Rachmaninov Songs, Vol. 2
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Sergey Rachmaninov
Label: Chandos
Magazine Review Date: 8/1996
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 72
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: CHAN9451
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| (12) Songs, Movement: No. 1, Fate (wds. Apukhtin) (1900) |
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
Howard Shelley, Piano Sergei Leiferkus, Baritone Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer |
| (12) Songs, Movement: No. 2, By the fresh grave (wds. Nadson) |
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
Howard Shelley, Piano Sergei Leiferkus, Baritone Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer |
| (15) Songs, Movement: No. 1, There are many sounds (wds. Tolstoy) |
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
Howard Shelley, Piano Maria Popescu, Mezzo soprano Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer |
| (15) Songs, Movement: No. 2, He took all from me (wds. Tyutchev) |
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
Howard Shelley, Piano Maria Popescu, Mezzo soprano Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer |
| (15) Songs, Movement: No. 6, Christ is risen (wds. Merezhkovsky) |
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
Howard Shelley, Piano Maria Popescu, Mezzo soprano Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer |
| (15) Songs, Movement: No. 7, To the children (wds. Khomyakov) |
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
Howard Shelley, Piano Maria Popescu, Mezzo soprano Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer |
| (15) Songs, Movement: No. 13, When yesterday we met (wds. Polonsky) |
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
Howard Shelley, Piano Maria Popescu, Mezzo soprano Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer |
| (15) Songs, Movement: No. 14, The ring (wds. Koltsov) |
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
Howard Shelley, Piano Maria Popescu, Mezzo soprano Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer |
| Were you hiccoughing |
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
Howard Shelley, Piano Sergei Leiferkus, Baritone Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer |
| Night |
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
Howard Shelley, Piano Maria Popescu, Mezzo soprano Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer |
| (12) Songs, Movement: No. 3, Twilight (wds. Guyot trans Tkhorzhevsky) |
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
Alexandre Naoumenko, Tenor Howard Shelley, Piano Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer |
| (12) Songs, Movement: No. 4, They answered (wds. Hugo trans Mey) |
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
Alexandre Naoumenko, Tenor Howard Shelley, Piano Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer |
| (12) Songs, Movement: No. 9, Melody (wds. Nadson) |
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
Alexandre Naoumenko, Tenor Howard Shelley, Piano Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer |
| (12) Songs, Movement: No. 5, Lilacs (wds. Beketova) |
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
Howard Shelley, Piano Joan Rodgers, Soprano Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer |
| (12) Songs, Movement: No. 6, Fragment from Musset (trans Apukhtin) |
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
Howard Shelley, Piano Joan Rodgers, Soprano Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer |
| (12) Songs, Movement: No. 7, How fair this spot (wds. Galina) |
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
Howard Shelley, Piano Joan Rodgers, Soprano Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer |
| (12) Songs, Movement: No. 11, No prophet I (wds. Kruglov) |
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
Howard Shelley, Piano Joan Rodgers, Soprano Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer |
| (12) Songs, Movement: No. 12, How painful for me (wds. Galina) |
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
Howard Shelley, Piano Joan Rodgers, Soprano Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer |
| (12) Songs, Movement: No. 8, On the death of a linnet (wds. Zhukovsky) |
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
Howard Shelley, Piano Maria Popescu, Mezzo soprano Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer |
| (12) Songs, Movement: No. 10, Before the icon (wds. Golenishchev-Kutuzov |
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
Howard Shelley, Piano Maria Popescu, Mezzo soprano Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer |
| (15) Songs, Movement: No. 3, Let us rest (wds. Chekhov) |
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
Howard Shelley, Piano Sergei Leiferkus, Baritone Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer |
| (15) Songs, Movement: No. 4, Two partings (wds. Koltsov) (bar & sop) |
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
Howard Shelley, Piano Sergei Leiferkus, Baritone Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer |
| (15) Songs, Movement: No. 15, All things pass by (wds. Rathaus) |
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
Howard Shelley, Piano Sergei Leiferkus, Baritone Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer |
| (15) Songs, Movement: No. 5, Beloved, let us fly (wds. Golenishchev-Kutu |
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
Howard Shelley, Piano Joan Rodgers, Soprano Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer |
| (15) Songs, Movement: No. 9, Again I am alone (wds. Shevchenko, trans Bu |
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
Howard Shelley, Piano Joan Rodgers, Soprano Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer |
| (15) Songs, Movement: No. 10, Before my window (wds. Galina) |
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
Howard Shelley, Piano Joan Rodgers, Soprano Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer |
| (15) Songs, Movement: No. 12, Night is mournful (wds. Bunin) |
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
Howard Shelley, Piano Joan Rodgers, Soprano Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer |
| (15) Songs, Movement: No. 8, I beg for mercy (wds. Merezhkovsky) |
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
Alexandre Naoumenko, Tenor Howard Shelley, Piano Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer |
| (15) Songs, Movement: No. 11, The fountain (wds. Tyutchev) |
Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer
Alexandre Naoumenko, Tenor Howard Shelley, Piano Sergey Rachmaninov, Composer |
Author: John Warrack
Two figures in particular haunt the second volume of Chandos’s survey of Rachmaninov’s songs – Feodor Chaliapin and Rachmaninov himself. They had become friends in the years when they worked together in an opera company and when Rachmaninov was concentrating on developing his piano virtuosity. As a result the Op. 21 songs are dominated by an almost operatic declamatory manner coupled with formidably difficult accompaniments. Leiferkus rises splendidly to the occasion, above all in “Fate” (Op. 21 No. 1), with its battering Beethoven figure, and so throughout the songs does Howard Shelley. He is unbowed by the technical problems and – which matters more – he understands the novel proportions of songs in which the piano’s participation has an unprecedented role. He can also enjoy himself in the roisterous exchanges with Leiferkus in what is really Rachmaninov’s only lighthearted song, Were you hiccoughing?
The songs for the other voices are less powerful, in general more lyrical and intimate. Alexandre Naoumenko only has five songs, and they are not, on the whole, among the more striking examples, but he responds elegantly to “The fountain” (Op. 26 No. 11). Maria Popescu gives a beautiful account of one of the most deservedly popular of them all, “To the children” (Op. 26 No. 7), and of the remarkable Merezhkovsky setting, “Christ is risen” (Op. 26 No. 6), no outburst of Orthodox jubilation but a grieving for the sorry state of the world into which a reborn Christ would now come. Joan Rodgers is enchanting in “The Lilacs” (Op. 21 No. 5) and moving in the song acknowledging that love is slipping away, “Again I am alone” (Op. 26 No. 9). She has complete mastery of the style, and nothing in this distinguished recital is finer than her arching phrase ending “How peaceful” (Op. 21 No. 7) – “da ty, mechta moya” (and you, my dream) – with Shelley gently articulating Rachmaninov’s reflective piano postlude from the world of Schumann.'
The songs for the other voices are less powerful, in general more lyrical and intimate. Alexandre Naoumenko only has five songs, and they are not, on the whole, among the more striking examples, but he responds elegantly to “The fountain” (Op. 26 No. 11). Maria Popescu gives a beautiful account of one of the most deservedly popular of them all, “To the children” (Op. 26 No. 7), and of the remarkable Merezhkovsky setting, “Christ is risen” (Op. 26 No. 6), no outburst of Orthodox jubilation but a grieving for the sorry state of the world into which a reborn Christ would now come. Joan Rodgers is enchanting in “The Lilacs” (Op. 21 No. 5) and moving in the song acknowledging that love is slipping away, “Again I am alone” (Op. 26 No. 9). She has complete mastery of the style, and nothing in this distinguished recital is finer than her arching phrase ending “How peaceful” (Op. 21 No. 7) – “da ty, mechta moya” (and you, my dream) – with Shelley gently articulating Rachmaninov’s reflective piano postlude from the world of Schumann.'
Rachmaninov Songs, Vol. 2
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