take-over of Sanctuary is recording all the Balakirev
piano music on ASV. There is also a Danacord CD of Walker
playing the Lyapunov sonata. He is planning a Balakirev Festival
in 2010 to mark the centenary of the composer's death.
In summary: Early bel canto Balakirev
and folk music sung and played freshly with a adroitly earthy
resonance.
Rob Barnett
DETAILED TRACKLISTING
1 Grand Fantasia on Russian Folksongs Op. 4
Mily Balakirev 18:19
2 No. 1: dukhovnaya ‘Dormition of the Mother of God’ – folksong
Mily Balakirev 0:52
3 No. 1: dukhovnaya ‘Dormition of the Mother of God’ – Balakirev’s
arrangement
Mily Balakirev 1:12
4 No. 2: dukhovnaya ‘Egoriy the Brave’ – folksong
Mily Balakirev 1:16
5 No. 2: dukhovnaya ‘Egoriy the Brave’ – Balakirev’s arrangement
Mily Balakirev 1:12
6 No. 3: dukhovnaya ‘Lazar’ – folksong
Mily Balakirev 0:53
7 No. 3: dukhovnaya ‘Lazar’ – Balakirev’s arrangement
Mily Balakirev 1:02
8 No. 4: dukhovnaya ‘The Last Judgement’ – folksong
Mily Balakirev 1:32
9 No. 4: dukhovnaya ‘The Last Judgement’ – Balakirev’s arrangement
Mily Balakirev 0:54
10 No. 5: dukhovnaya ‘The Book of the Dove’ – folksong
Mily Balakirev 0:37
11 No. 5: dukhovnaya ‘The Book of the Dove’ – Balakirev’s arrangement
Mily Balakirev 1:04
12 No. 6: bylina ‘The King’s Sons from Krakow’ – folksong
Mily Balakirev 1:00
13 No. 6: bylina ‘The King’s Sons from Krakow’ – Balakirev’s arrangement
Mily Balakirev 1:49
14 No. 7: bylina ‘Kostruk’ – folksong
Mily Balakirev 0:44
15 No. 7: bylina ‘Kostruk’ – Balakirev’s arrangement
Mily Balakirev 18:10
16 No. 8: bylina ‘Nikita Romanovich’ – folksong
Mily Balakirev 1:02
17 No. 8: bylina ‘Nikita Romanovich’ – Balakirev’s arrangement
Mily Balakirev 1:57
18 No. 9: byliny ‘Grisha Otrepyev’ – folksong
Mily Balakirev 0:59
19 No. 9: byliny ‘Grisha Otrepyev’ – Balakirev’s arrangement
Mily Balakirev 1:00
20 No. 10: bylina ‘Vasiliy Okulyevic’ – folksong
Mily Balakirev 0:43
21 No. 10: bylina ‘Vasiliy Okulyevic’ – Balakirev’s arrangement
Mily Balakirev 0:56
22 No. 11: bylina ‘The Razvoinik Brothers and their Sister’ –
folksong
Mily Balakirev 0:54
23 No. 11: bylina ‘The Razvoinik Brothers and their Sister’ –
Balakirev’s arrangement
Mily Balakirev 2:17
24 No. 12: bylina ‘Birds and Animals’ – folksong
Mily Balakirev 0:47
25 No. 12: bylina ‘Birds and Animals’ – Balakirev’s arrangement
Mily Balakirev 0:23
26 No. 13: wedding song ‘They said: Fedot-ot doesn’t drink beer…’
– folksong
Mily Balakirev 0:45
27 No. 13: wedding song ‘They said: Fedot-ot doesn’t drink beer…’
– Balakirev’s arrangement
Mily Balakirev 0:49
28 No. 14: wedding song ‘There were no winds…’ – folksong
Mily Balakirev 1:11
29 No. 14: wedding song ‘There were no winds…’ – Balakirev’s arrangement
Mily Balakirev 0:46
30 No. 15: wedding song ‘Are you my river little river…’ – folksong
Mily Balakirev 2:08
31 No. 15: wedding song ‘Are you my river little river…’ – Balakirev’s
arrangement
Mily Balakirev 0:47
32 No. 16: wedding song ‘Oh drinking berry…’ – folksong
Mily Balakirev 0:47
33 No. 16: wedding song ‘Oh drinking berry…’ – Balakirev’s arrangement
Mily Balakirev 0:36
34 No. 17: wedding song ‘Many many by a damp oak tree…’ – folksong
Mily Balakirev 0:44
35 No. 17: wedding song ‘Many many by a damp oak tree…’ – Balakirev’s
arrangement
Mily Balakirev 0:59
36 No. 18: wedding song ‘Mummy wasn’t hoping’ – folksong
Mily Balakirev 1:20
37 No. 18: wedding song ‘Mummy wasn’t hoping’ – Balakirev’s arrangement
Mily Balakirev 2:07
38 No. 19: wedding song ‘My girlfriends dear girlfriends…’ – folksong
Mily Balakirev 1:04
39 No. 19: wedding song ‘My girlfriends dear girlfriends…’ – Balakirev’s
arrangement
Mily Balakirev 0:57
40 No. 20: wedding song ‘Oh you geese you geese…’ – folksong
Mily Balakirev 1:02
41 No. 20: wedding song ‘Oh you geese you geese…’ – Balakirev’s
arrangement
Mily Balakirev 0:38
42 No. 21: wedding song ‘Grape-harvest’ – folksong
Mily Balakirev 1:01
43 No. 21: wedding song ‘Grape-harvest’ – Balakirev’s arrangement
Mily Balakirev 1:04
44 No. 22: wedding song ‘There is a tree on a hill’ – folksong
Mily Balakirev 0:26
45 No. 22: wedding song ‘There is a tree on a hill’ – Balakirev’s
arrangement
Mily Balakirev 0:55
46 No. 23: khorovodnaya ‘I went into the garden’ – folksong
Mily Balakirev 0:55
47 No. 23: khorovodnaya ‘I went into the garden’ – Balakirev’s
arrangement
Mily Balakirev 0:31
48 No. 24: khorovodnaya ‘Our wide street’ – folksong
Mily Balakirev 0:45
49 No. 24: khorovodnaya ‘Our wide street’ – Balakirev’s arrangement
Mily Balakirev 0:57
50 No. 25: khorovodnaya ‘Utushnaya’ – folksong
Mily Balakirev 0:24
51 No. 25: khorovodnaya ‘Utushnaya’ – Balakirev’s arrangement
Mily Balakirev 1:14
52 No. 26: protyazhnaya ‘Rowanberry and Raspberry’ – folksong
Mily Balakirev 1:15
53 No. 26: protyazhnaya ‘Rowanberry and Raspberry’ – Balakirev’s
arrangement
Mily Balakirev 12:15
54 No. 27: protyazhnaya ‘What a heart’ – folksong
Mily Balakirev 1:03
55 No. 27: protyazhnaya ‘What a heart’ – Balakirev’s arrangement
Mily Balakirev 1:09
56 No. 28: protyazhnaya ‘It’s enough for you my dear to walk in
the field’ – folksong
Mily Balakirev 1:09
57 No. 28: protyazhnaya ‘It’s enough for you my dear to walk in
the field’ – Balakirev’s arrangement
Mily Balakirev 1:03
58 No. 29: protyazhnaya ‘Oh you winter’ – folksong
Mily Balakirev 0:43
59 No. 29: protyazhnaya ‘Oh you winter’ – Balakirev’s arrangement
Mily Balakirev 0:39
60 No. 30: protyazhnaya ‘She became she became a colonel’s wife’
– folksong
Mily Balakirev 0:53
61 No. 30: protyazhnaya ‘She became she became a colonel’s wife’
– Balakirev’s arrangement
Mily Balakirev 0:53
Joseph Banowetz (piano)
