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Elisabeth Söderström was a born storyteller. She told stories not just in music, but also peppered her recitals on stage with tales and anecdotes. It made her a perfect interpreter for the collection of children’s songs by Mussorgsky, Prokofiev and Gretchaninov she recorded with Vladimir Ashkenazy in 1977–78 which appear on CD2 of this set, the first (LP) issue greeted with enthusiasm by Gramophone reviewer W.S.M. with the words ‘the best record of song to appear in 1979’. It later went on to win the 1979 Gramophone’s Solo Vocal Award. But there was more: a selection of Tchaikovsky songs over two LPs; a substantial survey of the Rachmaninov songs (‘one of the gramophone’s crown jewels’ wrote John Steane in Gramophone) as well as the complete Sibelius songs.
Born in Stockholm on 7 May 1927 to a Russian mother and Swedish father, Söderström she was a talented recitalist, as much in demand in the concert hall as she was in the opera theatre. From 1991–96 she also directed the Drottingholm Festival Opera with much success. The two LPs of Tchaikovsky songs were issued in part by Decca on CD and this is their first complete release in this format. Overshadowed by his orchestral works, they are nonetheless absolute gems, with their piano parts of almost orchestral scope. Ashkenazy’s is, too, the disembodied voice that speaks a few of Pushkin’s lines in the early setting of Zemfira's song.
‘Söderström came to be known internationally in the late 1950s,’ wrote John Steane, ‘and over the next three decades, on until her retirement from singing in the early 1990s she never “blotted her copybook”. She neither sought nor won cheap success.’ Söderström passed away in Stockholm on 20 November 2009, aged 82, from complications from a stroke.
This release marks the launch of an Eloquence series of notable recitals of songs and opera arias by some of the great voices of Decca and Deutsche Grammophon.
Tchaikovsky: The cuckoo, Op. 54 No. 8
Tchaikovsky: Evening, Op. 27 No. 4
Tchaikovsky: The nightingale, Op. 60 No. 4
Tchaikovsky: Last night, Op. 60 No. 1
Tchaikovsky: None but the lonely heart, Op. 6 No. 6
Tchaikovsky: Lullaby, Op. 16 No. 1
Tchaikovsky: Why?, Op. 6 No. 5
Tchaikovsky: The frightening moment, Op. 28 No. 6
Tchaikovsky: Whether the day reigns, Op. 47 No. 6
Tchaikovsky: Spring , Op. 54 No. 9
Tchaikovsky: Simple words, Op. 60 No. 5
Tchaikovsky: Mezza notte
Tchaikovsky: Serenade, Op. 65 No. 1
Tchaikovsky: Deception, Op. 65 No. 2
Tchaikovsky: Poème d’October, Op. 65 No. 4
Tchaikovsky: Les larmes, Op. 65 No. 5
Tchaikovsky: The sun has slipped from sight, Op. 73 No. 4
Tchaikovsky: As on hot ashes, Op. 25 No. 2
Tchaikovsky: My protector, my angel, my friend
Tchaikovsky: Zemfira’s song
Tchaikovsky: Do not believe it, my friend, Op. 6 No. 1
Tchaikovsky: To forget so soon
Tchaikovsky: O do sing that song, Op. 16 No. 4
Tchaikovsky: Spirit my heart away
Tchaikovsky: Why did I dream of you?, Op. 28 No. 3
Tchaikovsky: It was in the early spring, Op. 38 No. 2
Tchaikovsky: Amid the noise of the ball, Op. 38 No. 3
Tchaikovsky: If only I’d known, Op. 47 No. 1
Tchaikovsky: Was I not a little blade of grass?, Op. 47 No. 7
Tchaikovsky: My little garden, Op. 54 No. 4
Tchaikovsky: Do not ask, Op. 57 No. 3
Tchaikovsky: This, our first reunion, Op. 63 No. 4
Tchaikovsky: Serenade, Op. 63 No. 6
Tchaikovsky: Rondel, Op. 65 No. 6
Tchaikovsky: We sat together, Op. 73 No. 1
Tchaikovsky: Behind the window, in the shadow, Op. 60 No. 10
Mussorgsky: The Nursery: I. With Nanny
Mussorgsky: The Nursery: II. In the corner
Mussorgsky: The Nursery: III. The beetle
Mussorgsky: The Nursery: IV. With the doll
Mussorgsky: The Nursery: V. At bedtime
Mussorgsky: The Nursery: VI. Riding on a Hobby-horse
Mussorgsky: The Nursery: VII. Matros the Cat
Prokofiev: Gadkiy Utenok (The Ugly Duckling), Op. 18
Gretchaninov: The Lane – Five Children’s Songs, Op. 89: I
Gretchaninov: The Lane – Five Children’s Songs, Op. 89: II
Gretchaninov: The Lane – Five Children’s Songs, Op. 89: III
Gretchaninov: The Lane – Five Children’s Songs, Op. 89: IV
Gretchaninov: The Lane – Five Children’s Songs, Op. 89: V
(Tchaikovsky Songs)
“The Maikov Lullaby is enchantingly done, especially with the gentle wash of piano tone in the background from Ashkenazy … a delightful, excellently recorded recital of some songs which we know too little … Tchaikovsky wrote some exquisite songs; and it is splendid to have them being explored so skilfully, intelligently and sensitively”
(Songs for Children)
“brilliant … endearing … musicianly”
Click on any of the works listed above for alternative recordings.
Tchaikovsky: The cuckoo, Op. 54 No. 8