Performer: Russian Conservatory Chamber Choir
Conductor: Nikolay Khondzinsky
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Toccata
Catalogue: TOCC0121
Release: 2011
Size: 268 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
Songs for the Front
01. Rossini: Les soirees musicales: No. 6. The Alpine Shepherdess
02. Beethoven: 25 Scottish songs, Op. 108: No. 13. Scottish Drinking song
03. Bizet: Carmen, Act I: Habanera
04. Weckerlin: Maman, dites-moi (Mother, What Is Love)
05. Leoncavallo: Pagliacci, Act II: Arlecchino’s Serenade
06. Mussorgsky: Gopak
07. Mussorgsky: Sorochintsi Fair: Khivrya’s Song
08. Mussorgsky: Sorochintsi Fair: Parasya’s Dumka
09. Rimsky-Korsakov: Sadko: Song of the Varangian Guest
10. Gurilyov: I Shall Tell Mama
11. Gurilyov: Sarafanchik (The Little Sarafan)
12. Ippolitov-Ivanov: I Sit on a Rock
13. Gulak-Artemovsky: A Cossack Beyond the Danube: Duet of Karas and Odarka
14. Dargomizhsky: Likhoradushka (Fever)
15. Dargomizhsky: Grenada Clothed in Mist
16. Dargomizhsky: Rusalka: On Our Street
17. Dargomizhsky: Rogdana: Comic song
18. Verstovsky: Gypsy Song
19. Pritzker: Girl’s Song
20. Dunaevsky: The Merry Fellows: Anyuta’s Song
21. Dunaevsky: The Beethoven Concerto: Oh, How Great!
22. Dunaevsky: The Children of Captain Grant: Sing for Us, Wind
23. Dunaevsky: Song of the Sea
24. Pokrass: Farewell
25. Daniil and Dmitri Pokrass: Sons of a Working People: Those Are Not Storm Clouds
26. Milyutin: Mitka-Lelyuk: Do Not Touch Us
27. Blanter: Shchors’s Song
During the Siege of Leningrad, which lasted from 1941 to 1944, Shostakovich was famously photographed in a fireman’s outfit on the burning rooftops. But he also made (in three days!) a musical contribution to the defence of the city, arranging a series of songs – operatic arias, classical numbers and popular Soviet hits – for voices, violin and cello. The musicians then climbed into the back of a truck and were driven to the front, where they performed to the soldiers.
The songs are not of the ‘Defend the Motherland at all costs’ variety – instead, they are cheeky, folky, insouciant, and very Russian, intended to bring a ray of hope and humour to the cold and hungry troops.
The 27 arrangements, recorded here for the first time, fall into several groups:
Operatic standards (music by Rossini, Beethoven, Bizet, Leoncavallo)
Russian operatic favourites (music by Musorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Dargomyzhky, Ippolitov-Ivanov, Gurilyov)
Popular Soviet songs (Blatner, Pritzker, Dunaevsky, the Pokrass brothers).
This recording features the young Russian singers and instrumentalists of the Russkaya Conservatoria Chamber Capella, a group recently set up in Moscow to perform and record interesting repertoire.