Usually despatched in 2 - 3 working days. (Available now to download.)
World Première Complete Recording. Set in late 1920s Leningrad and then in the Altai Mountains in Russian Mongolia, Shostakovich’s second film ODNA (Alone) features a dazzling score for a huge orchestra including a banda (8 brass band instruments), theremin, (Shostakovich was one of the first composers to write for this new electronic instrument), barrel-organ, a soprano, mezzo soprano, tenor, an overtone singer and choir. It has been reconstructed from the official Russian version of the film by Mark Fitz-Gerald, with the official approval of Mrs Irina Shostakovich. The recording also restores a short Overture and a beautiful, lyrical prelude that were not used in the film. The booklet includes notes on the music by leading Shostakovich film music expert, John Riley, and on overtone singing by Mark van Tongeren who performs on the recording. There are also transliterations and translations of the vocal score.
Dmitry Shostakovich: Odna (Alone), Op. 26 (reconstructed by M. Fitz-Gerald)
The Beginning (Overture)
Reel 1, Kuzmina in Leningrad: Kuzmina wakes
Reel 1, Kuzmina in Leningrad: Konchen, konchen tekhnikum
Reel 1, Kuzmina in Leningrad: Morning Exercises
Reel 1, Kuzmina in Leningrad: March, "The Street"
Reel 1, Kuzmina in Leningrad: Kuzmina waits Sobolevsky
Reel 1, Kuzmina in Leningrad: Galop - Kakaya horoshaya budet zhizn'! (How Good Life will Be!)
Reel 1, Kuzmina in Leningrad: March
Reel 1, Kuzmina in Leningrad: (Original) Introduction - The Cockery Sings: Ostan'sya! (Stay!)
Reel 2, Kuzmina Enlists as a Teacher: Office Typewriters
Reel 2, Kuzmina Enlists as a Teacher: A Young Girl Signs Up
Reel 2, Kuzmina Enlists as a Teacher: Music from the Loudspeakers During Telephone Box Scene (composed by Padre Martini, arr. F. Kreisler)
Reel 2, Kuzmina Enlists as a Teacher: Kuzmina Starts to Sign Up
Reel 2, Kuzmina Enlists as a Teacher: March
Reel 2, Kuzmina Enlists as a Teacher: Barrel-Organ
Reel 2, Kuzmina Enlists as a Teacher: The Old Janitor Flirts with Her
Reel 3, Kuzmina Arrives Alone in the Altai Steppes: Overtone Singer
Reel 3, Kuzmina Arrives Alone in the Altai Steppes: The Steppe of the Altai
Reel 3, Kuzmina Arrives Alone in the Altai Steppes: The Altai
Reel 3, Kuzmina Arrives Alone in the Altai Steppes: She Meets the Village Chairman and Some of the Locals
Reel 3, Kuzmina Arrives Alone in the Altai Steppes: Kuzmina in Her Peasant's Hut
Reel 3, Kuzmina Arrives Alone in the Altai Steppes: Kuzmina Takes Courage
Reel 4, Kuzmina Starts Teaching the Local Children: Introduction
Reel 4, Kuzmina Starts Teaching the Local Children: The School Class
Reel 4, Kuzmina Starts Teaching the Local Children: The Bai Selects the Children to Tend The Sheep
Reel 4, Kuzmina Starts Teaching the Local Children: Kuzmina is Struck as She Protests
Reel 4, Kuzmina Starts Teaching the Local Children: The Village Children's Wife Sings A Lullaby to Her Baby
Reel 4, Kuzmina Starts Teaching the Local Children: Kuzmina Sees the Wife's Crockery and Reminisces
Reel 4, Kuzmina Starts Teaching the Local Children: The Village Soviet Chairman Waking Up
Reel 4, Kuzmina Starts Teaching the Local Children: Kuzmina Confronts the Village Chairman
Reel 4, Kuzmina Starts Teaching the Local Children: The Village Chairman Drinks Tea with His Wife
Reel 5, Kuzmina Teaches in the Open Air: The Children Play and Dance with Her
Reel 5, Kuzmina Teaches in the Open Air: The Bai and the Sheep Trader, a Sheep is Slaughtered
Reel 5, Kuzmina Teaches in the Open Air: Kuzmina Protests
Reel 5, Kuzmina Teaches in the Open Air: The Bai Shouts Back at Her
Reel 5, Kuzmina Teaches in the Open Air: The Locals Conspire to Murder Kuzmina
Reel 6, Attempted Murder of Kuzmina: Kuzmina on Her Way to The Next Town
Reel 6, Attempted Murder of Kuzmina: A Snowstorm Starts to Build
Reel 6, Attempted Murder of Kuzmina: Snowstorm
Reel 6, Attempted Murder of Kuzmina: Kuzmina Almost Freezes to Death (beginning)
Reel 6, Attempted Murder of Kuzmina: Kuzmina Almost Freezes to Death (conclusion)
Reel 7, Kuzmina's Rescue by Aeroplane: The Village Chairman Meets with the Locals
Reel 7, Kuzmina's Rescue by Aeroplane: Kuzmina Close to Death to Bed
Reel 7, Kuzmina's Rescue by Aeroplane: The Village Chairman and Meeting
Reel 7, Kuzmina's Rescue by Aeroplane: The Children Come to Comfort Kuzmina
Reel 7, Kuzmina's Rescue by Aeroplane: The Village Chairman Plans Her Funeral
Reel 7, Kuzmina's Rescue by Aeroplane: The Locals Express Themselves Violently
Reel 7, Kuzmina's Rescue by Aeroplane: The Aeroplane from Moscow Arrives to Rescue the Teacher
August 2008
****
“The vocal quality is first rate: leading soprano Irina Mataeva, jolly tenor Dmitry Voropaev and a lovely imitation of folk-lullaby from mezzo Anna Kiknadze. Orchestral solos, especially high-lying oboe and grunting contrabassoon, are superbly done…”
2010
“Although long known through various selections, Shostakovich's second film score Odna ('Alone') is only now available complete. This 1931 Kozintsev/Trauberg collaboration – in which a young teacher finds herself transferred to the remote Altai region, incurs the wrath of the local peasantry and is left to die in a snowstorm, only to be rescued by a Soviet plane – emerged on the cusp of 'silent' and 'sound' cinema. Lack of suitable venues meant the film received few showings with its soundtrack and, while it received considerable acclaim abroad, it was allowed to fall into obscurity until the 1960s. Even now, the film – reconstructed after the master was destroyed in wartime Leningrad – is missing its 'snowstorm' reel. Luckily, the score has now been reclaimed in full – due in no small part to Mark Fitz-Gerald, who has assembled it from numerous sources and presented it in live showings around Western Europe. The result is one of Shostakovich's most innovative scores: the ebullience of his early theatre music being combined with music anticipating the emotional intensity of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, alongside some of his most startling experiments – with cues for overtone singing and a contribution from the theremin (an early electronic instrument). The brief vocal items are attractively done, and Fitz-Gerald secures playing of exceptional vitality from the Frankfurt orchestra. Vividly recorded, with a detailed note from Russian film expert John Riley, Odna is engrossing and pleasurable in purely musical terms. Those wishing to investigate Shostakovich's film music should start here.”
February 2008
“The brief vocal items are attractively done, and Fitz-Gerald secures playing exceptional vitality from the Frankfurt orchestra. Vividly recorded, with a detailed note from Russian film expert John Riley, Odna is engrossing and pleasurable in purely musical terms.”
“Russian singers and Frankfurt’s radio orchestra lap up Fitz-Gerald’s reconstruction; a job well done all round.”
Click here for alternative recordings of this work.
The Beginning (Overture)
