Est 1923

Rachmaninov Aleko

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Sergey Rachmaninov

Genre:

Opera

Label: AVM

Media Format: Vinyl

Media Runtime: 0

Mastering:

ADD

Catalogue Number: AVM1011

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
Aleko Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
Blagovesta Karnobatlova, Zemfira
Bulgarian National Radio Chorus
Dimiter Petkov, Old Gypsy, Bass
Nikola Ghiuselev, Old Gypsy, Bass
Pavel Kurchumov, Young Gypsy
Plovdiv Philharmonic Orchestra
Ruslan Raychev, Conductor
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
Tony Christova, Old Gypsy Woman

Composer or Director: Sergey Rachmaninov

Genre:

Opera

Label: AVM

Media Format: Cassette

Media Runtime: 0

Mastering:

ADD

Catalogue Number: AVMC1011

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
Aleko Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
Blagovesta Karnobatlova, Zemfira
Bulgarian National Radio Chorus
Dimiter Petkov, Old Gypsy, Bass
Nikola Ghiuselev, Old Gypsy, Bass
Pavel Kurchumov, Young Gypsy
Plovdiv Philharmonic Orchestra
Ruslan Raychev, Conductor
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
Tony Christova, Old Gypsy Woman

Composer or Director: Sergey Rachmaninov

Genre:

Opera

Label: AVM

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 59

Mastering:

ADD

Catalogue Number: AVMCD1011

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
Aleko Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
Blagovesta Karnobatlova, Zemfira
Bulgarian National Radio Chorus
Dimiter Petkov, Old Gypsy, Bass
Nikola Ghiuselev, Old Gypsy, Bass
Pavel Kurchumov, Young Gypsy
Plovdiv Philharmonic Orchestra
Ruslan Raychev, Conductor
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
Tony Christova, Old Gypsy Woman
Rachmaninov's graduation exercise opera not surprisingly won the competition for the Moscow Conservatoire's highest honour, the Great Gold Medal, leaving the other entries to sink without trace. There are in fact over a dozen other settings of Pushkin's The Gipsies, which deals with the idea of the disillusioned city-dweller who attempts to find a stronger, more vivid and more natural life among simpler people. It is the theme of Tolstoy's The Cossacks as well as of Pushkin's poem, though this is not stressed in Vladimir Nemirovich-Danchenko's libretto: Aleko appears as little more than a gloomy old man who fails to accommodate his moral standards to those of his flighty gipsy bride Zemfira and ends up by stabbing her and her lover, to be abandoned on the lonely steppe by the gipsy tribe.
It is not a very dramatic work, and even the climax fails to give Aleko much chance. Nikola Ghiuselev does his best, though he might have had a little more support for the double murder from the orchestra, which otherwise plays well under Ruslan Raychev. Blagovesta Karnobatlova gives a lively performance as Zemfira, with plenty of resin in her rather hard but striking voice; and Pavel Kurchumov does his best with the not very grateful part of the Young Gipsy. The gipsy dances are well played. This is really a work for Rachmaninov's admirers, and for those with an interest in the course of Russian opera, and as such, it makes a welcome return to the CD catalogue.'

Rachmaninov Aleko

Aleko

Rachmaninov Aleko

Aleko

Rachmaninov Aleko

Aleko

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