Mussorgsky; Rimsky-Korsakov; Tchaikovsky - Songs and Opera Arias (Galina Vishnevskaya)

Information

Composer: Modest Mussorgsky; Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov; Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

1. Mussorgsky - Hopak
2. Mussorgsky - Eremushka's Lullaby
3. Mussorgsky - Darling Savishna
4. Mussorgsky - Songs and Dances of Death (orch. Shostakovich): 1. Lullaby
5. Mussorgsky - Songs and Dances of Death (orch. Shostakovich): 2. Serenada
6. Mussorgsky - Songs and Dances of Death (orch. Shostakovich): 3. Trepak
7. Mussorgsky - Songs and Dances of Death (orch. Shostakovich): 4. The Field-Marshal
8. Rimsky-Korsakov - Eastern Song: The Nightingale Enslaved by the Rose, Op. 2 No. 2
9. Rimsky-Korsakov - The Clouds Begin to Scatter, Op. 42 No. 3
10. Rimsky-Korsakov - In Spring, Op.43: 1. The Lark Sings Louder
11. Rimsky-Korsakov - Lullaby of the Sea Princess (from opera "Sadko")
12. Rimsky-Korsakov - Marfa's Scene and Aria (from opera "The Tsar's Bride")
13. Rimsky-Korsakov - Lyubasha's Aria (from opera "The Tsar's Bride")
14. Tchaikovsky - Lel's Song (from opera "The Snow Maiden")
15. Tchaikovsky - Was I Not a Little Blade of Grass in the Meadow?, Op. 47 No. 7
16. Tchaikovsky - Cradle Song, Op. 16 No. 1
17. Tchaikovsky - Why?, Op. 6 No. 5
18. Tchaikovsky - Amid the Din of the Ball, Op. 38 No. 3
19. Tchaikovsky - Again, As Before, Alone, Op. 73 No. 6

Galina Vishnevskaya, soprano

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Mstislav Rostropovich, conductor & piano

Date: 1975; 1976; 1978

Label: EMI Classics

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Review

Undoubtedly one of the great voices, and one of the great singers of the past century. Vishnevskaya’s voice may not be to every taste – it would be surprising if it was, as it is so strongly individual in timbre – but no-one with ears to hear could miss the instinctive musicality and powerful dramatic force of her interpretations.

She was (now in her late 70s, her days of public singing are sadly over) also a great stylist; if you want to hear Russian music sung as it should be sung, then you need look no further. This fine collection demonstrates this convincingly, despite the fact that she hated the recording studio. It is a tribute to her that she has managed to overcome that hatred and to inject a sense of the live performance into these recorded tracks.

There are drawbacks; sometimes the tone deteriorates as she tires; sometimes the intonation is, to say the least, suspect; sometimes the rubato confounds even the attentive ears of husband and accompanist (piano and orchestra) Mstislav Rostropovich. These however are infrequent negatives that are overwhelmingly outweighed by the positives.

She begins with a Mussorgsky group, consisting of a wild Hopak, a haunting Lullaby and the imperious Darling Savishna. Then come the great Songs and Dances of Death, orchestrated by Vishnevskaya’s close friend Shostakovich. She gives an immensely powerful reading of these, and Rostropovich and the LSO bring out the wonderful colours of Shostakovich’s scoring. The first three are superb; in the macabre fourth, The Field-Marshal, however, she seems to strain her voice beyond its remarkable resources in her almost frenzied representation of the story. Some will find this compelling; I found it spilled over into melodrama.

The very finest singing is to be found in the Rimsky-Korsakov numbers. There is a particularly overwhelming moment in the first of these, The Rose and the Nightingale. The piano begins, with a winding, oriental melody, after which the voice follows with its two short, simple stanzas. But in the coda, the piano’s opening phrases re-appear at the top of the soprano range – an outpouring of vocal sound which really does seem supernatural in its beauty. The three items from Rimsky operas are of equal quality, particularly the ‘Lullaby of the Sea Princess’ from Sadko, while the arias from The Tsar’s Bride remind us that this opera is a special love of Vishnevskaya’s, and occasioned her only attempt at opera production.

There is an undoubted drop in the emotional temperature for the group of Tchaikovsky songs, but no drop in artistry or involvement. After the somewhat bumpy ride of the previous tracks, it is good to be reminded that Vishnevskaya could spin a wonderfully sustained and restrained line. She was a highly disciplined, cultured artist as well as, when required, an emotional firebrand.

Despite the occasional lapses, the fact is that she was incapable of producing a boring or disengaged note, and that the best singing here is, quite simply, very great.

-- Gwyn Parry-Jones

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Modest Mussorgsky (21 March 1839 – 28 March 1881) is a Russian composer. Composing without training in his teens, he met several composers, with whom he later made up The Five, and received his first composition lessons from Mily Balakirev in 1857. His major works include the symphonic poem Night on Bald Mountain (1867), the great opera Boris Godunov (1868), and the famous piano cycle Pictures at an Exhibition (1874). His 65 songs describe vivid scenes of Russian life. After Mussorgsky’s death, his works were published in drastically edited form, purged of their distinctive starkness and unorthodox harmonies.

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Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (18 March 1844 – 21 June 1908) was a prominent Russian composer and a key figure in the development of Russian classical music. He was a member of the group of composers known as "The Five" which dedicated to creating a distinctively Russian sound. Rimsky-Korsakov is best known for his orchestral works, including Scheherazade, Capriccio Espagnol, and Russian Easter Overture. His compositions often feature vibrant orchestration, exotic themes, and rich harmonic textures. He also contributed to the development of Russian opera, with notable works such as The Snow Maiden and Sadko. 

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Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (7 May 1840 – 6 November 1893) was a Romantic Russian composer. He was the first Russian composer whose music would make a lasting impression internationally. Tchaikovsky wrote some of the most popular concert and theatrical music in the current classical repertoire, including the ballets Swan Lake and The Nutcracker, the 1812 Overture, his First Piano Concerto, Violin Concerto, the Romeo and Juliet Overture-Fantasy, several symphonies, and the opera Eugene Onegin. Despite his many popular successes, Tchaikovsky's life was punctuated by personal crises and depression.

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Galina Vishnevskaya (25 October 1926 – 11 December 2012) was a Russian soprano. Born in Leningrad, she made her professional stage debut in 1944 and became a member of the Bolshoi Theatre in 1953. In addition to the roles in the Russian operatic repertoire, Vishnevskaya also sang roles such as Violetta, Tosca, Cio-cio-san, Leonore, and Cherubino. Benjamin Britten wrote the soprano role in his War Requiem specially for her. Vishnevskaya was married to the cellist Mstislav Rostropovich from 1955 until his death in 2007; they performed together regularly. She was named a People's Artist of the USSR in 1966.

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