In 1925–26 the French publisher Heugel brought out three volumes of 24 songs by the young Russian composer Alexander Tcherepnin (1899–1977), all setting poems by the ‘Acmeist’ Russian poet, Sergei Gorodetsky (1884–1967) – Tcherepnin’s Opp. 15, 16 and 17. Not until 2014, when Tatyana Kebuladze, the pianist on this recording, examined the composer’s manuscript in the archives of the Sacher Foundation in Basel was it realised that those three recueils were the tips of a much larger iceberg: a cycle of 35 settings of the 37 poems in Gorodetsky’s collection My Flowering Staff, plus an anonymous epilogue – one of the most extensive song-cycles in musical history. The songs themselves are audibly in the tradition of Tchaikovsky and other such Romantic Russian composers, but with a degree of psychological insight conveyed through the harmonic piquancy typical of the new century.

Inna Dukach, soprano (Tracks 1–16, 18-22, 24-37)
Tatyana Kebuladze, piano
Paul Whelan, bass (Track 17)
Acmeist Male Choir (Track 17)

FIRST COMPLETE RECORDING

*Due to an error in a track of this recording, a new edition of the CD of this recording will be pressed as soon as possible. The downloads do not have the error.