Composer: Modest Mussorgsky
Performer: Boris Christoff, Gerald Moore, Alexandre Labinsky
Orchestra: French National Radio Orchestra
Conductor: Georges Tzipine
Number of Discs: 3
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Andromeda
Catalogue: ANDRCD5098
Release: 2007
Size: 559 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: cover
CD 01
01. Where Art Thou, Little Star?
02. The Joyous Hour
03. Tell Me Why Fair Maiden
04. Leaves Rustled Sadly
05. Many Are My Palaces and Gardens
06. What are Words of Love to You?
07. Tsar Saul
08. Old Man’s Song
09. But If I Could Meet Thee
10. The Winds Blow, the Wild Winds
11. A Night on the Bare Mountain
12. Kalistratushka
Salammbo
13. Song of the Balearic Islander
14. A Prayer
15. The Outcast Woman (An Essay in Recitative)
16. Cradle Song
17. Little One
CD 02
01. Desire
Sorochintsï Fair
02. Gopak of the Merry Lads
03. Darling Savishna
04. Seminarist
05. Hebrew Song
06. The Magpie
07. Gathering Mushrooms
08. The Banquet (Or Feast)
09. The Urchin (Or Ragamuffin)
10. A Society Tale (The Goat)
11. A Garden by the Don Blooms
12. The Classicist
13. The Orphan
14. A Child’s Song
The Nursery
15. Nо. 1, С няней
16. Nо. 2, В углу
17. No. 3, Zhuk
Detskaya
18. No. 4, S kukloy
19. No. 5, Na son gryadushchiy
20. No. 7, Poyekhal na palochke
21. No. 6, Kot Matros
22. Kolibel’naya Eryomushki
23. Rayok
24. Vechernyaya pesenka
25. Zabitiy
CD 03
Bez solntsa
01. No. 1, V chetiryokh stenakh
02. No. 2, Menya ti v tolpe ne uznala
03. No. 3, Okonchen prazdniy, shumniy den’
04. No. 4, Skuchay
05. No. 5, Elegiya
06. No. 6, Nad rekoy
Songs and Dances of Death
07. No. 3, Trepak
08. No. 1, Lullaby
09. No. 2, Serenade
10. No. 4, The Field Marshal
11. Nadgrabnoye pis’mo
12. Neponyatnaya
13. Ne bozhim gromom udarilo
14. Gornimi tikho letela dusha nebesami
15. Oy, chest’ li to molodtsu len pryasti?
16. Rassevayetsya, rasstupayetsya
17. Videniye
18. Spes
19. Strannik
20. Pesn’ Yaremi “Na Dnepre”
21. Pesnya Mefistofelya v pogrebke Auerbakha “Song of the Flea”
Boris Christoff’s set of the complete songs of Mussorgsky is one of the greatest monuments to a single composer’s greatest body of works, one of the greatest monuments to the art of singing, and one of the greatest monuments to one of the great singers of the twentieth century. The only really comparable achievement is Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau’s corpus of recordings of the songs of Schubert. And if Fischer-Dieskau’s achievement is larger in scope, it is neither more profound nor more musical than Christoff’s. Mussorgsky’s songs are as central to his greatness as a composer as Schubert’s were to his. In them, he went as deep into humanity and into his art as Schubert did in his songs. Not only the great cycles, The Songs and Dances of Death, Sunless, and The Nursery, but also many of the individual songs, are as great as any ever composed. The range is as wide, the aim is as high, and the level of achievement is almost always as great in the best moments of Boris Godunov, and Christoff is there for every moment. All three of his cycles are the best ever made, and every single one of the songs is sung with passionate intelligence and dedicated soulfulness. Songs like “Cruel Death” and “The Puppet Show” have been equaled but never surpassed. And his “Mephistopheles’ Song of the Flea” is frighteningly funny. One could argue with some of the accompanists or complain of some of the orchestral arrangements by other composers, but anyone who loves Mussorgsky or the art of singing should by all means get this recording.