Musical samples from Dmitri Hvorostovsky’s PUSHKIN ROMANCES, to be released next Tuesday!

GLINKA: I Recall a Wonderful Moment Ja pomnu chudnoe mgnovenie… • Declaration Priznanie • The Fire of Longing Burns in My Heart V krovi gorit ogon zhelania • The Night Zephyr Nochnoi Zefir • DARGOMYZHSKIY: The Youth and the Maiden Yunosha i deva • BORODIN: For the Shores of Thy Far Native Land Dla beregov otchizny dalnei • RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: The Clouds Begin to Scatter Redeet oblakov, Op. 42 No. 3 • On the Hills of Georgia Na kholmax Gruzii lezhit nochnaja mgla, Op. 3, No. 4 • CUI: The Statue at Tsarskoye Selo Carskosel’skaja statuja, Op. 57 No. 17 • I loved you Ya vas ljubil • MEDTNER: Gone Are my Heart’s Desires Ya perezhil svoi zhelania, Op. 3, No. 2 • Winter Evening (The Snowstorm Covers the Sky with Darkness) Zimnii vecher (Buria Mglou nebo kroet), Op. 13, No. 1 • To a Dreamer Mechtatelu • VLASOV: To the Fountain of Bakhchisarai Palace Fontanu Bakhchisarajsogo dvortsa • TCHAIKOVSKY: Nightingale Solovei, Op. 60, No. 4 • RACHMANINOV: Don’t Sing To Me, Fair Maiden Ne poi, krasavitsa, pri mne, Op. 4 No. 4 • SVIRIDOV: The Crimson Forest Sheds its Attire Roniayet les bagrianiy svoi ubor

Here are some comments from the album notes by Maya Pritsker:

This disc presents an almost chronological, though far from exhaustive, survey of songs written by Russian composers of the 19th and 20th centuries on Alexander Pushkin’s verses.

Pushkin’s poetry, with its fleeting rhythms, unique musicality, picturesque scenes, emotional complexity and, most importantly, its perfect pitch for the Russian spoken language, was an ideal source for the Russian romance (the Russian equivalent of the German Lied). It is impossible to find a Russian composer who has not set Pushkin’s poems to music. Some of these poems inspired numerous musical interpretations.

Pushkin’s gracious, beautifully (and seemingly effortlessly) crafted and deeply human verses became imprinted in the memory and minds of millions of Russians, in many ways forming the consciousness and the soul of the nation.