Russia Cast Adrift

DMITRI HVOROSTOVSKY GEORGY SVIRIDOV RUSSIA CAST ADRIFT DE 1631 WORLD PREMIERE, ORCHESTRAL VERSION ST. PETERSBURG STATE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA STYLE OF FIVE ENSEMBLE CONSTANTINE ORBELIAN1 , conductor DELOS DE 1631 SVIRIDOV: RUSSIA CAST ADRIFT • HVOROSTOVSKY DELOS DE 1631 SVIRIDOV: RUSSIA CAST ADRIFT HVOROSTOVSKY • DELOS DE 1631 SVIRIDOV: RUSSIA CAST ADRIFT • HVOROSTOVSKY GEORGY SVIRIDOV: RUSSIA CAST ADRIFT WORLD PREMIERE, ORCHESTRAL VERSION ARRANGED BY EVGENY STETSYUK Autumn ♦ I Left My Home Behind ♦ Open Before Me, O My Guardian Angel ♦ Silver Path ♦ Russia Cast Adrift ♦ Simon, Peter ... Where Are You? Come to Me ♦ Where Are You, O My Father’s House? ♦ Beyond the Hills of the Milky Way ♦ It Sounds, It Sounds, the Fateful Trumpet! ♦ An Owl Cries in Autumn ♦ Oh, I Believe, I Believe in Happiness! ♦ O My Homeland, O Joyful And Eternal Hour! ♦ The Virgin in the City* Total Playing Time: 36:34 * From Petersburg, a vocal poem DMITRI HVOROSTOVSKY, BARITONE ST. PETERSBURG STATE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA STYLE OF FIVE ENSEMBLE CONSTANTINE ORBELIAN, CONDUCTOR ORIGINAL ORIGINAL DIGITAL DIGITAL GEORGY SVIRIDOV: RUSSIA CAST ADRIFT WORLD PREMIERE, ORCHESTRAL VERSION ARRANGED BY EVGENY STETSYUK 1. Autumn (2:22) 9. It Sounds, It Sounds, the Fateful Trumpet! (3:05) 2. I Left My Home Behind (2:22) 10. An Owl Cries in Autumn (2:42) 3. Open Before Me, O My Guardian Angel (3:23) 11. Oh, I Believe, I Believe in Happiness! – O My Homeland, O Joyful and 4. Silver Path (2:31) Eternal Hour! (5:23) 5. Russia Cast Adrift (2:00) 12. Bonus track: The Virgin In the City* (4:15) 6. Simon, Peter ... Where Are You? Come to Me (4:04) Total Playing Time: 36:34 7. Where Are You, O My Father’s House? (2:46) 8. Beyond the Hills of the Milky Way * From Sviridov’s Petersburg, a vocal poem (1:41) DMITRI HVOROSTOVSKY, BARITONE ST. PETERSBURG STATE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA STYLE OF FIVE ENSEMBLE CONSTANTINE ORBELIAN, CONDUCTOR 2 his recording once again reunites Dmitri a great father. He was a man of outstanding Hvorostovsky with the music of one of intellect and humor, and his knowledge This most admired composers, Georgy and admiration for Russian poetry was Sviridov (1915-1998). Personally knowing enormous. I will remember him all my life.” Sviridov, working with him and performing They became friends, and Sviridov wrote his music, was, in the singer’s words, “an Petersburg (1995) for Dmitri: nine songs on enormous epoch” in his life. verses by Alexander Blok. That composition was later recorded by Delos together with They first met in 1994: a 79-year-old icon Sviridov’s first masterpiece, Six Romances of Russian music and a rising international on verses by Alexander Pushkin (1935) – star singer, born almost half a century later. and with Russia Cast Adrift, all three works The occasion was Dmitri’s performance of became an important part of Hvorostovsky’s Russia Cast Adrift (Otchalivshaya Rus) in concert repertoire. Moscow. Written for tenor and piano in 1977 on verses by Sergei Yesenin (1895-1925), it “Working on Sviridov’s music was a very was known in Russia, most notably due to important educational experience for me,” said performances by the great mezzo-soprano Hvorostovsky. “At first glance, his songs seem Elena Obraztsova. For Hvorostovsky the simple. However, they demand the deepest performer, however, it was his first encounter emotional involvement. It is not enough to just with Sviridov’s songs. sing them beautifully. From the first note you are immersed in his whole world. The music The composer, usually strict and demanding colors each word with pain and unspeakable (especially when it came to performances purity … it tortures you emotionally. I always of his own music), took a liking to Dmitri go through very strong, very dramatic inner right away and enthusiastically approved his conflicts while performing it.” interpretation. A few days later, Hvorostovsky and pianist Michail Arkadiev performed Fearlessly, Hvorostovsky has now decided Russia Cast Adrift at the Los Angeles Opera to return to Sviridov’s music, specifically to a standing ovation, and then to great to Russia Cast Adrift. He embarked again acclaim around the world. Their recording of on this emotionally charged journey not it on Philips was released in 1996. only because of his experiences over the twenty-plus years since his first recording; As Hvorostovsky later recalled, “Sviridov was one that had enormously enriched both his an austere man, but to me he was kind, like expressive palette and musical perspective. 3 He also did it to realize Sviridov’s unfulfilled During his lifetime, Sviridov turned to wish to orchestrate Russia Cast Adrift. The Yesenin’s poetry a few more times: in a composer had mentioned his plans for four-movement cantata, Wooden Russia orchestration in his diary as early as in 1981- (Dereviannay Rus’, 1964) for orchestra and 82 – but his intentions were left unrealized. chorus (it exists also in a later version as a song cycle for two voices and piano with the The new version offered here – brilliantly same title), and in Two Choruses (1967). Only adapted by Evgeny Stetsyuk for orchestra poetry by Yesenin’s contemporary Alexander and Style of Five, an ensemble of Russian folk Blok (1880-1921) got more musical settings instruments, and conducted by Constantine by Sviridov, who also set literature by Orbelian – closely reflects the sonic effects Pushkin, Lermontov, Shakespeare, Robert and colors of the vividly depictive piano Burns, Avetik Isaakyan, Mayakovsky and score. Bells ring, winds blow, waves “whisper,” many others. geese cry, wings flap, and the magnificent stillness of expansive Russian landscapes The composer was not only drawn to alternates with sweeping flights through Yesenin’s verses – musical, sincere and time and space. Russian in soul and sound – but also to the tragic and rebellious personality of This new orchestration also dramatically this village-born genius who committed magnifies both the epic scope and profound suicide in 1925 at the age of thirty. There is philosophical meaning of the work. Not by a 1976 entry in Sviridov’s diary – not long chance did the composer define the genre before he created Russia Cast Adrift – about of Russia Cast Adrift as a “vocal poem,” Yesenin and his poetry: ”… everything is thus stressing its conceptual unity and deep, from the soul. Everything is simplicity connecting the work to his monumental itself; everything is truth, not a shadow of Poem in Memory of Sergey Yesenin for tenor, pretentiousness or self-adoration … He gave chorus and orchestra. Written in 1956, this his heart to people. He will live on until the “Poem“ (as well as its close predecessor My last Russian is alive on earth”. Father is a Peasant (Moi otetz krestianin for tenor, baritone and piano, 1955) was crucial Always perfectly attuned to language and in bringing Yesenin’s name back onto the poetry and thoughtful in his selections, list of the “officially accepted” artists after Sviridov chose a few short poems for Russia decades of harsh ideological criticism by Cast Adrift – along with some excerpts Soviet cultural authorities. from Yesenin’s larger works – to build a 4 philosophical narrative about the soul and Having been strongly influenced by church fate of a poet and his beloved country. singing since childhood, he dedicated All were written between 1914 and 1920, his entire creative life to music for voice – during the most dramatic and turbulent both in the choral and chamber genres, period in modern Russian history: the years and incorporated many features of Russian of World War One, the Bolshevik revolution folk and church music into his own organic and the devastating Civil War. Although musical language. In Russia Cast Adrift, he is Yesenin explored his favorite topics here – at the peak of his mastery, bringing together the beauty of Russian landscape, love for the best qualities of his style: seemingly Mother Russia, Christian faith, loneliness traditional yet recognizably original, laconic and longing – they all seem to take on an yet immensely rich, austere yet emotionally especially dark tone. intense. The verses also overflow with religious Sviridov is celebrated and admired in Russia, symbolism: Jesus and other biblical figures but remains relatively unknown beyond its appear, sad premonitions are felt, and borders. Dmitri Hvorostovsky has taken on cosmic fires burn. Moments of intimacy, the personal mission of making his music lyricism and strong melancholy contrast more widely known. This album is yet with images of tragic destruction – but there another vital and lasting contribution from are also evocations of hymn-like, epic, and Hvorostovsky – and it is as deep, personal triumphant grandeur. At the end, Russia and sincere as the music itself. – “My golden land,” as the poet calls it, watched over by God, is seen through the — Maya Pritsker eyes of someone who loves it passionately and believes in its special destiny and in its survival in the eternal battle of good and Editor’s note: A bonus track (No. 12: The Vir- evil. gin in the City) has been added to the program. This is the ninth and final song from Sviridov, whose songs were often a means Sviridov’s Petersburg, a vocal poem (see of expressing his spiritual independence above program notes, p. 3). and inner resistance to Soviet officialdom, not only shared these sentiments; he also identified to some degree with the poet. 5 1. Osen’ Autumn Tikho v chashche mozhevelya pa abryvu, In the juniper thicket by the cliff, osen’- ryzhaya kabyla cheshet grivu, autumn, like a chestnut mare, Nad rechnym pakrovom beregof softly shakes her mane. slyshen sinii liask yiyo padkof. Over the river’s veiled banks, one hears the blue ring of her hooves. Veter – skhimnik shagom astarozhnym Like a monk, with careful steps, mnyot listvu pa vystupam darozhnym, the wind tramples the leaves i tseluet na ryabinovom kustu on the rutted road, yazvy krasnye nezrimomu Khrisru.

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