Composer: Mikhail Glinka
Performer: John Schneiderman, Oleg Timofeyev
Format: FLAC (tracks)
Label: Profil Medien
Catalogue: PH07008
Release: 2009
Size: 233 MB
Recovery: +3%
Scan: yes
01. Polonaise From a Life For the Tsar
02. Tell Me, Maiden
03. Kamarinskaia
04. Lydumilla’s Cavatina
05. Lydmilla’s Aria From Ruslan and Lyudmilla
06. Fantasia From a Life For the Tsar
07. La Seperation
08. Ruslan Potpourri
09. Romance
10. Cavatina From Ruslan and Lyudmilla
11. Potpourri From a Life For the Tsar
12. Trot De Cavalerie
This new release focuses on Glinka’s guitar music. When listening to this music it is difficult not to notice the Spanish influence, despite his Russian roots.
John Schneiderman and Oleg Timofeyev perform the works on a Russian seven string guitar which differs significantly from the Spanish guitar in construction, tuning, and technique and became popular in Russia in the late eighteenth century.
The euphoniously named Czar’s Guitars bring to the Profil Edition Günter Hänssler label an entire branch of the guitar repertoire that, unless you are Russian, you probably would not know of, with Music of Mikhail Glinka. Glinka is best known as a composer of opera and as the father of Russian nationalism, and while he wrote no original works for the guitar, his close friend Vladimir Morkov — not a Count, as it says in the notes — was the most influential Russian guitarist of the nineteenth century. He favored, as most Russians of that day, the unique seven-string instruments that originated in Russia toward the end of the eighteenth century. These passed out of use after Andrés Segovia toured Russia in 1926 and the six-string, Spanish guitar became “king” there, too, but Czar’s Guitars revive a pair of the seven-string instruments to realize these mostly nineteenth century arrangements of Glinka’s operatic music, much of it arranged by Morkov himself.
Czar’s Guitars originated in America and consists of Oleg Timofeyev, two of whose arrangements are heard and who plays solo on two tracks, and California-based guitarist John Schneiderman. They take turns alternating between the standard Russian seven-string and its smaller cousin, the “quart guitar,” and the blend of the two results in a unique sound — sort of like a 12-string, but not as harmonically busy and sweetly melodious in its own way. If any of the pieces here sound familiar, it would be Kamarinskaya, best known in the colorful orchestral version by Rimsky-Korsakov. While that track is a highlight, there are no overall standout tracks as the general sound of these two instruments and players, just by themselves, is sufficiently interesting. Checking the track titles while listening, one might notice liking “Lyudmila’s Cavatina” exceptionally well at one time and the Potpourri from Ruslan and Lyudmila at another without noting their shared melodic material.
The recording is a little quiet, but one does not really want it to be loud, as these instruments are not so. Czar’s Guitars’ Music of Mikhail Glinka is simply excellent music for listening, particularly of the passive kind when one is trying to concentrate on other things, but guitar enthusiasts will no doubt feel compelled to listen much more closely.