Russian art songs

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

My two favorites are actually on LP:

Jennie Tourel Sings Russian Songs, on Columbia which I think is one of the greatest vocal recordings ever made.

and

Boris Christoff Sings Glinka on Angel/EMI, another of his great performances.

I really need find more recordings of Russian songs...What are your favorite recordings?

[Octave]

My two favorites are actually on LP:

Jennie Tourel Sings Russian Songs, on Columbia which I think is one of the greatest vocal recordings ever made.

and

Boris Christoff Sings Glinka on Angel/EMI, another of his great performances.

I really need find more recordings of Russian songs...What are your favorite recordings?

XB, both of those recordings are of interest; do you happen to know if the Tourel has been reissued on CD?  I'm looking at what's still easily available, but it's not clear if the same recordings have been reissued. 

I'm assuming those Christoff/Glinka recordings made it into the ICON box, though again I don't know the original LP editions.

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

I will try to look into this for you. I have an image (my own photograph) of the Tourel cover, but I have to dig it out. Here is one from Amazon



The Boris Christoff was re-issued on EMI, I believe. The complete album is also on YouTube (5:11 might just make you cry):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6Z04roIatw

[Octave]

Please don't go to too much trouble, but thanks for any info you find; I don't know her singing at all, but I am interested!  Cheers.

[knight66]

Mussorgsky's Somgs and Dances of Death have a number of great recordings. The piano version is by the composer, the somgs were orchestrated by other hands. The Shostakovich version has been recorded by Hvrotrovsky with Gergiev. It is excellent and although his voice is always so beautiful, he does convey the pain and the sheer strangeness of these pieces. Jarvi conducts Fassbaender who was incapable of dullness and takes you on a ride into madness. But I do think people should start with Christoff. The obvious choice, but obvious because he understood the genre se well and the voice expresses so much.

I don't have the piano version but have been tempted by a Wigmore Live recording of Ewa Podles which has some beautiful Rachmaninov songs as part of the disc.

Mike

[Octave]

I don't have the piano version but have been tempted by a Wigmore Live recording of Ewa Podles which has some beautiful Rachmaninov songs as part of the disc.

All the items you mention are interesting, but especially this volume; I've just recently been impressed by Podles in Chopin (studio recordings with Ohlsson) and in some Handel arias.  I see she has two different live discs which include the Mussorgsky SONGS plus some Rachmaninov.  The first of these two is almost certainly the one you mentioned.  Curious if anyone has heard the other and how the performances compare.

[asin]B001OA07NA[/asin]

[asin]B00009L1S4[/asin]
with a more legible contents list here:
http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=73651

[knight66]

Yes, the first one. I have not pressed the button on it yet.....been buying Bach/Sibelius and need to let the plastic calm down and cool down.

Mike

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

Thanks again for the comments. Although it was not my original intention, this post inspired me to post about the Christoff/Glinka recording on my blog. I am not here to spam you with links to my blog, but I think it may be of some interest (complete with my own photos of Glinka related sites in Russia).

http://69.195.124.84/~kevinjca/2013/04/11/boris-christoff-sings-glinka/

Here is one photo:

[springrite]

My favorite recording is one from Russian Disc of the songs of Dargomyzhsky and Cui. Well, mainly for the Dargo!

Here: http://www.amazon.com/Dargomyzhsky-Cui-Romances-Songs-Lieder/dp/B000001LNN/ref=sr_1_2?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1365797460&sr=1-2&keywords=russian+disc+dargomyzhsky