Audio/Video Club of Atlanta
“Phil’s Classical Reviews”
TCHAIKOVSKY: ROMANCES Dmitri Hvorostovsky, baritone Delos Recordings
Review by Phil MuseRussian baritone Dmitri Hvorostovsky, with the close collaboration of pianist Ivari Ilja, explores the riches of the romances (art songs) of Peter Illich Tchaikovsky. Arguably as great a lyric composer as he was the master of ballet and symphonic music, Tchaikovsky ‘s reputation in the vocal recital has languished in the west because of the language barrier. If there was ever a singer to break down that barrier, it is Hvorostovsky, whose powerful and magnificently varied voice, rich and broad in compass, and his honest, solid grasp of the poetic values underlying these songs, would seem to make him the ideal Tchaikovsky song interpreter.
The 24 songs spread over 2 CDs in an 83 minute program include the two bestknown of Tchaikovsky’s romances, the soulful “None but the Lonely Heart” (Mey, after Goethe) and the fresh and inspiring wanderer’s song “I Bless You, Forests” (Aleksei Tolstoy). But other romances in the program show Tchaikovsky just as adept in establishing, and then intensifying, the basic mood of the song so to make the more enduring impression. There is sadness, yearning, fatalism, despair, longing to recapture past happiness and resignation to one’s fate in such jewels as “The Fearful Moment” (Anon), where a lover awaits his beloved’s answer to his declaration of love, and “The Love of a Dead Man” (Lermontov): “ What do I care about God’s shining kingdom / His exalted paradise? / I brought my human passions with me / I treasure a dear dream /
Just the same; / I desire, weep, envy / Just as in the past.”In other songs, the emotion is more understated, as in “Dusk Fell on the Earth” (Berg): “A lily, awake in its radiant beauty / In its sparkling clothing, smiles kindly, / And greats the heavens / With a cheerful wave to the lake. / But I am full of sadness.” “Does the Day Reign” (Apuktin) is filled with a lover’s brimming joy: “Whether my life is long or short, / I know that, until I die, / All I do, All for which I give thanks / All is from you!” Here, as in the powerful upsurge of grief and anxiety in “Not A Word, O My Friend” (Pleschcheyev) and “Why?” (Mey, after Heine), Ilja’s firm, sure accompaniment reinforces the changing mood of a song or carries it on beyond the final poetic stanza: “Tell me, my heart’s beloved, / Why have you deserted me?”
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