Prokofiev: Songs and Romances [Box set]

et al Andrey Slavny (Performer) (Artist) | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 24, 2000)
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Box set
• Note on Boxed Sets: During shipping, discs in boxed sets occasionally become dislodged without damage. Please examine and play these discs. If you are not completely satisfied, we'll refund or replace your purchase.
• Label: Delos Records
• ASIN: B0000508XB
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #178,730 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. The Ugly Duckling, Op.18 - Victoria Yevtodieva/Yuri Serov

2. Three Songs To Words, Op.73: The Pines - Andrey Slavny/Yuri Serov

3. Three Songs To Words, Op.73: The Rosy Dawn is Coloring The East - Andrey Slavny/Yuri Serov

4. Three Songs To Words, Op.73: To Your Room - Andrey Slavny/Yuri Serov

5. Arrangements Of Traditional Russian Songs, Op.104: White Snow - Lyubov Sokolova/Yuri Serov

6. Arrangements Of Traditional Russian Songs, Op.104: The Monk - Lyubov Sokolova/Yuri Serov

7. Arrangements Of Traditional Russian Songs, Op.104: Green Grove - Lyubov Sokolova/Yuri Serov

8. Arrangements Of Traditional Russian Songs, Op.104: Summer Elderberries (A Wedding Celebration Chant) - Lyubov Sokolova/Yuri Serov

9. Two Duets: Everybody Gets Married - Konstantin Pluzhnikov/Sergei Aleksashkin/Yuri Serov

10. Two Duets: The Glorious Moscow Road - Konstantin Pluzhnikov/Sergei Aleksashkin/Yuri Serov

11. Green Jar - Sergei Aleksashkin/Yuri Serov

12. Seven Songs, Op.79: Song Of My Homeland - Andrey Slavny/Yuri Serov

13. Seven Songs, Op.79: Stakhanovka (A Model Female Worker) - Victoria Yevtodieva/Yuri Serov

14. Seven Songs, Op.79: Over The Polar Sea - Andrey Slavny/Yuri Serov

15. Seven Songs, Op.79: Seeing Off - Victoria Yevtodieva/Yuri Serov

16. Seven Songs, Op.79: Bravely Forward! - Konstantin Pluzhnikov/Yuri Serov

17. Seven Songs, Op.79: A Cossack Was Strolling The Town - Konstantin Pluzhnikov/Yuri Serov

18. Seven Songs, Op.79: Hey, Down The Road - Konstantin Pluzhnikov/Yuri Serov

19. Three Songs For Children, Op.68: The Chatterbox - Victoria Yevtodieva/Yuri Serov

20. Three Songs For Children, Op.68: A Sweet Song - Victoria Yevtodieva/Yuri Serov

See all 54 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

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Although songs feature prominently over the course of Prokofiev's output, they remain his least explored genre, and this set appears to be the first systematic attempt at an integral edition. The uncredited booklet note gives a decent overview of what this entails; the omission of songs arranged by others from the scores of Lieutenant Kijé and Alexander Nevsky is a fair decision, though the exclusion of the 1927 Kazakh Songs, never published but presumably extant, seems odd. Was timing the guiding consideration?As to what is included, the Op. 9 Poems are attractive student efforts under the sway of Scriabin, while The Ugly Duckling is a marvel of witty observation and nostalgic sentiment. It is characterfully sung by Victoria Yevtodieva, without banishing memories of Soderström and Ashkenazy from the mid-1970s. Harmonically, the wide-ranging Op. 23 Poems lack a unified idiom, but the Op. 27 Akhmatova Poems are a real discovery: probing texts enhanced by their settings, not least the tonally ambivalent ‘The Grey-Eyed King' (second disc, track 7) which closes the sequence in a mood anticipating Shostakovich's equally underrated Japanese cycle. Usually heard in their violin transcription, the Op. 35 vocalises are clearly difficult to pitch when sung, and no match qualitatively for the Op. 36 Balmont Poems, whose inward intensity – seamlessly conveyed here despite being split between three singers – offers a foretaste of the ground to be covered in The Fiery Angel and the Second and Third Symphonies.In terms of intrinsic quality, it is difficult to assess the songs from Prokofiev's Soviet period. A functional aspect is often present, as in the strident propaganda settings of Op. 66, forcefully projected by Andrei Slavny, and the Songs of Our Days cycle; authentic socialist realism from the peak of Stalin's ‘terror', which really need their original massed voices and orchestra to avoid sounding like a dress rehearsal as here. Textually, the Op. 79 Songs are a motley assortment, but the singers' fervency makes them cohere, Yevtodieva capturing the bittersweet essence of ‘Seeing Off' (first disc, track 15) to perfection. Sergei Aleksashkin impresses in the brooding Mussorgskian numbers that open the otherwise undistinguished Op. 89 Songs; translations notwithstanding, Mira Mendelson-Prokofieva could have made a fortune in the West writing verse for greetings cards. The Op. 68 Children's Songs are delightful, while the Op. 73 Pushkin Songs are another major find: stylistically a pre-echo of the wartime piano sonatas, they offer manifold insights into texts by a poet not otherwise associated with Prokofiev, and warrant the dedication brought to them by Slavny. The arrangements of traditional songs invariably bear the composer's imprint; those of Op. 104 have supple and imaginative piano writing, while Lyubov Sokolova has sufficient variety of characterization to justify taking on all 12 of them (a shame they had to be divided over the three discs even so). A special mention for Yuri Serov, co-ordinator of the whole project, whose thoughtful and attentive accompaniment is an asset to the highlights, and makes the lesser songs at least listenable to. Sound is not free of distortion in some of the more rhetorical items, while the booklet could have featured texts in parallel with translations, and fitted more comfortably into the CD box. No matter, this is a timely and welcome set which all devotees of Prokofiev, and Russian music in general, need to have. Graham Simpson

Product Description

No Description Available.
Genre: Classical Music
Media Format: Compact Disk
Rating:
Release Date: 24-OCT-2000

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enriching, March 4, 2009

By 

David Saemann - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Prokofiev: Songs and Romances (Audio CD)

I thoroughly enjoyed this collection, not least because it cost me $4. FYE has been discounting it substantially. First of all, be warned: There is some hardcore socialist realism contained in this set. You will have to decide if fine music is worth the price of listening to texts extolling the greatness of Stalin. There is even a lullaby where a mother tells her child that their warmth and nutrition come from Stalin. There also are numerous exhortations to the valor of the Red Army. There is a song praising the Hitler-Stalin pact as a repatriation of people enslaved by a foreign country, i.e. Poland. One of the most repulsive songs is entitled "Fritz." It tells the story of a German soldier, slightly wounded at the Russian front, who goes home to find someone else "making babies" with his girlfriend, "babies" whom he can be proud of because they all will become soldiers, too. You wonder how Prokofiev could set all this stuff, and well, too! Yes, there are great songs here written to great poetry, by Akhmatova and others. The performances are uniformly fine, even though the only singer with an international reputation is the bass, who has the least to do. Yuri Serov has beautiful command of Prokofiev's piano writing, and his collaborative ability counts for much of the joy of this collection. It is well engineered, too. None of the performers seem the slightest put off by some of the drivel they happen to sing. You wonder how they would feel if the name Stalin were replaced by Hitler's. In any event, this collection is musically prime Prokofiev, and you will have to decide if it's worth letting some of its filth into your home.