The International Record Review recently reviewed Pushkin Romances in their July/August issue. Subscribe to IRR at their website by clicking HERE, or look for it at your local magazine stand. We’ll excerpt some of the review here today.
From the International Record Review
By Christopher Cook
“…there’s a particularly Russian ecstasy and agony in Pushkin’s lyrical poetry that requires a broad musical brush to do it proper justice. This seems bred in the artistic bone for Hvorostovsky, so there’s an almost conversation style at the start of I Recall a Wonderful Moment, with the most delicate shading in the vocal tone which rises to an impassioned climax in the final verse when the poet conjures up a vision of his beloved…
Nikolai Medtner’s might setting of To a Dreamer is given the full treatment, with pianist and singer dueling for melody. No prizes for guessing who wins here, though Ivari Ilja is a worth opponent at the keyboard and he does delicious things with the oriental strains in Rachmaninov’s ‘Don’t Sing to Me, Fair Maiden.’ Despite his formidable vocal horsepower, Hvorostovsky can be silky and subtle when required, with a lower register that feels like stroking thick pile velvet…
…Altogether more interesting is The Crimson Forest Sheds its Attire by Georgi Sviridov, another composer from the Soviet era. It is to Hvorostovsky’s credit that this and Vlasov’s slighter lyrics are sung with the kind of conviction that only a great artist can muster.”
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