|
|
|
ID: MELCD1002374
CDs: 2
Type: CD
|
Collection:
Choral Collection
Subcollection: Choir and OrchestraCD 1
S. Taneyev
John of Damascus, cantata for chorus and orchestra, Op. 1 (based on the poem of the same name by A.K. Tolstoy)
1. I. I begin a journey into the unknown. Adagio ma non troppo - 15.36
2. II. But while I sleep with the eternal sleep. Andante sostenuto - 2.31
3. III. On the day when the trump. Fuga. Allegro - 7.13
Symphony No. 4 in C minor, Op. 12
4. I. Allegro molto - 11.43
5. II. Adagio - 13.45
6. III. Scherzo. Vivace - 5.56
7. IV. Finale. Allegro energico - 9.46
Total time: 66.35
Academic Choir of the USSR All-Union Radio (1-3)
USSR State Academic Symphony Orchestra
Conductor - Evgeny Svetlanov
Recorded in 1991 (1-3), 1988 (4-7).
CD 2
Concert suite for violin and orchestra in G minor, Op. 28
1. I. Prelude. Grave - 8.29
2. II. Gavotte. Allegro moderato - 5.28
3. III. Fairy Tale. Andantino - 9.17
4. IV. Theme and Variations. Andantino - 14.52
5. V. Tarantella. Presto - 6.32
6. Temple of Apollo at Delphi, entr’acte before scene 2, act III of the musical trilogy Oresteia based on the tragedy by Aeschylus - 5.56
Total time: 50.37
Andrey Korsakov, violin (1-5)
USSR State Academic Symphony Orchestra
Conductor - Evgeny Svetlanov
Recorded: at the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory in 1990 (1-5), broadcasted from the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory on December 28, 1984 (6).
John of Damascus, cantata for chorus and orchestra, Op. 1 (based on the poem of the same name by A.K. Tolstoy)
1. I. I begin a journey into the unknown. Adagio ma non troppo - 15.36
2. II. But while I sleep with the eternal sleep. Andante sostenuto - 2.31
3. III. On the day when the trump. Fuga. Allegro - 7.13
Symphony No. 4 in C minor, Op. 12
4. I. Allegro molto - 11.43
5. II. Adagio - 13.45
6. III. Scherzo. Vivace - 5.56
7. IV. Finale. Allegro energico - 9.46
Total time: 66.35
Academic Choir of the USSR
All-Union Radio (1-3)
USSR State Academic
Symphony Orchestra
Conductor - Evgeny Svetlanov
Recorded in 1991 (1-3), 1988 (4-7).
CD 2
Concert suite for violin and orchestra in G minor, Op. 28
1. I. Prelude. Grave - 8.29
2. II. Gavotte. Allegro moderato - 5.28
3. III. Fairy Tale. Andantino - 9.17
4. IV. Theme and Variations. Andantino - 14.52
5. V. Tarantella. Presto - 6.32
6. Temple of Apollo at Delphi, entr’acte before scene 2, act III of the musical trilogy Oresteia based on the tragedy by Aeschylus - 5.56
Total time: 50.37
Andrey Korsakov, violin (1-5)
USSR State Academic Symphony Orchestra
Conductor - Evgeny Svetlanov
Recorded: at the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory in 1990 (1-5), broadcasted from the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory on December 28, 1984 (6).
Firma Melodiya presents a collection of Sergei Taneyev’s best works in the interpretation of Evgeny Svetlanov.
“A great Russian musician, whose all efforts inspire deep respect,” musicologist Boris Asafyev wrote about Taneyev. As a composer, pianist, music theorist and educator, disciple of Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Nikolai Rubinstein, teacher of Rachmaninoff and Scriabin, professor and director of Moscow Conservatory, Taneyev made an immense contribution to the Russian music at the turn of the 20th century. His work drew on the traditions of symphonic, chamber and opera music by Tchaikovsky, enriching them with intensive polyphonic development.
Cantata John of Damascus is Taneyev’s first composition endowed with artistic maturity (the author himself numbered it Opus 1). It is dedicated to the memory of his teacher Nikolai Rubinstein; the composition is based on the church chant Give rest with the saints, thoroughly elaborated, similarly to chorales in choral pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach. Symphony No. 4 in C minor is a masterpiece of Taneyev’s instrumental music, where the traditional structure of sonata-symphonic cycle is filled with intense dramatic movement “from the darkness to the light.”
The collection also features a refined concert suite for violin and orchestra and the symphonic entr’acte from the opera Oresteia (Temple of Apollo at Delphi) - an image of imperishable Light and Justice embodied in the image of the ancient god.
Taneyev’s compositions are recorded in the version of the USSR State Academic Symphony Orchestra conducted by of Evgeny Svetlanov - a major interpreter of the Russian classical music. The cantata was recorded with the participation of the Big Choir of the All-Union Radio and Central TV, the concert suite features Andrey Korsakov, People’s Artiste of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, one of the best students of Leonid Kogan. |
| 29.00 eur Buy |
|
ID: MELCD1002129
CDs: 2
Type: CD
|
Collection:
Opera Collection
Subcollection: Choir and OrchestraSoloists: Georgy Nelepp (Vakula), Elizaveta Antonova (Solokha), Andrei Ivanov (Devil), Maxim Mikhailov (Chub), Elena Kruglikova (Oksana), Sergei Krasovsky (Pan Golova), Fyodor Godovkin (Panas), Alexandr Peregudov (Schoolmaster), Olga Insarova (Tsarina), Alexei Ivanov (His Highness), I Ionov (Master of Ceremonies), Veniamin Shevtsov (Attendant), Ivan Sipayev ( Old Cossack), Mikhail Skazin (Wood Goblin)
Bolshoi Theatre Choir and Orchestra, Alexander Melik-Pashayev
Firma Melodiya presents a recording of a wonderful but now so rarely performed lyric and comic opera - Tchaikovsky’s Cherevichki.
The opera was initially named 'Vakula the Smith'. In 1874, Tchaikovsky won a competition announced by the Russian Music Society for the best opera to a libretto by Yakov Polonsky based on the famous story 'Christmas Eve' by Nikolai Gogol from his collection 'Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka'. However, Tchaikovsky was left displeased with his piece and reworked it in 1887. The opera was then staged at the Bolshoi Theatre, and the first night of Cherevichki became Tchaikovsky’s debut as a conductor.
Gogol was one of Tchaikovsky’s favourite authors. The composer liked to stay in the Ukraine, in his sister’s manor Kamenka. Tchaikovsky brought to life the characters from Gogol’s story, their lives, legends and emotions, with the help of folk tunes, dance rhythms and expressive lyric intonations. The opera also has a gallant intermezzo - the scene at St Petersburg court in the 18th century which also attracted the composer in a later opera, 'The Queen of Spades'.
This recording of Cherevichki was realized in the late 1940s by the Bolshoi troupe led by the outstanding conductor Alexander Melik-Pashayev and featured some of the best performers of the Bolshoi of the time, such as Elena Kruglikova, Elizaveta Antonova, Georgy Nelepp, Andrei Ivanov, Maxim Mikhailov and others. |
| 29.00 eur Buy |
|
ID: MELCD1001192
CDs: 2
Type: CD
|
Collection:
Opera Collection
Subcollection: Choir and OrchestraRecorded in Moscow in 1975
The short “The Gamblers” which was left unfinished in a piano score, is performed here in a version completed by the conductor Gennady Rozhdestvensky.
“The Nose” was first performed in 1930 and once again the composer was lambasted for being pretentious and artificial. In recent years “The Nose” has enjoyed a reassessment in revivals in opera houses around the world.
Orchestra and Chorus of the Moscow Chamber Musical Theatre / Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, Gennady Rozhdestvensky |
| 29.00 eur Temporarily out of stock |
|
ID: MELCD1002366
CDs: 2
Type: CD
|
Collection:
Sacred Music
Subcollection: Choir and OrchestraEvangelist - Protodeacon Viktor Shilovsky, baritone (CD1, CD2)
Naira Asatrian, soprano (CD2: 11)
Olessya Petrova, mezzo-soprano (CD1: 11)
Maxim Paster, tenor (CD2:18)
Sergei Markelov, tenor (CD1: 3, 7, 13, 16, 26 / CD2: 10, 13)
Dmitri Beloselsky, bass (CD1: 10, 21-22)
Moscow Synodal Choir - Alexei Puzakov, choirmaster
Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra - Vladimir Fedoseyev,conductor
Firma Melodiya presents a recording of St Matthew Passion (2006), one of the most popular works of Russian academic music of the 21st century composed by Metropolitan Hilarion. In due course, this work will probably take a special place in the history of domestic music, but it has already been a source of inspiration for The Conductor (2012), a motion picture by Pavel Lungin, and performed over fifty times around the world.
Its composer Metropolitan Hilarion (Grigory Alfeyev) is a pries of the Russian Orthodox Church, a theologian and public figure, an author of fundamental studies on religious issues, and a Doctor of Philosophy of the University of Oxford. In 1984 to 1987 he studied at the composition department of the Moscow Conservatory under professor Alexei Nikolayev. Later he left music for an ecclesiastical career, but subsequently returned to composing.
The uniqueness of St Matthew Passion lies in the synthesis of musical traditions of West European baroque where the musical genre of passion sprang from, Orthodox church signing and Russian symphonic music of the 19th and 20th centuries. St Matthew Passion is intended for concert performance, but in the opinion of the musicologist and chancellor of the Moscow Conservatory Alexander Sokolov "this music leads a man to God through knowledge of God, to spiritual through soulful".
The featured recording was made in 2010 by the first performers of the Passion who are the Moscow Synodal Choir led by Alexei Puzakov and the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Fedoseyev with the participation of young vocalists and prize-winners of international competitions Naira Asatrian, Olessya Petrova, Maxim Paster and Dmitri Beloselsky. |
| 29.00 eur Temporarily out of stock |
|
ID: MELCD1002102
CDs: 2
Type: CD
|
Collection:
Opera Collection
Subcollection: Choir and OrchestraFirma Melodiya presents a recording of Anton Rubinstein’s opera The Demon. This wonderful work, which was inspired with the poem of the same name by Mikhail Lermontov and then inspired the likes of Mikhail Vrubel and Feodor Chaliapin, became a milestone in the history of music theatre. Unfortunately, the opera was almost forgotten by the public and musicians, and only a few of its fragments were widely known. It is only lately that Russian and foreign opera houses have been showing a new interest in it.
Rubinstein finished the opera in 1871. One of the greatest pianists of the 19th century nicknamed “tsar of the stage”, a composer and conductor, the founder of the first ever Russian conservatory in St Petersburg, he stood at the summit of glory and in full possession of his composing mastery.
The Demon combined traditions of Russian and West European music art and did justice to the colour of Caucasus. The opera was a great success with the public and accepted enthusiastically even by the composers of The Five, Rubinstein’s ideological 'opponents'. “A superb artist”, wrote Modest Mussorgsky in a letter to Vladimir Stasov.
Of all recorded versions of The Demon, we offer the one realized in 1974 by the soloists, choir and orchestra of the All-Union Radio lead by the outstanding maestro Boris Khaikin. Alexander Polyakov, a young bass-baritone and future soloist of the Bolshoi Theatre performed the main part. Nina Lebedeva, a Bolshoi soloist and remarkable performer of Russian and foreign operatic repertoire sang the part of Tamara. Alexei Usmanov (tenor), a soloist of the All-Union Radio, performed the part of Sinodal.
Alexander Polyakov (Demon), Nina Lebedeva (Tamara), Evgeny Vladimirov (Gudal), Alexey Usmanov (Sinodal), Nina Grigorieva (Nanny), Nina Derbina (Angel), Yury Elnikov (Messenger), Boris Morozov (Old Servant)
Academic Choir of the USSR All-Union Radio, USSR State Radio Symphony Orchestra, Boris Khaikin |
| 29.00 eur Temporarily out of stock |
|
ID: MELCD1002277
CDs: 2
Type: CD
|
Collection:
Choral Collection
Subcollection: Choir and OrchestraRecorded: 1965
Firma Melodiya presents a recording of Sergei Taneyev’s opera Oresteia, a revived masterpiece of Russian music.
The author worked on the opera for twelve years (1882-1894), in a period when Prince Igor, the Queen of Spades, Iolanta and Mlada were created. However, Oresteia remained a unique phenomenon in history of Russian opera. Sergei Taneyev was the best and favourite pupil of Tchaikovsky and Nikolai Rubinstein, a prominent educator and music theorist who brought up Rachmaninoff, Scriabin and many other famous pupils. Unexpectedly for his friends and peers, he was inspired with the ancient story (Aeschylus’s tetralogy) which met his aesthetic ideals of harmony and perfection.
Taneyev masterfully used a broad arsenal of music and dramatic techniques of the late 19th century - an intricate system of leitmotifs, evolving dramaturgy of operatic scenes, and a combination of freely recitative and arioso fragments. The special part of the chorus reflects the spirit of ancient theatre with bright orchestral bits frequently becoming culminations (the famous entr’acte The Temple of Apollo at Delphi). The opera is full of tragic anticipation of Fate, which makes it close to Tchaikovsky’s symphonism, but a heartwarming finale resolving the conflict is typical for Taneyev’s views thus deviating from Aeschylus’s fatalism. Wisdom and Love conquer the dark forces of revenge, insidiousness and malice - that is the bottom line of this monumental operatic interpretation.
Oresteia did not have a lucky stage life - it has been staged on a small number of occasions. The version of the State Bolshoi Opera and Ballet Theatre of Belarus realized and recorded in the 1960’s is one of the best productions of the opera. That recording is featured in this set. The main parts are performed by the soloists of the Belorussian theatre V. Chernobayev, L. Galushkina, A. Bokov, T. Shimko, I. Dubrovkin and N. Tkachenko. The choir and orchestra are conducted by the People’s Artist of the Belorussian SSR Tatiana Kolomiytseva. |
| 29.00 eur Temporarily out of stock |
|
ID: MELCD1002050
CDs: 3
Type: CD
|
Collection:
Opera Collection
Subcollection: Choir and OrchestraE. Andreyeva, E. Bulavin & V. Radziyevsky
Choir & Orchestra of the Moscow State, Gennady Provatorov
It is hard to name another opera with a fate as complicated and dramatic as that of its heroine. Shostakovich came up with the idea of composing an opera based on Nikolai Leskov’s novel Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District, perhaps the most outright and cruel work of the Russian classical literature, in the early 1930s. Finished in 1932, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District (as the opera was originally titled) was staged two years later in Leningrad and then in Moscow caused a heated controversy.
However, the opera was condemned after Stalin saw it. “A mess instead of music” - that was a title of a scathing article in the Pravda in January 1936. It marked the beginning of unfounded criticism at Shostakovich for “formalism”, while Lady Macbeth was banned from the stage. The ban was lifted as late as in the early 1960s when Shostakovich had realized the second edition of the opera under the name of Katerina Izmailova. The opera was staged in Moscow and later it took the place it deserved in Russian and foreign theatres. Melodiya presents a historically first recording of Shostakovich’s opera made at the Moscow Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theatre in 1964 soon after the premiere of the second edition. The premiere was conducted by a young maestro Gennady Provatorov.
In 1966, the recording was given a Grand Prix du Disquein France. |
| 39.00 eur Temporarily out of stock |
|
ID: MELCD1000764
CDs: 3
Type: CD
|
Collection:
Opera Collection
Subcollection: Choir and OrchestraLibretto by the composer after the Tragedy by Alexander Pushkin.
Version and orchestration by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Opera in 4 Acts with a Prologue. Libretto by the composer after the Tragedy by Alexander Pushkin. Version and orchestration by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Boris Godunov-Ivan Petrov; Feodor-Valentina Klepatskaya; Xenia-Tamara Sorokina; Nurse to Xenia-Yevgeniya Verbitskaya; Prince Vasily Ivanovich Shuisky-Georgy Shulpin; Andrey Schelkalov-Alexey Ivanov; Pimen-Mark Reshetin; Grigory, the Pretender-Vladimir Ivanovsky; Marina Mnishek-Irina Arkhipova. Chorus and Orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre of the USSR. Recorded in Moscow, 1962.
“I see the people as a single great personality inspired by one definite idea. That was my task, that was what I wanted to bring out in my opera”, said Mussorgsky of Boris Godunov. The revolutionary idea of Boris Godunov is clearly brought out in the brilliant scene of the people’s revolt (the final scene, “At Kromy”). The mighty song of the rebellious people comes as a burst of indignation against Tsar Boris and his “offsprings” whom the people hold reponsible for all their misfortunes. The idea of composing an opera after Pushkin’s historical tragedy waz suggested to Mussorgsky by his friend and admirer V. Nikolsky, a specialist in history of the Russian language. Thet was in 1868. By this time Mussorgsky’s realistic talent and interest in the life of the people had already become apparent. He accepted the idea of writing a historical opera with enthusiasm. He was absorbed in study of the historical material of the epoch. V. Stasov aided him in finding the texts of folk songs and supplied him with the information drawn from various historical sources. The opera was staged in Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre on December 16, 1888. |
| 39.00 eur Temporarily out of stock |
|
|
