This recital suggests that Hvorostovsky is at his most characteristic as the burdened baritone, usually lovelorn; and it is particularly interesting to have some examples from Tchaikovsky's lesser known operas as well as a number of more familiar items. The best known of these, Onegin's reply to Tatyana's impulsive letter, finds him brooding, comparatively tender with her (the implication is there to find in both text and music); it is a pity that the voice is recorded rather far back and that, as too often elsewhere in the recording, this obscures some of the words without providing sufficient orchestral clarity—delicate orchestral figuration, so much a characteristic of Tchaikovsky's style, can go for little or nothing. An instance is in the Onegin excerpt (at 3'55''); but this is unfortunately not unique. Yeletsky's aria to Lisa (who does not of course appear) in The Queen of Spades comes off better, with warm phrasing and a sensitive use of vocal characterization, as does the Prince's aria declaring his love for the eponymous Enchantress. This, incidentally, seems to go back to the original Shpazhinsky text rather than use the 'updated' one by Gorodetsky printed in the standard Russian vocal score (I have not seen any of the accompanying material). Robert's aria praising his beloved Mathilde in Yolanta is pleasantly sung, with a somewhat lighter manner; the gloomy Mazeppa is well characterised in the love aria (to words by Kandaurov) which was later inserted into the opera.
Of the Verdi arias, it is perhaps ''Il balen'' and ''Di Provenza il mar'' which come off best. They are carefully chosen to display a voice that has a warm lyrical quality and a musicianship that is sensitive to tender or melancholy emotions, but that seems on this showing to lack much in the way of brightness or sparkle. It would be interesting to see Hvorostovsky in Mazeppa, in a sensitive production, and perhaps in The Enchantress. It is not an opera for which one can make a very strong claim but one which does include some very fine music.
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