Tchaikovsky Songs, Vol. 4
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Label: Conifer Classics
Magazine Review Date: 7/1998
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 66
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: 75605 51269-2
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| (7) Songs, Movement: No. 2, Softly the spirit flew up to heaven (wds. T |
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Nina Rautio, Soprano Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer Semion Skigin, Piano |
| (6) Songs, Movement: No. 3, Accept just once (wds. Fet) |
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer Semion Skigin, Piano Sergei Leiferkus, Baritone |
| (6) Songs, Movement: No. 6, In dark Hell (wds. Maykov) |
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer Semion Skigin, Piano Sergei Leiferkus, Baritone |
| (6) Songs, Movement: No. 4, O sing that song (wds. Pelshcheyev after He |
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Nina Rautio, Soprano Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer Semion Skigin, Piano |
| (6) Songs, Movement: No. 5, Thy radiant image (wds. cpsr) |
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Nina Rautio, Soprano Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer Semion Skigin, Piano |
| (6) Songs, Movement: No. 2, As o'er the burning ashes (wds. Tyutchev) |
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Nina Rautio, Soprano Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer Semion Skigin, Piano |
| (6) Songs, Movement: No. 3, Mignon's song (wds. Tyutchev after Goethe) |
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Nina Rautio, Soprano Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer Semion Skigin, Piano |
| (6) Songs, Movement: No. 5, I never spoke to her (wds. Mey) |
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer Semion Skigin, Piano Sergei Leiferkus, Baritone |
| (6) Songs, Movement: No. 6, As they reiterated, 'Fool' (wds. Mey) |
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer Semion Skigin, Piano Sergei Leiferkus, Baritone |
| Blue Eyes of Spring |
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Nina Rautio, Soprano Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer Semion Skigin, Piano |
| Mezza notte |
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Nina Rautio, Soprano Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer Semion Skigin, Piano |
| (6) Songs, Movement: No. 2, Look, yonder cloud (wds. Grekov) |
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Nina Rautio, Soprano Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer Semion Skigin, Piano |
| (6) Songs, Movement: No. 5, Was it the mother who bore me? (wds. Mey after Mickiewicz) |
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Nina Rautio, Soprano Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer Semion Skigin, Piano |
| (6) Songs, Movement: No. 6, My little favourite (wds. Mey after Mickiewicz) |
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer Semion Skigin, Piano Sergei Leiferkus, Baritone |
| We have not far to walk |
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Nina Rautio, Soprano Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer Semion Skigin, Piano |
| (6) Songs, Movement: No. 4, Oh, if only you could for one moment (wds. Tolstoy) |
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer Semion Skigin, Piano Sergei Leiferkus, Baritone |
| (6) Songs, Movement: No. 6, Pimpinella (wds. anon) |
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Nina Rautio, Soprano Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer Semion Skigin, Piano |
| (6) Songs, Movement: No. 3, Do not ask (wds. Strugovshchikov after Goethe) |
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Nina Rautio, Soprano Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer Semion Skigin, Piano |
| (6) Songs, Movement: No. 4, Sleep (wds. Merezhkovsky) |
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Nina Rautio, Soprano Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer Semion Skigin, Piano |
| (6) Songs, Movement: No. 6, Only thou alone (wds. Pleshcheyev after Kristen) |
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Nina Rautio, Soprano Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer Semion Skigin, Piano |
| (12) Songs, Movement: No. 8, Forgive (wds. Nekrasov) |
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Nina Rautio, Soprano Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer Semion Skigin, Piano |
| (12) Songs, Movement: No. 11, Exploit (wds. Khomyakov) |
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Composer Semion Skigin, Piano Sergei Leiferkus, Baritone |
Author: John Warrack
Only a third of the songs on this fourth volume of Conifer’s complete Tchaikovsky (previous issues were reviewed in 8/96 and 1/97) are sung by Leiferkus, but they include some of the finest, and the finest performances. There is a superb irony in his singing of As they reiterated, “Fool!”, as he curls his voice around the phrases and hardens his tone into a snarl for the reproach to the drunkard; yet the cavernous pain in one of Tchaikovsky’s strangest songs, In dark Hell, matches without any emotional distancing the poem’s grim mood. With Exploit he controls the growth of tone towards the climax superbly, then dropping to a hushed, exhausted quality for the quiet final verse.
This is singing of Russian song at its finest, intense yet personal, eloquent but never straying into the operatic. Nina Rautio is not so sure-footed. At her best, she can respond with grace and a fresh sense of colour, as with the pretty Pimpinella. In Sleep she pays close attention to the words, which hold the key (as so often with Tchaikovsky) to phrasing that can be elusive. But when less at ease with a song, she can take refuge in operatic declamation of a kind that loses the idiom, as with Softly the spirit, or snatch at the phrasing, as with Thy radiant image. The setting of Mignon’s Kennst du das Land (in Tyutchev’s translation) is more successfully handled, not least because of the beautiful playing of Semion Skigin. He has the idiom of these songs in his veins, and the skill to match his singers and respond to the best in them. There is no finer Russian song pianist performing today.'
This is singing of Russian song at its finest, intense yet personal, eloquent but never straying into the operatic. Nina Rautio is not so sure-footed. At her best, she can respond with grace and a fresh sense of colour, as with the pretty Pimpinella. In Sleep she pays close attention to the words, which hold the key (as so often with Tchaikovsky) to phrasing that can be elusive. But when less at ease with a song, she can take refuge in operatic declamation of a kind that loses the idiom, as with Softly the spirit, or snatch at the phrasing, as with Thy radiant image. The setting of Mignon’s Kennst du das Land (in Tyutchev’s translation) is more successfully handled, not least because of the beautiful playing of Semion Skigin. He has the idiom of these songs in his veins, and the skill to match his singers and respond to the best in them. There is no finer Russian song pianist performing today.'
Tchaikovsky Songs, Vol. 4
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