Dmitri Hvorostovsky has with roughly ten-year-intervals
recorded Mussorgsky’s unfinished song-cycle
Songs and Dances
of Death. In January 1993 he set it down with the Kirov Orchestra
under Gergiev in the Shostakovich orchestration, in August 2004 he sang
the same version with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic under Temirkanov
in Albert Hall at a Proms concert.
(review).
This was coupled with Rachmaninov’s
Symphonic Dances while
the earlier version had a number of Russian opera arias. On the present
disc he has returned to Mussorgsky’s original with piano accompaniment.
Hvorostovsky has retained his magnificent dark-tinted baritone in wonderful
shape and it is a pleasure to listen to him more than twenty years after
his sensational victory at the Cardiff “Singer of the World”-competition
in 1989. It is possible that the tone has darkened slightly but there
are no signs of wear so far. It could also be argued that his interpretations
are even deeper than before but again this is marginal - he was a deep-probing
singer also in his relative youth. The
Lullaby is masterly, the
Serenade has all those important nuances that make you listen
with extra closeness, the
Trepak is invested with violent frenzy
and
The Field Marshal crowns the cycle impressively, not least
thanks to his superb articulation. His regular accompanist is a worthy
partner - the ‘accompaniment’ is just as important as the
singing and Ivari Ilja finds so many colours that one doesn’t
miss the orchestra.
This song-cycle is very often the centre-piece of any recital where
it is performed, but on this disc the surroundings are almost equals.
Tchaikovsky’s
Six Songs Op. 73 belong among his last compositions,
only followed by his
Pathétique symphony and his third
piano concerto. They are mature works, not too frequently heard, I’m
afraid, but they are masterpieces and though they are not strictly speaking
a song-cycle there is a unity about them that is very telling. The texts
by Daniel Rathaus (or Ratgauz) had all been written the year before
Tchaikovsky set them. They are nature poems in, mostly, dark colours
and melancholy moods. Whether there is a premonition of death here is
another matter. Rathaus lived until 1937 and was only 24 when he wrote
them, but the overriding atmosphere in the music has similarities to
the
Pathétique which, according to some opinions, Tchaikovsky
wrote anticipating his own imminent death. The songs are not all gloomy
on the surface - the fourth song,
The sun has set, breathes optimism
in the final lines:
I am madly happy, oh, my beautiful friend / Unendingly
happy in this night with you! but the music says something else.
The same goes for the passionate
In the midst of gloomy days,
where the poet exclaims:
And again my desire to live glows with passion
/ To breathe as one with you, to love you! The final song
Again,
as before is an anguished farewell:
My friend, please, pray to
God for me, / Since I am already praying for you. It is soft and
inward and Hvorostovsky sings it with immense beauty.
Sergei Taneyev is probably the least known of the three composers represented
on this disc but his music is not infrequently heard today. He studied
composition with Tchaikovsky and left a quite substantial oeuvre including
four symphonies, lots of chamber music - there are eleven string quartets
for a start. He regarded his opera
Oresteia as his masterpiece
- it is being performed at
Bard
Summerscape this year thanks to the enlightened Leon Botstein amd
the Bard grandees (Ed.). There are more than sixty songs. The six songs
recorded here are charming with a
Minuet that is rather Haydnesque,
a
Not the wind from on high with a lovely melody in ¾
time, a thrilling
Winter path with a virtuoso accompaniment,
the strange
Stalactites with a very special accompaniment where
one hears the water drops falling. A remarkable composition! As an encore
we hear the powerful and dramatic
Anxiously beats the heart.
After Tchaikovsky and Mussorgsky these songs may seem lightweight but
they are certainly fascinating and the singing and playing throughout
is riveting. A disc not only for lovers of Russian music.
Göran Forsling 
