Joan Rodgers, Roger Vignoles - Russian Song Cycles: Mussorgsky, Prokofiev, Shostakovich & Britten (2004)

Tracklist

01. The Nursery: I. With Nanny
02. The Nursery: II. In the Corner
03. The Nursery: III. The Beetle
04. The Nursery: IV. With the Doll
05. The Nursery: V. Evening Prayer
06. The Nursery: VI. On the Hobby-Horse
07. The Nursery: VII. Sailor the Cat
08. 5 Poems of Anna Akhmatova, Op. 27: No. 1, Sunlight Filled the Room
09. 5 Poems of Anna Akhmatova, Op. 27: No. 2, True Tenderness
10. 5 Poems of Anna Akhmatova, Op. 27: No. 3, Memories of Sunlight
11. 5 Poems of Anna Akhmatova, Op. 27: No. 4, Greetings!
12. 5 Poems of Anna Akhmatova, Op. 27: No. 5, The Grey-Eyed King
13. Satires (Pictures of the Past), Op. 109: I. To a Critic
14. Satires (Pictures of the Past), Op. 109: II. Spring Awakening
15. Satires (Pictures of the Past), Op. 109: III. Descendants
16. Satires (Pictures of the Past), Op. 109: IV. Misunderstanding
17. Satires (Pictures of the Past), Op. 109: V. Kreutzer Sonata
18. The Poet's Echo, Op. 76: No. 1, Echo
19. The Poet's Echo, Op. 76: No. 2, My Heart, I Fancied It Was Over
20. The Poet's Echo, Op. 76: No. 3, Angel
21. The Poet's Echo, Op. 76: No. 4, The Nightingale and the Rose
22. The Poet's Echo, Op. 76: No. 5, Epigram
23. The Poet's Echo, Op. 76: No. 6, Lines Written During a Sleepless Night

This adventurous new song recital, from this country’s leading interpreters of this repertoire, brings together divergent cycles from four masters of the genre.

From the beginning of the nineteenth century any aspiring Russian composer would have been composing songs, and by the middle of the century such songs had taken on a distinctive ‘Russian’ flavour. Musorgsky’s The Nursery became an instant hit, and has remained a core part of the repertory. Some fifty years later Prokofiev penned his Five Poems of Anna Akhmatova; hoping for some relief from his enfant terrible reputation, he can only have marvelled at their reception: ‘After these songs, many people believed for the first time that I write lyrical music.’ Inheriting from Prokofiev ‘leading Russian composer’ status—and with it the burdens of officialdom imposed by the new Soviet state—, Shostakovich still found time to write personal works such as the Satires; composed at a time of great personal tragedy, these songs combine an apparent light-hearted music tone with deeply unsettling cynicism. Shostakovich became one of the first to hear Britten’s cycle The Poet’s Echo; initially intended as an exercise to remedy his ‘obstinately bad Russian’, Britten’s cycle ended up perfectly encapsulating the gamut of human emotion found in the poetry of Pushkin he chose to set.

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