Vassily Savenko

The music of the Ukrainian composer Boris Lyatoshynsky (1895–1968) is familiar in his home country but sorely neglected abroad.

Lyatoshynsky’s songs are neglected even there: this anthology of his best romantsiy for low voice and piano contains many first recordings.

The songs meld intense Scriabinesque expressionism with elements of Ukrainian folksong in a language that embraces both the lyrical and the dramatic.

His setting of Shelley’s Ozymandias, with its warning of the impermanence of power, was a brave act in the Soviet Union of 1924.

The booklet contains full sung texts, with English translations by Russian-music expert Anthony Phillips, who also provides an extensive introduction to Lyatoshynsky, his songs and his artistic milieu.

In an extraordinary twist of literary history, Robert Burns, the world-renowned 18th-century Scottish poet, became the ‘people’s poet’ of Russia.

In Imperial times the Russian aristocracy were so out of touch with the peasantry that Burns, translated into Russian, became a symbol for the ordinary Russian people. In Soviet Russia Burns was elevated as the archetypical poet of the people – not least since the Soviet regime slaughtered and silenced its own poets.

A new translation of Burns, begun in 1924 by the Jewish writer Samuel Marshak (1887– 1964), proved enormously popular, selling over 600,000 copies.

This CD contains settings of some of Burns’ best-loved poems, including ‘Comin thro’ the Rye’, ‘MacPherson’s Farewell’, ‘Comin thro’ the Rye’, ‘My love is like a red, red rose’, ‘John Anderson, my Jo’ and ‘Auld Lang Syne’.

Vassily Savenko and Alexander Blok (a relative of the poet) are renowned for their recordings of Russian songs.

The booklet notes are by Burns authority Andrew Noble, editor of the authoritative The Canongate Burns, and Russian-music expert Stuart Campbell.

Full Russian song-texts with English translations by renowned Russian translator Anthony Phillips.

As gifted a pianist as Prokofiev, and a composer whom Rachmaninov rated more highly than himself, Nicolaï Medtner (1880-1951) has long been neglected, a victim both of circumstances (the Russian revolution, emigration, war) and of his difficulty in adapting to 1920s Berlin and 1930s Paris, two hotbeds of a modernity that was fundamentally alien to him. This CD gives us a chance to discover the last of the great Romantics, a worthy heir to Chopin and Brahms who celebrated the great poets, both Russian and German, faithful to the double culture of his origins. 17 of Medtner's finest songs are accompanied here by 8 Skazki, literally 'tales' for piano, or ‘poems without words’. Boris Berezovsky is in his element in this repertoire.

An atmospheric live recording of Tchaikovsky’s opera The Oprichnik, with wonderful, full blooded Russian voices, and the inimitable Gennady Rozhdestvensky conducting. Tchaikovsky wrote the libretto for the opera himself, set in the 16th Century, the tumultuous period in Russian history of Ivan the Terrible. Hardly any competition for this release, a must for the opera aficionado and Tchaikovsky fan! Extensive synopsis included in the booklet.

This live recording of one of Tchaikovsky’s least-known operas derives from a live production of a staging by Graham Vick in Cagliari, Sicily. It features the always quirky musicianship of Gennady Rozhdestvensky, whose musical appetite for the curio and the unfamiliar is apparently insatiable.

He conducts a cast of real Russian singers, most of them stalwarts at the Bolshoi, with voices that come from the long tradition of Lisitsian, Chaliapin and Vishnevskaya, including the rich mezzo of Irina Dolzhenko and imposing bass of Vsevolod Grivnov. The opera itself tells the tale of Andrey, who joins the eponymous oprichnik (the tsar’s mercenary retinue, set up to assert his power against the boyars) in order to pursue or defend a family feud. Crossed lovers and curses ensue; the end is inevitably tragic, with not only Andrey coming to a sticky end but also his widowed mother. As his first surviving completed opera, first performed in 1876,The Oprichnik is full of tell-tale signs of the great dramatic composer which Tchaikovsky would become in Eugene Onegin and The Queen of Spades.

Dynamic continues its collaboration with the Fondazione Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, which has already led to successful releases such as, for example, Die Feen (CDS 217/1-3) and Cherevichki (CDS 287/1-3).

This time it is Tchaikovsky’s early but fascinating work Oprichnik that has been rediscovered, the Russian composer’s first, real, convincing step of his theatrical career. Oprichnik pleased many people but not its author, who, despite having worked at it with enthusiasm, after seeing the first performance at the Mariinskij theatre of St Petersburg, found it ”without action, without style and inspiration”. Too stern an evaluation, indeed, but one which reflects Tchaikovsky’s tormented soul.

Oprichnik is a powerful, dramatic work and, although it lacks the introspection of more mature operas, it has wonderful melodic passages, and intense and captivating arias and duets.

Gennadi Rozhdestvensky, on the podium, leads a cast of experienced singers.

60 CD + CD-ROM

A high voltage set capturing the inner passion of the Russian soul, from the light-footed ballets to the tormented Pathetique Symphony, from a delicate song to the explosions of Overture 1812, the Tchaikovsky Edition includes the complete symphonies, complete concertos, complete ballets, complete suites, complete piano works, complete string quartets, complete songs and 8 operas (sung in Russian, by Russian singers)

Includes performances of legendary Russian artists, such as Sviatoslav Richter, Emil Gilels, David Oistrakh, Leonid Kogan, Evgeny Kissin, and conductors Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Evgeny Mravinsky, Yuri Simonov, Vladimir Fedoseyev.

Includes rare historical recordings of great collector’s value.

A comprehensive survey of Tchaikovsky’s output, spanning 60CDs with a CD-ROM containing comprehensive booklet notes, and sung texts.

This set also contains historical recordings from great interpreters including Ernest Ansermet in performances of the 6th Symphony and the three great ballets. Byron Janis plays the 1st Piano Concerto, Shura Cherkassky in the 2nd, and Michael Ponti in the Taneyev reconstruction of the 3rd concerto. The Oistrakh Trio perform the Piano Trio, The 1st concerto again in performances by Lev Oborin and Emil Gilels, Sviatoslav Richter and Yevgeny Kissin. Leonid Kogan and David Oistrakh can be heard in the Violin Concerto.

In addition to these fascinating documents the 6 symphonies, all the chamber music, songs and piano works can be heard in modern recordings. The operas are presented in historical Russian recordings from the Bolshoi with some great Russian voices of the 20th century.