This is yet another of Melodiya's reissues of archive material which is
effectively torpedoed by the lack of essential information about what is
after all pretty well totally unfamiliar music.
The 'concerto for choir'
Pushkin Garland consists of ten settings
of poems by the famous Russian poet, but the one paragraph devoted to the
work in the booklet gives not the slightest indication of what the words are
about and - it regrettably seems almost superfluous to say - no texts and
translations are provided either. Instead, we are told, "It has a great deal
of inflorescences and stems to it at the same time, a multitude of diverse
themes and motifs." This flowery prose is no substitute for some really
solid information about the music. At least some of Pushkin's poetry is
available in translation online, which is more than could be said for some
of the similarly deprived Melodiya transfers which I have reviewed recently.
Is it really too late to beseech Melodiya to have some pity on their
international audience, and give us the essential guidance which that
audience needs if it is properly to appreciate this music?
Sviridov as a composer
is a highly appreciable commodity. The
suite from the film music to
The blizzard (otherwise entitled
The snowstorm) is Soviet light music of the most approachable kind
- think of Khachaturian's
Masquerade, for example. Although the
sound of the recording here is rather blatant it reflects the nature of the
music well. The flute solo at the beginning of
Spring and autumn
(track 3) is rather closely miked in the balance - as are the woodwinds
elsewhere - but there is plenty of air around the sound. The music lacks the
sheer originality and ironic undertow of Shostakovich's film scores,
although it is clear that Sviridov as a pupil learned much from his study
with the older composer. It is unclear how much re-arrangement was
undertaken by the composer to produce these "music illustrations to A
Pushkin's novel," but it has charm in spades. Several of the tracks could
well become popular classics, given the right sort of exposure on Classic
FM. One should however avoid the brassy trumpet solo in the
Romance
(track 4) which sounds for all the world like something out of a spaghetti
Western, and the meretricious
Military March (track 6).
The
Pushkin Garland owes much to the example of the Russian
'choral symphonies' of Tsarist composers such as Bortnyansky, with its block
harmonies moving in stately progression. It is only the use of secular texts
that distinguishes the music from the religious music of composers such as
Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky. Although a chamber orchestra is credited as
participating in the music, there is no evidence of their presence except in
the fifth movement when their sudden entry is rather unexpected . and
unexplained . nor are we given the forenames of the two excellent soloists.
The singing, as one would expect from a Russian choir, is full of Slavonic
fervour and richness, although the tuning sounds a bit off during track 14.
The recording is not overly resonant, speaking of a concert hall rather than
a cathedral although again we are denied this information in the
booklet.
Once again the listener who really wants to engage with the music is
stymied by the total lack of information on what the poetry is about. The
poetry of Pushkin
is available online, but most of it is only to be
viewed in Russian. English translations which are to be found are largely
restricted to the most popular of his works. A search on a number of sites
disclosed no English translations of any of the poems included in the
Pushkin Garland, although it is possible that I simply failed to
find them under the titles given in the booklet here. One can detect the
very distantly placed semi-chorus in the setting of the poem
Echo,
but then one would expect that sort of effect from the title.
A listener who does not speak Russian has no option but to allow the music
to simply wash over them, without any real detailed engagement with what the
composer is trying to convey. I cannot believe that Sviridov, who clearly
cared deeply about Pushkin - he set many others of his poems apart from
these - would begin to find that satisfactory.
Paul Corfield Godfrey
