Mussorgsky: The Nursery (Detskaya)

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.

The gracious young soprano Martina Janková has established a firm position amidst fierce international competition. Since 1998 she has been an Oper Zürich soloist and has featured in productions by conductors of such renown as Gardiner, Harnoncourt, Fedoseyev, Herreweghe, Rattle, etc. With Sir John Eliot Gardiner, she has recorded, among other things, Bach’s cantatas. Yet Martina Janková keeps returning to the emotionally rich realm of the song.

“Voyage” is not merely a song recital. It is a journey from the child’s wonderment at the colourfulness of the world through amorous enthralment to self-knowledge and finally (in Dvořák’s Biblical Songs) also to that which transcends us. A voyage through life in images, where every word and every tone bears a meaning of its own. In the songs, Martina Janková lets personal stories revive and peers into the innermost corners of the soul.

Martina Janková’s “Voyage” – a journey into the mysteries of the soul and an invitation to an encounter.

The Marriage is described as an experiment of dramatic music based on Gogol’s comedy of the same name, orchestrated by Ippolitov-Ivanov.

The vocal cycle The Nursery has words by Mussorgsky and is orchestrated by Denisov.

In the days when serious composers wrote good music for children to play, sing or just to appreciate, many minor classics were penned. Mussorgsky's "The Nursery" is such and the British songs here, settings of masterpieces of prose by A A Milne and Kipling among others, are also of the highest standard, one or two having become ingrained in the memories of a generation.

Decca Classics releases ‘Ashkenazy: 50 Years on Decca’ on 4 March 2013, a limited edition box-set comprised of 50 CDs to celebrate the label’s remarkable 50-year recording partnership with Vladimir Ashkenazy.

‘Ashkenazy: 50 Years on Decca - the Original Jacket Collection’ includes many key recordings since Ashkenazy’s recording debut for the label in March 1963.

Decca Classics’ new release showcases a rich and varied repertoire, with Ashkenazy’s now-legendary debut recording of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No.3 featuring on the first of the 50 CDs ( with the LSO under the baton of Anatole Fistoulari). The collection includes Ashkenazy collaborating with some of classical music’s greatest conductors, such as Solti, Kondrashin, Maazel, Previn, Barenboim, Haitink and Mehta; accompanying great singers and instrumentalists such as Perlman, Harrell and Söderström; as virtuoso pianist in a wide range of solo repertoire; and as an internationally-renowned conductor, particularly of Russian and Nordic repertoire.

The limited-edition ‘Ashkenazy: 50 Years on Decca’ box-set is beautifully packaged with original LP jackets in the label’s now-familiar cube box with hinged lid, and also includes booklet notes in English and Japanese, a complete discography of Ashkenazy’s recordings on Decca, a composer index, and a unique article from his long-time producer Andrew Cornall on Ashkenazy in the studio, making this a collector’s essential.