Nikolai Myaskovsky: Vocal Works, Volume One
The dignified bearing and quiet wisdom of Nikolai Myaskovsky (1881–1950) gained him the sobriquet of ‘the conscience of Russian music’ – and those qualities are reflected in the unemphatic strength of his music. His orchestral, chamber and instrumental works are regaining the currency they once enjoyed, but his large corpus of songs, many of them understated masterpieces, has yet to attract systematic attention – a situation this series hopes to remedy. The pairing here of his late Violin Sonata with his last two song-cycles for soprano and piano mirrors the Moscow concert in 1947 when all three were given their first performances.
Elizaveta Pakhomova, soprano
Tatiana Barsukova, soprano
Marina Dichenko, violin
Olga Solovieva, piano
Listen To This Recording:
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Notebook of Lyrics, Op. 72 (1946)* Poems by Mira Mendelson
- I Will I forget you?
- II Like a sail that flashes at times…
- III Cloudless April Day
- IV So often at night…
- V My Heart’s in the Highlands
- VI My Bonnie Mary
- I A Cossack Lullaby
- II I go out alone on the road…
- III No, it is not you whom I love so ardently…
- IV To the Portrait
- V The Sun
- VI They loved each other…
- VII In an Album
- VIII Romance
- IX She sings…
- X Don`t cry, don`t cry, my child..
- XI From an Album
- XII Forgive me! We will not meet again…
- I Allegro animato
- II Theme (Andante con moto e molto cantabile), Twelve Variations and Coda
Two settings of Robert Burns translated by Mira Mendelson
Romances on Verses by Mikhail Lermontov, Op. 40 (1935–36)*
Violin Sonata in F major, Op. 70 (1946–47)**
ALL EXCEPT * FIRST RECORDINGS
MusicWeb International :
‘Marina Dichenko, a highly gifted violinist from Kharkov, has performed widely in both America and Europe. Pianist Olga Solovieva, a Muscovite, has played extensively in Europe. She picked up the Best Accompanist award at the 2000 Tchaikovsky Competition, as well as silver medals in several international record awards and the first prizes in the Pure Sound for recordings of Russian music.
The 28-page booklet contains very well translated informative notes and full song text translations from Russian into English. This outstanding release is highly recommended. For me, it is one of the finest discs this year.’
—Gregor Tassie, MusicWeb International
Fanfare :
‘This release is a major addition to the discography of Russian song and is strongly recommended to those interested in such repertoire.’
—Fanfare
Arcana.FM :
‘Does it all work?
Very much so. The two cycles featured here confirm Myaskovsky to be no less skilled in his writing for voice than for piano, string quartet or orchestra – while his identification with the text at hand comes through almost all these settings. It helps to have so sensitive and attuned a pianist as Olga Solovieva – already familiar to Russian music enthusiasts for recordings of Lyadov (Northern Flowers), Shebalin (Toccata) or Boris Tchaikovsky (Albany and Naxos) – whose subtle resourcefulness duly enhances the expressive immediacy of the music-making.
Is it recommended?
Indeed. The various dates and localities yield relatively little difference in terms of their sound quality, while Yuri Abdokov’s annotations are exemplary in terms both of specific works and general context. One hopes this is a series which circumstances will enable to run its course.’
—Richard Whitehouse, Arcana.FM
MusicWeb International :
‘[Romances on Verses by Mikhail Lermontov] is the more significant and musically powerful cycle, and it has an even greater variety of moods and expressions, from ballad to cradle song, from waltz to compressed meditation, barcarolle, oriental romance and elegy. To all these demands soprano Elizaveta Pakhomova proves more than capable […]. Olga Solovieva is a sterling accompanist in both cycles and has proved on disc numerous times how attuned she is to this kind of repertoire. […]
The booklet is excellent and there are full texts, translations and well-judged acoustics – there are three separate recording locations, but it would be hard to tell. A fine start to this series, then.’
—Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb International