Tchaikovsky: Strashnaya minuta (The Fearful Moment), Op. 28 No. 6 (A Frightful Minute)

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.

‘I find this British singer’s identification with Tchaikovsky almost uncanny. Having heard countless performances … in my native Russia, I was totally overcome by Rodgers’ unaffectedness and sincerity … her intonation is faultless, her Russian excellent. A rare treat indeed’ (Vladimir Ashkenazy)

Third release on ONYX from young Dutch mezzo and rising star Christianne Stotijn

Beautiful collection of 20 Tchaikovsky songs representing the whole range of his creative life from his first performed composition “My Genius, My angel, my friend,” written when we was 16, through to the last published song from the year of his death “Again, as before, alone”. Includes favourites such as “None but the Lonely Heart” and “Why?” but also rarely heard songs such as “Mild Stars Looked down”, “The Cuckoo” and “The Gypsy Song”

Christianne learnt Russian especially for this recording and toured it widely before recording it with her superb pianist Julius Drake. This recording should do much to re-evaluate Tchaikovsky as one of the greatest composers of song and not just a writer of pretty tunes.

Tchaikovsky wrote over 100 romances, settings of short poems, which are touching and sincere. The melodies are diverse and original and the accompaniment is rich and often very independent. These compositions are performed here by some outstanding Russian vocalists. As well as those listed above, the recording includes performances by the tenor Lemshev.

Beautifully packaged as a book with a CD, it features the music of Russian songs, arranged for cello and piano. The poems by Pushkin, Tiutchev, Tolstoy and others inspired the great 19th century composers to create the beautiful songs which are firmly embedded in the collective psyche of every Russian.

Operatic superstar Dmitri Hvorostovsky has become the supreme interpreter of the Russian Romance, with its rich resource of music and poetry. In this generous program the great baritone soars vocally and plumbs emotional depths as he delivers definitive performances of a wide range of Tchaikovsky’s masterpieces.