Anna Netrebko - In the Still of the Night

Netrebko and Barenboim don’t quite deliver and Hvorostovsky disappoints

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Richard Strauss, Antonín Dvořák

Genre:

Vocal

Label: Deutsche Grammophon

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 69

Mastering:

Stereo

Catalogue Number: 477 858-9

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
(4) Songs, Movement: No. 3, Of what I dream in the quiet sky (wds. A. M Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Composer
Anna Netrebko, Soprano
Daniel Barenboim, Piano
Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Composer
(4) Songs, Movement: Forgive! Remember not these tearful days (wds. N) Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Composer
Anna Netrebko, Soprano
Daniel Barenboim, Piano
Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Composer
In spring, Movement: No. 1, The lark sings louder (wds. Tolstoy) Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Composer
Anna Netrebko, Soprano
Daniel Barenboim, Piano
Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Composer
In spring, Movement: No. 2, Not the wind, blowing from the heights (wds Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Composer
Anna Netrebko, Soprano
Daniel Barenboim, Piano
Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Composer
(4) Songs, Movement: No. 4, On the hills of Georgia (wds. Pushkin) Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Composer
Anna Netrebko, Soprano
Daniel Barenboim, Piano
Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Composer
(6) Songs, Movement: In the kingdom of roses and wine (wds. A. Fet: 187 Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Composer
Anna Netrebko, Soprano
Daniel Barenboim, Piano
Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Composer
(4) Songs, Movement: Zuleika's song (wds. Byron, trans I. Kozlov) Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Composer
Anna Netrebko, Soprano
Daniel Barenboim, Piano
Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Composer
(4) Songs, Movement: No. 2, Enslaved by the rose, the nightingale (wds. A. Kol'tsov; 1866) Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Composer
Anna Netrebko, Soprano
Daniel Barenboim, Piano
Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Composer
(4) Songs, Movement: No. 3, The clouds begin to scatter (wds. Pushkin) Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Composer
Anna Netrebko, Soprano
Daniel Barenboim, Piano
Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Composer
(2) Songs, Movement: No. 1, The nymph Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Composer
Anna Netrebko, Soprano
Daniel Barenboim, Piano
Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Composer
(2) Songs, Movement: No. 2, Summer night's dream Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Composer
Anna Netrebko, Soprano
Daniel Barenboim, Piano
Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov, Composer
(6) Songs, Movement: No. 1, Tell me, what in the shade of the branches (wds. Sollogub) Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Anna Netrebko, Soprano
Daniel Barenboim, Piano
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
To forget so soon Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Anna Netrebko, Soprano
Daniel Barenboim, Piano
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
(12) Songs, Movement: No. 6, Frenzied nights (wds. Apukhtin) Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Anna Netrebko, Soprano
Daniel Barenboim, Piano
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
(6) Songs, Movement: No. 5, Why? (wds. Mey, after Heine) Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Anna Netrebko, Soprano
Daniel Barenboim, Piano
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
(6) Songs, Movement: Serenade: O child beneath thy window Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Anna Netrebko, Soprano
Daniel Barenboim, Piano
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
(6) Songs, Movement: No. 1, Cradle song (wds. Maykov) Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Anna Netrebko, Soprano
Daniel Barenboim, Piano
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
(7) Songs, Movement: No. 7, Was I not a little blade of grass? (wds. Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Anna Netrebko, Soprano
Daniel Barenboim, Piano
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
(6) Songs, Movement: No. 5, 'Mid sombre days Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Anna Netrebko, Soprano
Daniel Barenboim, Piano
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
(7) Songs, Movement: No. 6, Does the day reign? (wds. Apukhtin) Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Anna Netrebko, Soprano
Daniel Barenboim, Piano
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
(7) Gipsy Melodies, 'Zigeunerlieder', Movement: No. 4, Songs my mother taught me Antonín Dvořák, Composer
Anna Netrebko, Soprano
Antonín Dvořák, Composer
Daniel Barenboim, Piano
(4) Lieder, Movement: No. 2, Cäcilie (wds. Hart: orch 1897) Richard Strauss, Composer
Anna Netrebko, Soprano
Daniel Barenboim, Piano
Richard Strauss, Composer

Composer or Director: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Genre:

Vocal

Label: Delos

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 81

Mastering:

Stereo
DDD

Catalogue Number: DE 3393

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
(6) Songs, Movement: No. 6, None but the lonely heart (wds. Mey, after Goethe) Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Baritone
Ivari Ilja, Piano
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
(6) Songs, Movement: No. 2, Night Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Baritone
Ivari Ilja, Piano
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
(6) Songs, Movement: No. 1, At bedtime (wds. Ogaryov) Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Baritone
Ivari Ilja, Piano
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
(6) Songs, Movement: I opened the window Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Baritone
Ivari Ilja, Piano
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
My genius, my angel, my friend Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Baritone
Ivari Ilja, Piano
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
(6) Songs, Movement: No. 2, Not a word, o my friend (wds. Pleshcheyev, after Hartmann) Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Baritone
Ivari Ilja, Piano
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
(6) Songs, Movement: No. 5, Why? (wds. Mey, after Heine) Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Baritone
Ivari Ilja, Piano
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
To forget so soon Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Baritone
Ivari Ilja, Piano
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
(12) Songs, Movement: No. 11, Exploit (wds. Khomyakov) Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Baritone
Ivari Ilja, Piano
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
(6) Songs, Movement: No. 5, Death (wds. Merezhkovsky) Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Baritone
Ivari Ilja, Piano
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
I should like in a single word Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Baritone
Ivari Ilja, Piano
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
(6) Songs, Movement: No. 4, Oh, if only you could for one moment (wds. Tolstoy) Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Baritone
Ivari Ilja, Piano
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
(6) Songs, Movement: No. 5, The love of a dead man (wds. Lermontov) Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Baritone
Ivari Ilja, Piano
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
(6) Songs, Movement: No. 2, On the golden cornfields (wds. Tolstoy) Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Baritone
Ivari Ilja, Piano
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
(6) Songs, Movement: No. 1, Tell me, what in the shade of the branches (wds. Sollogub) Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Baritone
Ivari Ilja, Piano
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
(6) Songs, Movement: No. 6, The fearful minute (wds. cpsr) Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Baritone
Ivari Ilja, Piano
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
(6) Songs, Movement: No. 1, Reconciliation (wds. Shcherbina) Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Baritone
Ivari Ilja, Piano
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
(7) Songs, Movement: No. 6, Does the day reign? (wds. Apukhtin) Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Baritone
Ivari Ilja, Piano
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
(12) Songs, Movement: No. 6, Frenzied nights (wds. Apukhtin) Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Baritone
Ivari Ilja, Piano
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
(6) Songs, Movement: Serenade: O child beneath thy window Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Baritone
Ivari Ilja, Piano
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
(6) Songs, Movement: No. 2, It was in the early Spring (wds. Tolstoy) Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Baritone
Ivari Ilja, Piano
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
(7) Songs, Movement: No. 3, Dusk fell on the earth (wds. Berg after Mic Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Baritone
Ivari Ilja, Piano
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
(7) Songs, Movement: No. 5, I bless you, forests (wds. Tolstoy) Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Baritone
Ivari Ilja, Piano
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
(6) Songs, Movement: No. 1, Don Juan's Serenade (wds. Tolstoy) Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Baritone
Ivari Ilja, Piano
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer

As everyone knows, live recordings have their pros and cons. With song recitals the problem is often that the singer needs to project to the back rows of a big hall, while the microphone is placed only inches away. Not all voices and repertoires work equally well under those conditions. In compensation there is always the hope of sharing in a special exchange of energy between performers and a live audience. But that is not so easy to detect with Anna Netrebko in Salzburg; which in turn makes the problem of over-projection the more obtrusive.

She does of course have a wonderfully full, firm and creamy voice, and she effectively varies the emotional pressure from one song to the next, encompassing humour and ecstasy as well as warmth and sympathy. All this can be thrilling. But for me the high-cholesterol tone-colour, so effective in operatic arias, rapidly palls in the context of a song programme. Nor did I ever get the sense of things happening on the spur of the moment that Netrebko would not routinely do in the studio. To a certain extent her consistency of timbre may be a hangover from the old Russian bel canto tradition, which set less store by the words than its German counterpart, so that you would rarely feel confided in or conversed with, and more often slightly harangued or forced into passive admiration. Netrebko is nowhere near as bad as that. The trouble is that her accompanist completely outclasses her for richness of musical understanding and communication. In short, I would most likely want to keep this disc on my shelves for the sake of Barenboim’s accompaniments, but not, I fancy, for the singing.

With the Delos disc the issues are more clear-cut. Here the piano playing is solid but unexceptional, and in terms of fullness of vocal quality there are some marvels to behold, as there are with Netrebko. Unlike her, however, Hvorostovsky’s phrasing is so generalised and predictable as to be close to a caricature, and he only succeeds in making the already obvious even more so. The booklet essay finds no guiding thread in the selection of songs, and nor can I. Were the performances in any way recommendable, I would have asked why on earth Delos did not drop one song and fit the rest onto a single CD, and why they could not be bothered to print the original texts. But those points are academic.

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